1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
3 <html xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir=
"ltr">
5 <meta http-equiv=
"Content-Type" content=
"text/html;charset=utf-8" />
6 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Entries Tagged english
</title>
7 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
8 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
9 <link rel=
"alternate" title=
"RSS Feed" href=
"english.rss" type=
"application/rss+xml" />
14 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen
</a>
21 <h3>Entries tagged "english".
</h3>
25 <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>
31 <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
32 install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to
33 <a href=
"https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
34 done by Ubuntu
</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
35 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
36 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
37 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:
</p>
43 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
48 version = pkg.candidate
50 version = pkg.installed
53 record = version.record
54 if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
56 mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
58 t = t.rstrip().strip()
60 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
62 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
64 mimetype = sys.argv[
1]
65 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
66 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
70 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:
</p>
73 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
74 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
76 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
77 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
82 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
83 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
84 packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is
85 anyone working on adding it?
</p>
87 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
18 14:
20</strong>: The Debian BTS
88 request for icweasel support for this feature is
89 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#
484010</a> from
2008 (and
90 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#
698426</a> from today). Lack
91 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
92 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.
</p>
98 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>.
103 <div class=
"padding"></div>
107 <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>
113 <p>The
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-
11
114 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive
</a>, is a
115 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
116 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
117 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such
118 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
119 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
120 downloaded by the browser.
</p>
122 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
123 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
124 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result
126 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
127 site
</a>. Using the collected information, it become possible to
128 answer the question in the title. Here are the
20 most supported MIME
129 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
130 The complete list is available from the link above.
</p>
132 <p><strong>Debian Stable:
</strong></p>
136 ----- -----------------------
159 <p><strong>Debian Testing:
</strong></p>
163 ----- -----------------------
186 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:
</strong></p>
190 ----- -----------------------
213 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
214 information mentioned in DEP-
11. I have not yet had time to look at
215 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
218 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
16 13:
35</strong>: Updated numbers after
219 discovering a typo in my script.
</p>
225 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>.
230 <div class=
"padding"></div>
234 <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>
240 <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
241 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
242 values provided by the Linux kernel
</a> following my hope for
243 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
244 dongle support in Debian
</a>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how
245 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
246 to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
247 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
248 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
251 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
252 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
253 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
257 Package: package-name
258 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)
</p>
261 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
262 for a given modalias value using this file.
</p>
264 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
265 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class
0E01):
</p>
269 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)
</p>
272 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
273 CardBus bridge (bus class
0607) PCI device is present:
</p>
277 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
280 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
281 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs
04D8:F8DA:
</p>
284 Package: colorhug-client
285 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)
</p>
288 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
289 file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
290 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.
</p>
292 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
293 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
294 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
295 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
296 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I've
297 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
298 is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu
301 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
302 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
303 implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for
304 each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and
306 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup
</a>
307 shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
308 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
309 repository where I currently work on my prototype.
</p>
311 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
312 install yubikey-personalization:
</p>
315 % ./hw-support-lookup
316 <br>yubikey-personalization
320 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
321 propose to install the pcmciautils package:
</p>
324 % ./hw-support-lookup
329 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
330 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
331 database
</a>, please tell me about it.
</p>
333 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
334 packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with
335 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
336 extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at
337 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
338 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
339 generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to
342 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
343 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
344 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
345 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel
</a>.
</p>
351 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>.
356 <div class=
"padding"></div>
360 <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>
366 <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
367 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
368 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
369 to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available
371 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
372 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a>:
374 <p><strong>Modalias decoded
</strong></p>
376 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
377 values stands for. It is in part based on information from
378 <URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
</a> >,
379 <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> >,
380 <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> > and
381 <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> >.
383 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
384 this shell script:
</p>
387 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u
390 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
394 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
395 alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
396 alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
400 <p><strong>PCI subtype
</strong></p>
402 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host
403 Bridge memory controller:
</p>
406 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
409 <p>This represent these values:
</p>
414 sv
00001028 (subvendor)
415 sd
000001AD (subdevice)
421 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
422 -n' as
8086:
2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
423 0600. The
0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are
424 0300 (VGA compatible card) and
0200 (Ethernet controller).
</p>
426 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
429 <p><strong>USB subtype
</strong></p>
431 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal
432 USB hub in a laptop:
</p>
435 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
438 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:
</p>
441 v
1D6B (device vendor)
442 p
0001 (device product)
445 dsc
00 (device subclass)
446 dp
00 (device protocol)
447 ic
09 (interface class)
448 isc
00 (interface subclass)
449 ip
00 (interface protocol)
452 <p>The
0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant
453 class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera,
454 these alias entries show up:
</p>
457 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
458 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
459 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
460 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
463 <p>Interface class
0E01 is video control,
0E02 is video streaming (aka
464 camera),
0101 is audio control device and
0102 is audio streaming (aka
465 microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.
</p>
467 <p><strong>ACPI subtype
</strong></p>
469 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR
470 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:
</p>
473 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
476 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.
</p>
478 <p><strong>DMI subtype
</strong></p>
480 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
481 and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
482 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:
</p>
485 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(
1.66):bd06/
15/
2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
488 <p>The values present are
</p>
491 bvn IBM (BIOS vendor)
492 bvr
1UETB
6WW(
1.66) (BIOS version)
493 bd
06/
15/
2005 (BIOS date)
494 svn IBM (system vendor)
495 pn
2371H4G (product name)
496 pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version)
497 rvn IBM (board vendor)
498 rn
2371H4G (board name)
499 rvr NotAvailable (board version)
500 cvn IBM (chassis vendor)
502 cvr NotAvailable (chassis version)
505 <p>The chassis type
10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be
506 found in the dmidecode source:
</p>
510 4 Low Profile Desktop
523 17 Main Server Chassis
526 20 Bus Expansion Chassis
527 21 Peripheral Chassis
529 23 Rack Mount Chassis
538 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
539 table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
540 claim it is a desktop.
</p>
542 <p><strong>SerIO subtype
</strong></p>
544 <p>This type is used for PS/
2 mouse plugs. One example is from my
548 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
551 <p>The values present are
</p>
560 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what
561 the valid values are.
</p>
563 <p><strong>Other subtypes
</strong></p>
565 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
566 file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
567 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
568 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
569 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of
570 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
571 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.
</p>
573 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values
</strong></p>
575 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
576 one can use the following shell script:
</p>
579 for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u); do \
581 /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/ /' ; \
585 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
586 list is very long on my test machine):
</p>
590 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
592 FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
594 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
595 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
596 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
597 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
598 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
599 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
600 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
601 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
605 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
606 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
607 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
608 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel
</a>.
</p>
610 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
15:
</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
611 "find ... -print0 | xargs -
0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
612 in /sys/ with space in them.
</p>
618 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>.
623 <div class=
"padding"></div>
627 <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>
633 <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
634 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
635 Launcher and updated the Debian package
636 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile
</a> to make
637 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
638 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
639 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
640 plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
641 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
642 contribute.
<a href=
"http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream
</a>
643 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
644 years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
645 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
646 bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
647 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
648 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
649 view
</a> or use "
<tt>git clone
650 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git
</tt>".</p>
656 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian
">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot
">robot</a>.
661 <div class="padding
"></div>
665 <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>
671 <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
672 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
673 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
674 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
675 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
676 machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
677 Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
678 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
679 I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
680 yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
681 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
683 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
684 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg01206.html
">use
685 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>. The idea is fairly
690 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
691 starting when a user log in.</li>
693 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
694 hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
696 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
697 database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
700 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
701 package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
705 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
706 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
707 discover database to find packages and
708 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/
">PackageKit</a> to install
711 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
712 draft package is now checked into
713 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
714 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>. In the process, I updated the
715 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html
">discover-data</a>
716 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
717 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
718 2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
719 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html
">discover</a>
720 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
721 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
722 libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
723 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
724 because of the freeze).</p>
726 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
727 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
730 <p align="center
"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
09-hw-autoinstall.png
"></p>
732 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
733 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
734 program(s)" button should to be implemented.
</p>
736 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
737 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
738 from hardware to Debian packages. Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
739 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
740 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
741 reportbug if it isn't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
742 such mapping, please let me know.
</p>
744 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
745 should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
746 the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
747 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
748 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
749 How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
750 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
751 popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
752 not be installed?
</p>
754 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
755 please send me an email. :)
</p>
761 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>.
766 <div class=
"padding"></div>
770 <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>
776 <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
777 <a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
778 NXT
</a>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
779 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
780 already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something
781 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
782 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego
</a> (server
783 irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the
784 Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software
785 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)
</p>
787 <p>Update
2012-
01-
03: A
788 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page
</a>
789 including links to Lego related packages is now available.
</p>
795 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>.
800 <div class=
"padding"></div>
804 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a>
810 <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
811 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a>
812 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
813 Agency in Trondheim. NOK
1000,- showed up on our donation account
814 December
24th. I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
815 present. As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
816 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
817 gatherings, this donation was most welcome. One developer gathering
818 cost around NOK
15 000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
819 development pace we want. Thus, I hope their example this year is
820 followed by many others. :)
</p>
822 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
823 <a href=
"http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
824 donation page
</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
825 you want to donate to the project.
</p>
831 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>.
836 <div class=
"padding"></div>
840 <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>
846 <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
847 year! I hope next year will prove to be a good year.
</p>
849 <p><a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin
</a>, the digital
850 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
851 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
852 experiment. And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
853 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/">Debian
</a> is about to improve a bit.
854 The
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
855 package
</a> (version
0.7.2-
2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
856 in
<a href=
"http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue
</A>
857 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
860 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
861 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
862 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:
</p>
865 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
867 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=
1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
868 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
871 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well. The
872 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
873 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment. Note that the
874 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
875 around
5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment. Make sure your
876 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
877 all the blocks. The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
878 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
879 not be able to get all the features out of the client.
</p>
881 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
882 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
883 <b><a href=
"bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a></b>.
</p>
889 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>.
894 <div class=
"padding"></div>
898 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian
</a>
904 <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
905 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin
</a>, the decentralised
906 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
907 have been busy elsewhere. But two days ago, I started looking at the
908 state of
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
909 Debian
</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet. The package
910 is now maintained by a
911 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
912 people
</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team. We
913 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
914 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
915 Wheezy. It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
916 backports). The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
917 it from entering testing. To try to help the team and improve the
918 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
919 reports. I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
921 <a href=
"https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
922 Ubuntu
</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
925 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
926 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
927 improve the package. It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
928 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
929 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
930 setup. As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
931 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
932 patch to backport
</a> the latest version. Jonas is going to look at
933 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
934 new version to unstable.
936 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
937 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system. I
938 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
939 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
940 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
941 transactions to Wikileaks. But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
942 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
943 they sell products and services. Improving the bitcoin support in
944 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
945 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
946 pay with bitcoin is still not very good. The bitcoin: URI is a step
947 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
948 use. Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
949 quick transaction. I believe there are other clients available, but
950 have not tested them.
</p>
953 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
954 with bitcoins
</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
955 I received
20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
957 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
958 on the blockexplorer service
</a>. Thank you everyone for your
959 donation. The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
960 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
961 number of users have gone up since then. If you use bitcoin and want
962 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
963 the same address as last time,
964 <b><a href=
"bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a></b>.
</p>
970 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>.
975 <div class=
"padding"></div>
979 <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>
985 <p>A few days ago I came across
986 <a href=
"http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
987 Hess
</a> describing
<a href=
"http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger
</a> and
988 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting. I found it
989 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
990 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
991 the different web based systems we use. I find it hard to find what I
992 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
993 the systems. Ledger seem different. The accounting data is kept in
994 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
996 are at least
<a href=
"https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
997 different implementations
</a> able to read the format. An example
998 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
999 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:
</p>
1002 2004-
05-
27 Book Store
1003 Expenses:Books $
20.00
1007 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
1008 look for others using it. I found blog posts from
1009 <a href=
"http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
1011 <a href=
"http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
1013 <a href=
"http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
1015 <a href=
"http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
1016 Ip
</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
1017 <a href=
"https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
1018 M. Kuhn
</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy. All seemed like good
1019 recommendations fitting my need.
</p>
1021 <p>The
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger
</a>
1022 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
1023 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger
</a>
1024 package only is available in Debian Sid. As I use Squeeze, ledger
1025 seemed the best choice to get started.
</p>
1027 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
1028 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper
</a> for
1029 <a href=
"http://www.lodo.no/">LODO
</a>, the accounting system used by
1030 the
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG
</a> association, and started to
1031 play with the data set. I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
1032 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
1033 using the "
<tt>ledger balance
</tt>" command. But I will have to
1034 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
1035 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
1041 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>.
1046 <div class="padding
"></div>
1050 <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>
1056 <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/
">University of
1057 Oslo</a>, we use the
1058 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/
">Cerebrum user
1059 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
1060 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
1061 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC
">XML-RPC</a> API, but
1062 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
1063 always use the bofh command line client at work. Until today. I want
1064 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
1065 virtual machines. Here are a few notes on how to use it with
1068 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
1069 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/
">bofh
1070 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server. I also
1071 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
1072 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html
">a
1073 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
1075 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
1076 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
1077 user currently logged in:</p>
1080 #!/usr/bin/env python
1083 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
1084 username = getpass.getuser()
1085 password = getpass.getpass()
1086 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
1087 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
1088 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
1089 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
1090 result = server.logout(sessionid)
1094 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
1095 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.
</p>
1101 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>.
1106 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1110 <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>
1116 <p>While working on a
1117 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
1118 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
</a> (
76% done),
1119 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
1120 creativity, one idea occurred to me. The idea is to get the tax
1121 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
1122 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.
</p>
1124 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
1125 <a href=
"http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
1126 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
1127 by John Perry Barlow
</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
1128 in writing for a wider audience. The idea is not really based on the
1129 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
1130 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
1131 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
1132 controlled by the citizens in a country. I'm sharing the idea here to
1133 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
1136 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government. At least here in
1137 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
1138 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
1139 stocks and other valuables are all added together. If the tax value
1140 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
1141 taxes for these values. And copyrighted work have value. It have
1142 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
1143 work. But it is not included in the tax calculations? Why not?
</p>
1145 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
1146 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
1147 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
1148 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes. If such
1149 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
1150 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
1151 hard operation with todays copyright law. To ensure that copyright
1152 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
1153 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
1154 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
1155 correct right holder.
</p>
1157 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
1158 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
1159 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
1160 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
1161 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
1162 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
1163 work. Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
1164 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
1165 tax calculation. I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
1166 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
1167 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain. The
1168 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
1169 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
1170 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.
</p>
1172 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
1173 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
1174 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .
</p>
1176 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet? I am sure the tax office
1177 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.
</p>
1183 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>.
1188 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1192 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß
</a>
1198 <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the
<a
1199 href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
1200 community. I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
1201 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
1202 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
1203 the people behind the German
1204 "
<a href=
"http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule
</a>"
1205 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview. Give a warm
1206 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
1208 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1210 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
1211 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
1212 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
1214 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
1215 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
1216 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
1217 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
1218 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-). We are also
1219 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.
</p>
1221 <p>In
2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
1222 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there. Besides
1223 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
1224 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
1225 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
1226 relationship management and the communication processes in the
1229 <p>Since
2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
1230 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
1231 and a yoga teacher.
</p>
1233 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
1234 project?
</strong></p>
1236 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).
</p>
1238 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
1239 Free Software. At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
1240 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
1241 their IT environment. Often when Mike came home from working at the
1242 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
1243 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
1244 teachers did not work. So we were clear that he would not work for
1245 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
1246 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
1249 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
1250 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
1251 schools. One day before Christmas
2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
1252 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
1253 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
1254 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
1257 <p>For information about our school project you can read
1258 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
1259 interview with Mike Gabriel
</a>.
</p>
1261 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1264 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
1265 answer comes rather from a social point of view.
</p>
1267 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
1268 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
1269 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
1270 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
1271 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
1272 ;-). This is of course a user experience. What I also get as a big
1273 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
1274 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
1275 teachers, parents...
</p>
1277 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1280 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
1281 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1283 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
1284 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
1285 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
1286 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
1287 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1289 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
1290 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
1291 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
1292 and helpful. I am also missing some kind of contact between the
1293 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
1294 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
1295 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1297 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
1299 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu
10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
1300 on. As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
1301 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
1302 my N900 running with Maemo.
</p>
1304 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1305 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
1307 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
1308 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
1309 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
1310 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
1311 strategy has three crucial pillars:
</p>
1315 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
1316 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
1317 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.
</li>
1319 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
1320 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
1321 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
1322 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
1323 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
1324 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
1325 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.
</li>
1327 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
1328 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
1329 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
1330 offer to become more and more independent from us.
</li>
1338 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>.
1343 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1347 <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>
1353 <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
1354 <a href=
"http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
1355 a report (PDF)
</a> about virtual currencies and
1356 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin
</a>. It is interesting to
1357 see how a member of the bitcoin community
1358 <a href=
"http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
1359 the report
</a>. As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
1360 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
1361 competition. My thoughts go to the
1362 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment
</a> with
1363 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
1364 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in
1933. A successful
1365 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
1366 powerful forces to work against it.
</p>
1368 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
1369 that the community already seem to have
1370 <a href=
"http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
1371 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme
</a>. Not very surprising, given
1372 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other. I guess
1373 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
1374 wealth is available.
</p>
1380 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>.
1385 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1389 <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>
1395 <p>I work at the
<a href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a>
1396 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
1397 all over the place. I am also a member (and currently leader) of
1398 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association
</a>, which in turn
1399 make me a member of
<a href=
"http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX
</a>. NUUG
1400 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
1401 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
1402 is a US based member organisation with similar targets. And thanks to
1403 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
1404 <a href=
"https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:
</a> in the
1405 mail several times a year. The magazine is great, and I read most of
1408 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
1409 article by
<a href=
"http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick
</a> from
1410 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
1411 "
<a href=
"https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
1412 Takes Us Down
</a>" (longer version also
1413 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/
2012-
06-
30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf
">available
1414 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
1415 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
1416 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
1417 etc etc. The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
1418 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
1419 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
1421 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
1422 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
1423 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
1424 assumtions on scope and user impact. Here is the two example from the
1425 article: First the unplanned outage:
1428 Subject: Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
1429 Severity: Critical (Unplanned)
1430 Start: Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
1431 End: Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
1432 Duration: 40 minutes
1433 Scope: Exchange 2003
1434 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
1437 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
1438 access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
1442 Next the planned outage:
1445 Subject: H Building Switch Upgrades
1446 Severity: Major (Planned)
1447 Start: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
1448 End: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
1451 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
1452 stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
1454 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
1455 this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
1460 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
1461 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
1462 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
1463 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
1464 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
1465 format listed above). There are also other issues with the format
1466 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
1468 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
1469 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
1470 university too. We do register
1471 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/
">planned
1472 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
1473 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
1474 report to the same location for unplanned outages. Perhaps something
1475 for other sites to consider too?</p>
1481 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>.
1486 <div class="padding
"></div>
1490 <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>
1496 <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
1497 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/
2012/
10/
22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/
">how
1498 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
1499 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>. If a real book store did
1500 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
1501 and theft. The story has spread around the net today. A bit more
1502 background information is available in Norwegian from
1503 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon
">digi.no</a>.
1504 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
1505 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
1506 introduced many years back. And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
1508 <a href="http://boingboing.net/
2009/
07/
20/amazons-orwellian-de.html
">
1509 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
1510 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
1511 customers who had bought it. From the official comments, it even
1513 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/
2009/
07/
18/technology/companies/
18amazon.html
">Amazon
1514 would never do that again</a>. And here we are, three years
1517 <p>And thought this action is
1518 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/
904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende
">against
1519 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
1520 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
1521 Norwegian laws. It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
1522 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
1525 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
1526 unacceptable terms. For example
1527 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/
">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
1528 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/
">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
1529 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts
">The Internet
1530 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
1531 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
1533 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
1534 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
1535 restored the account of the user, as reported by
1536 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
904675/helomvending-fra-amazon
">digi.no</a>
1537 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/
1.8368487">NRK</a>.
1538 Apparently public pressure work. The story from Martin have seen
1539 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
1540 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention. But even when the
1541 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist. I recommend
1542 reading two opinions from
1543 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2012/
10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm
">Simon
1545 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/
2012/
10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm
">Glen
1546 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
1547 details about the original story.</p>
1553 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>.
1558 <div class="padding
"></div>
1562 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html
">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
1568 <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
1569 drain, and it is hard to fight against it. I try to do my best, but
1570 time is limited. I hope you do your best too. A few years ago I came
1571 across a marvellous drawing by
1572 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html
">Clay Bennett</a>
1573 visualising some of what is going on.
1575 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html
">
1576 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg
"></a></p>
1579 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
1580 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
1583 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport? I do not. Do you feel safe when
1584 you see a surveillance camera? I do not. Do you feel safe when you
1585 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions? I do not. I
1586 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
">the
1587 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
1588 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
1594 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>.
1599 <div class="padding
"></div>
1603 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html
">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
1609 <p>Thanks to a blog post by
1610 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/
2012/
10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html
">Eddy
1611 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
1612 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
1613 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
1614 <a href=
"http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
1615 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions
</a>, the producer
1616 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information. To check if
1617 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
1618 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
1619 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic. However, we
1620 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
1623 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
1624 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
1625 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
1626 health of its users. This caused the company behind the product,
1627 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
1628 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
1629 to argue its side.
</p>
1631 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
1632 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly. Lets hope the
1633 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
1634 effect
</a> can make it rethink its strategy.
</p>
1636 <p>What is the harm, you might think. I suggest you take a look at
1637 <a href=
"http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
1638 victims of detoxification
</a>.
</p>
1644 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>.
1649 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1653 <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>
1659 <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
1660 <a href=
"http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
1661 the computer science book collection available in his local
1662 library
</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
1663 computer books becoming obsolete so soon. That is part of the reason
1664 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
1665 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
1666 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
1667 computer classic from trash. And they need to know which one will
1668 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
1669 recently published books.
</p>
1671 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
1672 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
1673 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
1674 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess. Once, just
1675 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
1676 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
1677 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection. I
1678 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
1679 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
1680 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
1681 collection
</a>). I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
1682 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
1683 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
1684 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
1685 for the library that evening.
</p>
1687 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
1688 going to know that for example
1689 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
1690 Practice of Programming
</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
1691 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
1692 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
1693 the suggestions for books to get? I know they would love to hear from
1694 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
1695 book right away.
</p>
1701 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
1706 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1710 <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>
1716 <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian
<a
1717 href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> version of the
2004 book
<a
1718 href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
1719 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
1720 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
1721 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
1724 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
1725 for volunteers
</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
1726 and progress is a bit slow. Anyway, today I broken the
70 percent
1727 mark for the first rough translation. At the moment, less than
700
1728 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate. With
1729 my current progress of
10-
20 strings per day, it will take a while to
1730 complete the translation. This graph show the updated progress:
</p>
1732 <img width=
"80%" align=
"center" src=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
1734 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
1735 commitments. If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
1736 the project files currently available from
1737 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
1739 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
1741 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF
</a>
1743 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB
</a>
1744 are published on github. The HTML version is published as well, but
1745 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
1746 saw no point in linking to that version.
</p>
1752 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>.
1757 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1761 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda
</a>
1767 <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
1768 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
1769 community, I finally found time to wrap up another. This time it is
1770 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
1771 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
1772 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
1773 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.
</p>
1775 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
1777 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
1778 in secondary (
15-
18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
1779 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
1780 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
1781 IT.
3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
1782 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
1783 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
1784 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
1785 training is anyway very important
</p>
1787 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
1788 <a href=
"http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school
</a> (secondary) is a very
1789 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
1790 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
1791 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
1793 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1794 project?
</strong></p>
1796 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
1797 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
1798 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
1799 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
1800 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
1803 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1806 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
1807 very generous for help and hints. Chat help is crucial, together with
1808 the mailing list. Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
1809 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
1810 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
1811 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
1812 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
1813 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
1816 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1819 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
1820 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
1821 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
1822 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
1823 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
1824 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
1825 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
1826 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)
</p>
1828 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
1830 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
1831 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
1832 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
1833 <a href=
"http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus
</a>
1836 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
1837 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
1838 something breaks. Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
1839 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.
</p>
1841 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1842 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
1844 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
1845 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
1846 just because they are normally not open to change.
</p>
1848 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
1849 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
1852 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
1853 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
1854 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had
20
1855 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
1856 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
1857 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
1858 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.
</p>
1864 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>.
1869 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1873 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec
</a>
1880 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
1881 codec made
</a> it into
<a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/">IETF
</a> as
1882 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC
6716</a>, I had a look
1883 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
1884 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
1885 area. A non-"working group" mailing list
1886 <a href=
"https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec
</a>
1888 <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
1889 formal working group should be formed.
</p>
1891 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out. There is already
1892 <a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
1893 email from someone
</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
1894 participate in the ISO group. Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
1895 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
1896 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
1897 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
1898 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.
</p>
1900 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
1901 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
1908 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>.
1913 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1917 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus
</a>
1923 <p>Yesterday,
<a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/">IETF
</a> announced the
1925 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC
6716, the Definition
1926 of the Opus Audio Codec
</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
1927 intended for both VoIP, film and music. This is the first time, as
1928 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec. In
1929 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC
3533</a>, IETF
1930 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
1931 royalty free container for audio, video and movies. I hope IETF will
1932 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
1933 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
1934 multimedia content on the Internet.
</p>
1936 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
1937 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
1938 free specifications. Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
1939 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.
</p>
1941 <p>Visit the
<a href=
"http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page
</a> if
1942 you want to learn more about the solution.
</p>
1948 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>.
1953 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1957 <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>
1964 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
1965 this summer
</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
1966 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
1967 <a href=
"https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
1968 repository for the project
</a>.
</p>
1970 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
1971 to the HTML version. To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
1972 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
1973 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.
</p>
1975 <p>Want to sing? You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
1976 PostScript formats at
1977 <a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
1978 Science Songbook
</a>.
</p>
1984 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>.
1989 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1993 <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>
1999 <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
2000 <a href=
"http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
2001 have been forced to open Office
</a>, and it made me remember and
2002 revisit the great site
2003 <a href=
"http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots
</a> which allow you
2004 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format. I
2005 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)
</p>
2011 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>.
2016 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2020 <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>
2026 <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
2027 <a href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> version of the
2004 book
2028 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
2029 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
2030 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
2031 English book. It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
2032 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society. When the
2033 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
2034 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
2035 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law. This
2037 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
2038 for volunteers
</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
2039 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.
</p>
2041 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the
50% mark. Then more than
50% of
2042 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
2043 titles and index entries are also counted). All parts from the
2044 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated. So is
2045 chapters six, seven and the conclusion. I created a graph to show the
2048 <img width=
"80%" align=
"center" src=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
2050 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
2051 entries into the docbook. They were missing with the docbook version
2052 I initially started with. There are still quite a few index entries
2053 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done. I
2054 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
2055 english version of the docbook source.
</p>
2057 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
2058 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
2059 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
2060 translation and proof reading. And I would like the figures to be
2061 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them. Any SVG master
2062 around? I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
2063 me. If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
2064 project files currently available from
<a
2065 href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2067 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
2069 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF
</a>
2071 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB
</a>
2072 are published on github. The HTML version is published as well, but
2073 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
2074 saw no point in linking to that version.
</p>
2080 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>.
2085 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2089 <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>
2095 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> one can specify
2096 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
2097 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
2098 also', 'index' etc. And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
2099 this work just fine. For example a German user can start the document
2100 with
<book
lang="de"
>, and the document will show up with the
2101 correct content with any of the docbook processors. This is not the
2102 case for the language
2103 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
2104 am working with at the moment
</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.
</p>
2106 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
2107 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
2108 all tools. I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
2109 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way. Some
2110 of them do not handle it at all.
</p>
2112 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
2113 this mess. Norwegian is not one, but two written variants. The
2114 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål. There are three
2115 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
2116 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
2117 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
2118 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
2119 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
2120 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
2123 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian. The dblatex tool only
2124 understand 'nn'. There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
2125 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#
684391</a>), but due to a bug
2126 (BTS
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#
682936</a>) the 'no'
2127 language code is not recognised. The docbook-xsl tool chain only
2128 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'. The xmlto tool only recognise
2129 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'. The end result that there is no language
2130 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
2131 at the same time. :(
</p>
2133 <p>The correct solution is to use
<book
lang="nb"
>, but it will
2134 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
2137 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/
</p>
2143 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>.
2148 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2152 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?
</a>
2158 <p>I tried to send this text to the
2159 <a href=
"https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
2160 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org
</a>, but it only accept messages
2161 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
2162 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
2163 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
2166 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
2167 learning curve at the moment.
</p>
2169 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
2170 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
2171 docbook to handle the process. The files to build the book are
2173 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
2174 The book got around
400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
2175 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
2176 software docbook processors. My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
2179 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
2180 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
2181 formats. I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
2186 <li>Using dblatex, the
<part
> handling is not the way I want to,
2187 as
</part
> do not really end the
<part
>. (See
2188 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #
683166</a>), the
2189 xetex backend (needed to process UTF-
8) give incorrect hyphens in
2190 index references spanning several pages (See
2191 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #
682901</a>), and
2192 I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
2193 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #
682936</a>).
</li>
2195 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
2196 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
2199 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
2200 show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
2201 footnote and text body, see
2202 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #
683197</a>), and
2203 fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
2204 refs listed are not right).
</li>
2206 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.
</li>
2208 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
2209 index problems the xmlto + fop processing.
</li>
2213 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
2214 of this book? Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
2215 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?
</p>
2217 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?
</p>
2223 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>.
2228 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2232 <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>
2238 <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
2239 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
2240 norwegian version
</a> of the book
2241 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
2242 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
2243 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six. The source files as well as a
2244 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
2245 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2247 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
2248 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
2249 completely translated. This completes
26 percent of the number of
2250 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus
74
2251 percent left to translate. A graph of the progress is present at the
2252 bottom of the github project page. There is still room for more
2253 contributors. Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
2254 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
2257 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
2258 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
2265 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>.
2270 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2274 <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>
2280 <p>I am currently working on a
2281 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
2282 to translate
</a> the book
2283 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig
2284 to Norwegian. And the source we base our translation on is the
2285 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook
</a> version, to
2286 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
2287 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
2288 tagged. The source files of this project is available from
2289 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2291 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
2292 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert. Is there a
2293 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
2294 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
2295 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book? This will provide a
2296 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
2297 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version. If you can and want
2298 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
2299 send pull requests with fixes. :)
</p>
2305 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>.
2310 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2314 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg
</a>
2320 <p>The
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
2321 Skolelinux
</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
2322 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
2323 country Sweden. This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
2324 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
2325 to adjust and scale the just released
2326 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
2327 Wheezy
</a> setup to his liking. He granted me an interview, and I am
2328 happy to share his answers with you here.
</p>
2330 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
2332 <p>I'm a
44 year old country guy that have been working
12 years at
2333 the same school as
50% IT-manager and
50% Teacher. My educational
2334 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
2335 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups. In
2336 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
2337 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
2338 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
2339 perspective when working with IT.
</p>
2341 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2342 project?
</strong></p>
2344 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
2345 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
2346 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
2347 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
2348 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
2349 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
2351 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2354 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
2355 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
2356 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
2357 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
2358 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
2359 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
2360 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
2361 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
2362 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
2363 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
2364 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
2365 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
2366 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
2367 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
2368 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
2369 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
2370 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
2371 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time. Our
2372 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
2373 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
2374 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
2375 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
2378 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2381 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
2382 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
2383 year (
2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
2384 sound from working with them. It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
2385 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
2386 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.
</p>
2388 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
2389 install time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
2390 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
2391 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
2392 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
2393 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
2394 support for single-sign on. That will make the transition to free
2395 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
2396 need. No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
2397 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
2398 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes. We run a journalist
2399 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
2400 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association). Our
2401 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
2402 are done. This is important if you want to get a job.
</p>
2404 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
2405 magazines. We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
2406 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
2407 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
2408 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
2409 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
2410 edit and compile a newspaper. But politically at our school we are not
2411 there yet. And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.
</p>
2413 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
2414 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
2415 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
2416 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
2417 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
2418 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
2419 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
2420 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise. Those
2421 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
2422 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
2423 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
2424 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
2425 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
2428 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
2429 will try. The problem is the students have certain expectations when
2430 they start an education towards a profession. So the programs has to
2431 look and feel professional. Good thing with radio, there are many
2432 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
2433 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
2434 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
2435 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
2436 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.
</p>
2438 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
2440 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost
2441 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
2442 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
2445 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2446 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
2448 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
2449 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
2450 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
2451 flawlessly. The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
2452 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
2453 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
2454 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
2455 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
2456 the administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
2457 open source, if the principal has to run Windows. It also creates a
2458 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
2459 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
2460 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
2461 desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed
2462 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.
</p>
2464 <p>Update
2012-
07-
09 08:
30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
2465 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
2466 article
<a href=
"https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
2467 management with Airtime
</a>,
2468 <a href=
"http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime
</a> which
2469 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
2470 <a href=
"http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell
</a> which claim to
2471 be complete radio broadcast automation solution. All of them seem
2472 useful to the aspiring radio producer.
</p>
2478 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>.
2483 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2487 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?
</a>
2493 <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
2494 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
2495 in schools and municipalities. We provide what the happy users of
2496 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
2497 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution. I
2498 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
2499 Steinberg in his blog post
2500 "
<a href=
"http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
2501 you recognize the million pound chair?
</a>". Read it and weep for the
2502 spending of your tax money.</p>
2504 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
2505 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
2506 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
2507 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
2508 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
2515 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>.
2520 <div class="padding
"></div>
2524 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html
">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
2530 <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu /
2531 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
2532 software. It is one of the packages not installed by default but
2533 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
2534 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
2535 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
2536 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
2537 receive. The software is
2539 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/
">named FET</a>, and it provide a
2540 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
2541 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
2542 both teachers and students. It is available both for
2543 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html
">Linux, MacOSX and
2546 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html
">the
2547 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
2551 <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
2552 You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
2554 <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
2555 (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
2556 (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
2557 (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
2558 (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
2559 (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
2560 sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
2561 (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
2564 <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
2565 semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
2567 <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
2568 GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
2570 <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
2571 with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
2573 <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
2575 <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
2578 <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
2579 and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
2580 non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
2581 (as separate sets)</li>
2583 <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
2584 (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
2587 <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
2588 demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
2591 <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
2592 <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
2593 <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
2594 <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
2595 <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
2596 <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
2597 <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
2598 <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
2599 <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
2600 <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
2601 students sets for each activity. (it is possible
2602 also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
2604 <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
2605 <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
2608 <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
2610 <li>Break periods</li>
2613 <li>Not available periods</li>
2614 <li>Max/min days per week</li>
2615 <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
2616 <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
2617 <li>Min hours daily</li>
2618 <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
2620 <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
2623 <li>For students (sets):
2625 <li>Not available periods</li>
2626 <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
2627 <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
2628 <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
2629 <li>Min hours daily</li>
2630 <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
2632 <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
2635 <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
2637 <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
2638 <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
2639 <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
2640 <li>Min/max days between them</li>
2641 <li>End(s) students day</li>
2642 <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
2643 <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
2644 flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
2645 <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
2646 <li>Not overlapping</li>
2647 <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
2648 <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
2652 <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
2654 <li>Room not available periods</li>
2657 <li>Home room(s)</li>
2658 <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
2659 <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
2663 <li>For students (sets):
2665 <li>Home room(s)</li>
2666 <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
2667 <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
2670 <li>Preferred room(s):
2672 <li>For a subject</li>
2673 <li>For an activity tag</li>
2674 <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
2675 <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
2679 <li>For a set of activities:
2681 <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
2688 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
2689 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it. If you
2690 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
2691 manually, check it out.
2693 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
2694 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/
2012/
03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/
">a
2695 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>. If you find FET useful, please provide
2696 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
2697 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos
">Debian Edu HowTo
2704 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>.
2709 <div class="padding
"></div>
2713 <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>
2719 <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a>
2720 project (Norwegian version of
2721 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/
">FixMyStreet</a> from
2722 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/
">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
2723 a problem with the municipalities using
2724 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/
">Zimbra</a>. When FiksGataMi send a
2725 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
2726 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
2727 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address. The intention is to make
2728 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
2729 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
2730 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
2731 Zimbra. Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
2732 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
2733 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
2734 the From: header.</p>
2736 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
2737 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
2738 problem. We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
2739 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
2740 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports. We have been in
2741 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
2742 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
2745 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
2746 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
2747 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
2748 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
2749 differently. Anyone know? Please let us know at
2750 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami
2751 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
2757 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>.
2762 <div class="padding
"></div>
2766 <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>
2772 <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
2773 another interview with the people behind
2774 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
2775 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
2776 helpers from Spain. His effort was the reason we added support for
2777 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
2778 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
2779 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120311.html
">Debian Edu
2780 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
2782 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2784 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
2785 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
2788 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2789 project?</strong></p>
2791 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
2792 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
2793 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
2794 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
2796 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2799 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
2800 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
2801 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
2802 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
2804 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2807 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
2808 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
2809 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
2810 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
2811 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
2812 technologies in school.</p>
2814 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2816 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
2817 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/
">Geany</a> and
2818 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator
">Terminator</a>.</p>
2820 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2821 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2823 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
2824 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
2825 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
2826 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
2828 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
2829 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
2830 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
2832 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
2833 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
2834 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
2835 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
2836 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
2837 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
2838 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
2839 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
2846 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>.
2851 <div class="padding
"></div>
2855 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
2861 <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
2862 <a href="http://www.uit.no/
">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
2863 collecting computer related songs for use at parties. The original
2864 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
2865 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
2866 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format. I have
2867 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
2868 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
2869 help me extend and update the book. If anyone is volunteering to help
2870 me with this, send me an email. Also let me know if there are songs
2871 missing in my book.</p>
2873 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
2874 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
2875 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
2876 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/
">Debconf
2877 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going). Want to sing? Check
2878 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/
">Petter's
2879 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
2885 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>.
2890 <div class="padding
"></div>
2894 <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>
2900 <p>During my work on
2901 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120311.nb.html
">Debian Edu
2902 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
2903 addressed in the Wheezy release. I finally found time to wrap up my
2904 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
2909 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
2910 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
2911 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
2912 system depend on tasksel tasks in
2913 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
2916 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services. Now with the Kerberos
2917 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
2918 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions. We should
2919 at least try to enable it for these services:
2922 <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
2924 <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
2925 <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
2926 <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
2927 <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
2928 <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
2932 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
2933 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
2934 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
2935 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
2937 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install. The split made
2938 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
2939 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
2941 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
2942 touching the disk if the disk is too small. This is
2943 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
2944 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
2945 it and upload. After this is done we need to adjust
2946 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
2948 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
2949 time config). LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
2950 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
2953 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
2954 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
2955 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
2957 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
2958 change on first login. This is useful when handing out password on
2959 paper, to make sure only the user know the password. This require
2960 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
2962 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
2963 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
2964 familiar with GUIs. This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
2965 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
2967 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
2968 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses). None of the
2969 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
2971 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
2972 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
2973 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
2975 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
2976 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol. The hook was
2977 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
588968">BTS report
2978 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy. We might need to write a
2979 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
2981 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
2984 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
2985 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
2986 <li>and probably more?</li>
2989 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly. This is
2990 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
2991 examples too. For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
2992 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
2993 some GUI to do this. Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
2994 could consider using their packages. At the moment we have some
2995 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
2996 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
2999 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options. We
3000 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
3001 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
3004 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
3005 interesting educational packages. We should work on the package
3006 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
3007 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
3008 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
3010 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
3011 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
3012 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
3013 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled. We should
3014 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
3015 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.
</li>
3017 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
3018 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
3019 There are at least three implementations,
3020 <a href=
"italc.sourceforge.net/">italc
</a>,
3021 <a href=
"http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula
</a> og
3022 <a href=
"http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes
</a> and we should pick one of
3023 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school. The challenges is
3024 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
3025 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
3028 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
3029 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
3030 the Debian Edu network. Not quite sure how. Perhaps we should
3031 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
3032 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
3033 configuration and data with the central server. This should be
3038 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
3045 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>.
3050 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3054 <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>
3060 <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
3061 <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
3062 with face recognition
</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
3063 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
3064 recognition on the TV image itself. It could let the viewer know who
3065 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
3066 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
3067 evaluate what is being said and done. That would be a feature I would
3068 be willing to pay for.
</p>
3070 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
3071 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
3072 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
3073 <a href=
"http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
3080 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>.
3085 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3089 <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>
3096 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
3097 reported how to get
</a> the support status out of Dell using an
3098 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
3099 <a href=
"http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
3100 by Daniel De Marco in february
</a>. Combined with my web scraping
3101 code for HP, Dell and IBM
3102 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
3103 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
3104 <a href=
"https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
3105 web service
</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
3106 support status and get a machine readable result back.
</p>
3108 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
3112 % 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>
3113 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": ""})
3117 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
3118 support for other vendors. The python source is available on
3119 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.
</p>
3125 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>.
3130 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3134 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel
</a>
3140 <p>Back in
2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
3141 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
3142 mailing list. He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
3143 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
3144 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
3145 Squeeze
</a> version.
</p>
3147 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
3149 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am
38 years old and live near Kiel,
3150 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
3151 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
3154 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
3155 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
3156 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
3157 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
3158 becoming an osteopath.
</p>
3160 <p>Starting in
2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
3161 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
3162 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
3163 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
3164 skills with communication skills.
</p>
3166 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3167 project?
</strong></p>
3169 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
3170 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
3171 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
3172 people said. From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
3173 distributions that target being used for school networks.
</p>
3175 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
3176 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
3177 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between
12/
2010 and
03/
2011 we
3178 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
3179 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
3180 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
3181 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
3182 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
3183 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.
</p>
3185 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
3186 people. People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
3187 protection experts, other IT professionals.
</p>
3189 <p>We came to two conclusions:
</p>
3191 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
3192 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
3193 by
100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
3194 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
3195 IT solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
3196 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
3197 possible. In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
3198 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
3199 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
3200 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
3203 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
3204 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
3205 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
3206 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
3207 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
3208 tries to provide an approach for this.
</p>
3210 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
3211 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
3212 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
3213 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
3214 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
3217 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
3218 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
3219 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
3220 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
3221 non-existent until
2010/
2011.
</p>
3223 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
3224 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
3225 avoidance do exist.
</p>
3227 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
3228 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
3229 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
3230 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
3231 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
3232 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
3233 and probably a gain for all.
</p>
3235 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3238 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
3239 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
3240 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
3241 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
3242 project communication, honest communication within the group of
3243 developers, etc.
</p>
3245 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3248 <p>Every coin has two sides:
</p>
3250 <p>Technically:
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
3251 #
311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
3252 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
3253 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
3254 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
3255 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
3258 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
3259 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
3260 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
3261 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
3262 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
3263 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
3264 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
3265 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
3266 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
3267 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.
</p>
3269 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
3271 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.
</p>
3273 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
3274 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
3275 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.
</p>
3277 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In
2010 I started the
3278 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
3279 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
3280 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.
</p>
3282 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
3283 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
3284 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
3285 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
3288 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.
</p>
3290 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3291 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
3293 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
3300 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>.
3305 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3309 <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>
3315 <p>A few years ago I wrote
3316 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
3317 to extract support status
</a> for your Dell and HP servers. Recently
3318 I have learned from colleges here at the
3319 <a href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a> that Dell have
3320 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service. Given
3321 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
3322 readable information about the support status. This perl code
3323 demonstrate how to do it:
</p>
3330 my $GUID = '
11111111-
1111-
1111-
1111-
111111111111';
3332 my $servicetag = $ARGV[
0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
3333 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
3335 -
> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
3336 -
> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
3337 -
> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
3339 my $a = $s-
>GetAssetInformation(
3340 SOAP::Data-
>name('guid')-
>value($GUID)-
>type(''),
3341 SOAP::Data-
>name('applicationName')-
>value($App)-
>type(''),
3342 SOAP::Data-
>name('serviceTags')-
>value($servicetag)-
>type(''),
3344 print Dumper($a -
> result) ;
3347 <p>The output can look like this:
</p>
3353 'EntitlementData' =
> [
3355 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
3356 'EndDate' =
> '
2009-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3358 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3362 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
3363 'EndDate' =
> '
2009-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3365 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3369 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
3370 'EndDate' =
> '
2007-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3372 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
3377 'AssetHeaderData' =
> {
3378 'SystemModel' =
> 'GX620',
3379 'ServiceTag' =
> '
8DSGD2J',
3380 'SystemShipDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T19:
00:
00-
05:
00',
3382 'Region' =
> 'Europe',
3383 'SystemID' =
> 'PLX_GX620',
3384 'SystemType' =
> 'OptiPlex'
3390 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
3392 <a href=
"http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
3393 documentation
</a>, and according to
3394 <a href=
"http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
3395 comment
</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
3396 scraping HTML pages. :)
</p>
3398 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service. If
3399 you know of one, drop me an email. :)
</p>
3405 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>.
3410 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3414 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug
</a>
3420 <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
3421 <a href=
"http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug
</a> arrived in the
3422 mail, and I've had a few days to test it. As all my machines are
3423 running Debian Squeeze, where
3424 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
3425 calibration software
</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
3426 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD. This worked
3427 just fine. So far I have only done the quick calibration. It was
3428 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
3431 <p>After calibration, I get a
3432 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
3433 profile
</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
3434 tools. KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
3435 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
3436 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
3437 monitor setups. But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
3438 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
3439 monitor. After searching a bit, I
3440 <a href=
"http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered
</a>
3441 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
3445 dispwin -d
1 profile.icc
3448 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor. The
3449 result was a bit more pink than I expected. I guess I picked the
3450 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
3457 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
3462 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3466 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter
</a>
3472 <p>In
2003, a German teacher showed up on the
3473 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
3474 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
3475 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils. His name was Ralf
3476 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
3477 since then, helping to make sure the
3478 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
3479 Squeeze
</a> release became as good as it is..
</p>
3481 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
3483 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
3484 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past
12
3485 years (since
2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
3486 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
3487 O- or A-level ("Abitur"). For quite as long, I've been taking care of
3488 our computer network.
</p>
3490 <p>Now, in my early
40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
3491 spare time together with my wife, our son (
3 years) and our daughter
3494 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3495 project?
</strong></p>
3497 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
3498 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
3499 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
3500 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
3501 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt,
2005 (IIRC). Few
3502 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
3503 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others. For more
3504 than
7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
3505 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
3506 approximately
50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
3507 locally installed Skolelinux image. As a consequence, I joined quite
3508 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
3509 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
3510 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.
</p>
3512 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3515 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
3516 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
3517 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
3518 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
3519 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
3520 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
3521 labs). Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
3522 administration costs tend towards zero.
</p>
3524 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3527 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
3528 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
3529 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
3530 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
3531 office packages or desktop environments. These schools have the
3532 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
3533 capacity to do so. Another issue is that Debian release cycles
3534 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
3535 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
3536 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
3537 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
3538 i.e. harder to understand for novices.
</p>
3540 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
3542 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
3543 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
3544 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)
</p>
3546 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3547 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
3551 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
3552 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
3553 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
3556 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
3557 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
3558 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
3559 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
3560 share among German Skolelinux schools.
</li>
3562 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
3563 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
3564 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.
</li>
3566 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
3567 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
3568 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
3569 shared world wide (school books e.g.).
</li>
3571 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
3572 office suites is much above
20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
3573 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.
</li>
3575 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.
</li>
3577 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
3578 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
3579 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials. And
3580 keep sending documents in ODF formats.
</li>
3588 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>.
3593 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3597 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML
</a>
3603 <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
3604 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
3605 government. I just sent him an email to let him know that his
3606 assumption are most likely wrong. Sharing it here in case some of my
3607 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.
</p>
3609 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi. I just noted your
3610 <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>
3613 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
3614 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
3615 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard
" as claimed by the
3616 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
3617 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
3620 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated. I believe it is
3621 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around
2007,
3622 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
3623 at the content. In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
3624 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
3625 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
3626 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
3627 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
3628 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver. In
3629 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
3630 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
3631 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not
20 minutes
3632 of wasted effort.
</p>
3634 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
3635 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending
10
3636 minutes converting to ODF. :)
</p>
3639 <a href=
"http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php
</a>
3641 <a href=
"http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php
</a>
3642 for background information. Norwegian only, sorry. :)
</p>
3649 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>.
3654 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3658 <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>
3665 <a href=
"http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
3666 the ColorHug
</a>, a USB dongle from
3667 <a href=
"http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski
</a> to calibrate
3668 the color on a computer screen. The software required is
3669 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
3670 in Debian
</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
3671 batch. Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
3672 opportunity to order. Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
3673 delivery. I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
3674 should go in the mail on monday. :)
</p>
3676 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
3677 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
3684 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
3689 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3693 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner
</a>
3699 <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
3700 publish another interview with the people behind
3701 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>.
3702 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
3703 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
3704 details get right before release.
3706 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
3708 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm
49 years old and living in
3709 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany. I worked nearly
20 years as
3710 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
3711 international company for machinery and equipment. Since
2011 I'm a
3712 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
3713 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer. From April this year
3714 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
3715 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.
</p>
3717 <p>My first contact with linux was around
1993. Since that time I used
3718 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
3719 home since
2006.
</p>
3721 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3722 project?
</strong></p>
3724 <p>Once a day in the early year of
2001 when I wanted to fetch my
3725 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
3726 middle of
20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
3727 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
3728 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
3729 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".
</p>
3731 <p>Some weeks later every of the
10 classrooms had one computer
3732 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
3733 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
3734 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
3735 and with a lot of fun. About one year later the school was connected
3736 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
3737 building. That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
3738 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
3739 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
3740 costs for things like licence and software. So I searched for a
3741 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
3742 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
3743 prerelease
32 I first tried out for being used at the school. I
3744 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
3745 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
3746 Bielefeld in December of
2006.
</p>
3748 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3751 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
3752 for me as today.
</p>
3754 <p>In the past there were advantages like:
</p>
3758 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
3759 they had little money to spent for computers and software.
</li>
3761 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
3764 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
3765 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
3766 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
3767 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
3770 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
3775 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
3776 came up in this way:
</p>
3780 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
3783 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
3784 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
3785 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.
</li>
3787 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
3788 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
3789 interfaces used in the past.
</li>
3791 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
3792 different needs.
</li>
3794 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.
</li>
3796 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
3797 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
3798 is sharing knowledge and minds.
</li>
3800 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
3801 solved today by Debian Edu.
</li>
3805 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3810 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
3811 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
3812 whole municipality areas.
</li>
3814 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
3815 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
3818 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.
</li>
3822 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
3824 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
3825 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
3826 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
3827 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
3828 need from the KDE environment. On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
3829 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.
</p>
3831 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
3832 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
3833 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
3834 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
3835 and the whole family. I probably forgot something.
</p>
3837 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3838 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
3840 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
3841 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
3842 countries and areas all over the world.
</p>
3848 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>.
3853 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3857 <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>
3863 <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
3864 <img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
3866 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
3867 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
3868 But the last ones have not really been up to the task. My last
3869 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
3870 time, and cutting my head took forever. And the one before that did
3871 not work very well either. We have looked for something better for a
3872 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
3873 discovered that there are indeed better tools available. But these
3874 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers". The hair saloons
3875 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
3876 companies. The models they sell, are very different from the ones
3877 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal. The main difference is their
3878 efficiency. It would cut my hair in
5 minutes, instead of the
30-
40
3879 minutes required by my impotent Braun. The hairdresser I visited had
3880 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
3881 producer. But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.
</p>
3883 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it. This was not
3884 straight forward. The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
3885 did not want to sell anything to me. But searching for the model on
3886 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
3887 around NOK
4000,-. This was a bit much. We kept searching and
3888 finally found a Danish supplier
3889 <a href=
"http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
3890 it for around NOK
1800,-
</a>. We ordered one, and it arrived a few
3893 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for
8 hours when we started
3894 to use it, so we left it charging over night. Normally it will only
3895 need one hour to charge. The following evening we successfully tested
3896 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
3897 cutter. The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
3904 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
3909 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3913 <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>
3919 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
3920 article today
</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
3921 <a href=
"http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke
</a> reports
3922 that the video editor application included with
3923 <a href=
"http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
3924 X
</a> have some quite surprising terms of use. The article is mostly
3925 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
3928 "
<a href=
"http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
3929 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
3930 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.
</a>"
3933 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
3936 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
3937 commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately.
"
3940 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
3941 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
3942 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html
">discovered
3943 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>. The HTC One X specification specifies that
3944 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
3946 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues
">Adaptive
3947 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
3948 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
3949 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/
">VoiceAge</a>. MP4 is
3950 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H
.264/MPEG-
4_AVC#Patent_licensing
">MPEG4 with
3951 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
3952 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/
">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
3954 <p>I know why I prefer
3955 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">free and open
3956 standards</a> also for video.</p>
3962 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>.
3967 <div class="padding
"></div>
3971 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html
">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
3977 <p>Here in Norway, the
3978 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=
339"> Ministry of
3979 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
3980 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder
">directory of
3981 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
3982 government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
3983 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
3984 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
3985 to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
3986 on the same level.</p>
3988 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
3989 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing
">Reasonable
3990 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
3991 directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
3992 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
3993 implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
3994 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
3995 willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
3996 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
3997 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
3998 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
3999 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
4000 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
4001 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
4002 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
4003 to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
4004 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
4005 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
4007 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
4008 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
4009 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
4010 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
4011 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
4012 in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
4013 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
4014 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
4016 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
4018 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2010/
11/rand-not-so-reasonable/
">RAND:
4019 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
4021 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
4022 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/
2012/
04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm
">blog
4023 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
4024 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I
4025 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
4026 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder
">the
4027 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
4028 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
4029 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
4035 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>.
4040 <div class="padding
"></div>
4044 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html
">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
4050 <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu and
4051 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
4052 setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas
4053 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
4054 years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
4055 up in the recently released
4056 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze
">Debian
4057 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
4059 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4061 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany. After
4062 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
4063 Quantum Optics. After that I worked some years in an optics company.
4064 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
4065 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school. I teach math, physics,
4066 information technology and science/technology.</p>
4068 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4069 project?</strong></p>
4071 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
4072 project because of my interest in education and Debian. Within the
4073 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
4076 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4079 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
4080 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
4083 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4086 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
4087 downside, too. In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
4088 setup, if you need or want that. Further more, it is not easily
4089 possible to upgrade the system to a new release. It takes much too
4090 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
4091 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
4092 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
4094 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN
">Debian LAN</a>
4095 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
4097 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4099 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
4100 on all my machines. For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
4101 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing. At school I
4102 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
4104 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4105 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4107 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
4108 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
4109 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader". The school
4110 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
4111 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats. Even
4112 free browsers do not work for the school administration. Publishers
4113 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.
</p>
4115 <p>To change this, political work is very important. Parts of the
4116 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
4117 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
4118 the system. There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
4119 "Free/Open Standards". I am not sure if all the involved parties have
4120 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
4121 fraction takes them seriously. However it might slowly make free
4122 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.
</p>
4128 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>.
4133 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4137 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye
</a>
4143 <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
4144 like
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>,
4145 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
4147 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
4148 Edu Squeeze release manual
</a>.
4150 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4152 <p>I'm a
44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
4153 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.
</p>
4155 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4156 project?
</strong></p>
4158 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only
4159 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
4160 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
4161 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep
4162 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
4165 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4168 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4171 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I
4172 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
4173 education system.
</p>
4175 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
4176 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
4177 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
4178 money on the latest hardware.
</p>
4180 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4182 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
4183 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
4184 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).
</p>
4186 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4187 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4189 <p>Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
4190 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
4191 you would hardly need a strategy.
</p>
4197 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>.
4202 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4206 <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>
4212 <p>Recently I have spent time with
4213 <a href=
"http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS
</a> on speeding
4214 up a
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>
4215 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
4216 process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE
4217 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
4218 due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing
4219 the Multimedia menu would cause more than
20 000 IP packages to be
4220 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were
4222 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the
4223 ping times between the client and the server were in the range
2-
20
4224 ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in
4225 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
4226 the source of these NFS calls are access(
2) system calls for
4227 non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(
2) calls to find
4228 one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
4229 around
230 access(
2) calls.
</p>
4231 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
4232 directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In
4233 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
4234 and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
4235 mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
4236 requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a
4237 <a href=
"https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
4238 from
2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.
</p>
4240 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
4241 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
4242 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
4243 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
4244 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to
4245 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
4246 for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
4247 one icon from several hundred to less than
5, and make the KDE menu
4248 almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package
4249 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.
</p>
4251 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
4252 and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to
4253 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
4254 that is not really an option at the moment.
</p>
4256 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
4257 (at) lists.debian.org.
</p>
4263 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>.
4268 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4272 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News
</a>
4278 <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
4279 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a> by
4280 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for
4281 non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
4282 for schools. Check out his article
4283 <a href=
"https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
4284 distribution for education
</a> if you want to learn more.
</p>
4290 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>.
4295 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4299 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer
</a>
4305 <p>Germany is a core area for the
4306 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
4307 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
4308 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
4310 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4312 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
4313 Bochum, Germany. Since
1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
4314 "
<a href=
"http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
4315 Dortmund
</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
4316 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
4317 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
4318 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
4319 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
4321 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
4322 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
4323 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
4324 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
4325 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
4326 the end of April this year.</p>
4328 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4329 project?</strong></p>
4331 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
4332 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
4333 Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
4334 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
4335 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
4336 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
4337 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
4338 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
4339 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
4340 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
4343 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
4344 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
4345 clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
4346 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
4347 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
4348 the admin teachers.</p>
4350 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4353 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
4354 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
4355 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
4357 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
4358 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
4359 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
4360 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
4361 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
4363 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4368 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4370 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
4371 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
4372 Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
4375 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4376 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4378 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
4379 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
4380 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
4386 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>.
4391 <div class="padding
"></div>
4395 <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>
4401 <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
4403 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
4404 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
4405 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
4406 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
4407 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
4408 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/
38601767">vimeo</a>
4410 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/
2012-
03-
14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv
">Ogg
4411 Theora</a> file. Check it out below.</p>
4413 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie
" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
4414 <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
"' />
4415 <p>Download video as
4416 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/
2012-
03-
14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv
">Ogg</a>.</p>
4423 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>.
4428 <div class="padding
"></div>
4432 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html
">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
4438 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
4439 users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after
4440 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/
2012/
03/msg00001.html
">the
4441 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
4442 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
4444 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4446 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
4447 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
4448 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
4449 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
4450 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
4451 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
4452 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
4455 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4456 project?</strong></p>
4458 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
4459 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
4460 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
4461 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
4462 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
4463 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
4464 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
4465 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
4466 these things we decided to try it.</p>
4468 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4471 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
4472 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
4473 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
4474 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
4475 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
4476 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about
25
4477 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
4478 proprietary software everywhere.
</p>
4480 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4483 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
4484 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
4485 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
4486 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
4487 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!
</p>
4489 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4491 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
4492 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
4493 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
4494 use Ubuntu and an Android
4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
4497 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4498 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4500 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
4501 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
4502 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
4503 applications". However, schools today are experiencing budget
4504 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
4505 XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
4506 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
4507 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
4508 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
4509 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
4510 first
10,
000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in
2 hours.
</p>
4512 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
4513 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
4514 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.
</p>
4520 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>.
4525 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4529 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu
</a>
4535 <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
4536 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
4537 translated versions in sync. To do this we have come up with what we
4538 believe is a very efficient work flow.
</p>
4542 <li>The documentation is written in a
4543 <a href=
"http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki
</a> (see for example
4544 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
4545 Squeeze release manual
</a>) with support for exporting the content as
4548 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
4549 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
4550 with the translated text.
</li>
4552 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
4553 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed. They can
4554 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
4555 the translation. There is even a system in place to handle translated
4558 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
4559 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.
</li>
4561 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
4562 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.
</li>
4566 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues. The biggest
4567 issue is that
<a href=
"http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
4568 we use in moinmoin
</a> is not actively maintained. The docbook
4569 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
4570 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.
</p>
4572 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
4573 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
4580 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>.
4585 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4589 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!
</a>
4595 <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
4596 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a> based
4597 on Debian/Squeeze. The full announcement is
4598 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available
</a>
4599 from the project announcement list. Now is a good time to test if it
4600 you have not done so already.
</p>
4602 <p>I plan to present the new version at
4603 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
4604 meeting
</a> on tuesday. I look forward to seeing you there if you are
4605 in Oslo, Norway.
</p>
4611 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>.
4616 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4620 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker
</a>
4626 <p>Inspired by
<a href=
"http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
4627 interview series
</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
4628 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4629 community. This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
4630 more international audience.
</p>
4632 <p>While
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
4633 Skolelinux
</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
4634 Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away
4635 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
4636 and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
4637 work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions,
4638 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
4641 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4643 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
4644 and we have three lovely children, aged
15,
14 and
4(!) I am the IT
4645 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
4646 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
4647 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
4648 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
4649 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
4650 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
4651 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
4652 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
4653 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.
</p>
4655 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4656 project?
</strong></p>
4658 <p>In around
2004 or
5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
4659 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
4660 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
4661 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
4662 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
4663 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
4664 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
4665 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
4666 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
4667 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
4668 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
4669 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
4670 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.
</p>
4672 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4675 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
4676 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
4677 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
4678 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
4679 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
4680 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
4683 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4686 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
4687 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
4688 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
4689 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
4690 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
4691 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
4692 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
4693 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
4694 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A
4695 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
4696 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
4697 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
4698 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
4699 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
4702 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4704 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
4705 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
4706 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
4707 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
4708 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music. At school
4709 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
4710 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
4711 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
4712 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also
4713 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
4714 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.
</p>
4716 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4717 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4719 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
4720 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
4721 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
4722 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
4723 file formats and Word than they did
5 years ago. The Edu aspect is
4724 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
4725 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is
4726 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
4727 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
4728 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
4729 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
4730 doesn't play flash, for example.
</p>
4736 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>.
4741 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4745 <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>
4751 <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
4753 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
4754 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
4755 Debian Edu Squeeze. The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
4756 also available from
<a href=
"http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo
</a> and
4758 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
4759 Theora
</a> file. Check it out below.
</p>
4761 <p><video id=
"gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width=
"256" height=
"184" preload controls
>
4762 <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"'
/>
4763 <p>Download video as
4764 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
</a>.
</p>
4771 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>.
4776 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4780 <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>
4786 <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
4787 candidate for
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4788 Skolelinux
</a> based on Squeeze. The full announcement is
4789 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available
</a>
4790 from the project announcement list. Check it out if you
4791 need a software solution for your school.
</p>
4797 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>.
4802 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4806 <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>
4812 <p>Many years ago, the
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
4813 / Debian Edu project
</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
4814 for making stop motion movies. The proposal came from a teacher
4815 needing such tool on Skolelinux. The project, called "stopmotion",
4816 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
4817 national aware with this great project. The project was initiated and
4818 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
4819 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad. They got in touch with people at Aardman
4820 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
4821 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
4822 animators around the globe. But as is usual after studying, both got
4823 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
4824 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now. Until last
4827 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
4828 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
4830 <a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion
</a>.
4831 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
4832 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
4833 mean). I've been following
4834 <a href=
"https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
4835 mailing list
</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
4836 the future is encouraging. If you want to make stop motion movies.
4837 Check it out. :)
</p>
4843 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>.
4848 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4852 <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>
4858 <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
4859 candidate for
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4860 Skolelinux
</a> based on Squeeze. The full announcement did for some
4861 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
4862 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available
</a>
4863 from the Debian development announcement list. Check it out if you
4864 need a software solution for your school.
</p>
4870 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>.
4875 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4879 <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>
4885 <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
4886 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
4887 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
4888 on Squeeze. The full announcement is
4889 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available
</a>
4890 on the project announcement list. Check it out if you need a software
4891 solution for your school.
</p>
4897 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>.
4902 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4906 <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>
4912 <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems. Thanks to Linux
4913 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
4914 <a href=
"http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
4915 close
</a> this summer :). But once a disk is starting to behave
4916 funny, a practical problem present itself. How to get from the Linux
4917 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
4918 the disk when the computer is turned off? In my case I have SATA
4919 disks with a unique ID printed on the label. All I need is a way to
4920 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.
</p>
4922 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
4923 <a href=
"http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
4924 that hdparm -I
</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
4925 printed on the disk label. The following (almost) one-liner can be
4926 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:
</p>
4929 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
4931 printf "Failed disk $d: "
4932 hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
4936 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
4937 next time, and in case other find it useful.
</p>
4939 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(
</p>
4942 Failed disk sdd1: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1860823
4943 Failed disk sdd2: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1860823
4944 Failed disk sde2: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1840589
4947 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
4948 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
4949 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
4950 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label. The vendor
4951 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
4952 mounted inside my box.
</p>
4954 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
4955 Software RAID in the
4956 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard
</a>
4957 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
4958 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail. At the moment
4959 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
4960 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
4961 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.
</p>
4967 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>.
4972 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4976 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>
4982 <p>New in the Squeeze version of
4983 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> is the
4984 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
4985 based on their environment. We want all systems on the client to use
4986 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from
<tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat
</tt>, to
4987 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
4988 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings. The schools can
4989 change the global proxy setting by editing
4990 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat
</tt> and the change propagate
4991 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.
</p>
4993 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
4994 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
4995 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):
</p>
4998 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
5000 if (!isResolvable(host) ||
5001 isPlainHostName(host) ||
5002 dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
5005 return "PROXY webcache:
3128; DIRECT";
5009 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:
</p>
5012 http_proxy=http://webcache:
3128/
5013 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:
3128/
5016 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
5017 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
5019 <tt><a href=
"http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/
</a></tt>,
5020 and insert this extracted proxy URL in
<tt>/etc/environment
</tt> and
5021 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf
</tt>. The perl script wpad-extract work just
5022 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
5023 javascript code is
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
5024 able to build
</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
5025 library. I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
5026 is frozen. An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
5027 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
5028 known alternative is known at the moment.
</p>
5030 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
5031 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
5032 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
5033 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
5034 feature when it is connected to other networks. And if no proxy is
5035 announced, direct connections will be used instead.
</p>
5037 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
5038 or security problem. But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
5039 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
5040 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
5041 distinction to be academic. If you are afraid of using the wrong
5042 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
5043 first place. In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
5044 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
5045 the network setup changes.
</p>
5047 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
5048 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
5050 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
5051 page
</a> for those that want to learn more.
</p>
5057 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>.
5062 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5066 <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>
5072 <p>Since the Lenny version of
5073 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>, a
5074 feature to save power have been included. It is as simple as it is
5075 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
5076 in the morning. This is done using the
5077 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night
</a> Debian package.
</p>
5079 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
5080 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts. For Debian Edu, this is done in
5081 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
5082 every hour from
16:
00 until
06:
00 to see if the machine is unused, and
5083 shut it down if it is. If the hardware in question is supported by
5085 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup
</a>
5086 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around
07:
00 +-
5087 10 minutes. If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
5088 try to turn on the client. The wake-on-lan option is only documented
5089 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.
</p>
5091 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
5092 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
5093 the common setup for a classroom. The nvram-wakeup method only work
5094 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock. I've seen old
5095 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
5096 starting from
0 (or was it
1990?) every boot. If you have one of
5097 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.
</p>
5099 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
5100 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment. For those without a
5101 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
5102 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night
</tt> to enable it.
5103 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?
</p>
5109 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>.
5114 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5118 <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>
5124 <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
5125 publish the third beta version of
5126 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
5127 on Squeeze. If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
5128 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
5129 installing new machines, check it out. If you need a software
5130 solution for your school, check it out too. The full announcement is
5131 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available
</a>
5132 on the project announcement list.
</p>
5134 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
5135 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):
</p>
5139 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
5140 10.0.0.0/
8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
5141 the installation.
</li>
5143 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
5144 Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.
</li>
5146 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
5147 disabled queues are restarted every hour. This should cut down on
5148 the amount of manual administration needed for printers.
</li>
5150 <li>The set of initial users have been changed. Now a personal user
5151 for the local system administrator is created during installation
5152 instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
5153 and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
5154 membership. This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
5155 up to date on the system.
</li>
5159 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
5160 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home. I will use it look
5161 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
5162 final Squeeze release is published.
</p>
5164 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
5165 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
5166 gathering
</a> in Oslo. We will continue the work on the Squeeze
5167 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version. Perhaps I
5168 will see you there?
</p>
5174 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>.
5179 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5183 <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>
5189 <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
5190 This is the sad fact of todays computers. In the next version of
5191 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
5192 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
5193 firmware blobs easier to handle. The common use case I run into is a
5194 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
5195 work, but there are other use cases as well.
</p>
5197 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
5198 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
5199 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
5200 during installation. This take care firmware for network devices used
5201 by the installer when installing from from local media. But for
5202 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
5203 not taken care of by this.
</p>
5205 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
5206 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware
</tt> which
5207 search through the
<tt>dmesg
</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
5208 firmware. The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
5209 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
5210 the requested firmware file(s) is installed. I have proposed to do
5211 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
5212 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#
655507</a>), to allow PXE
5213 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better. Run the
5214 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
5215 firmware packages.
</p>
5217 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
5218 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
5219 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
5220 included to be able to install at all. To fill the PXE installation
5221 initrd with extra firmware, the
5222 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware
</tt> script is
5223 provided. Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
5224 PXE initrd with firmware packages.
</p>
5226 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
5227 network cards working. For this,
5228 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware
</tt> is
5229 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs. It is used
5230 the same way as the other firmware related tools.
</p>
5232 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation. We
5233 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
5234 non-free software, and it is their choice.
</p>
5236 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend. You might want to give it a
5243 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>.
5248 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5252 <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>
5258 <p>The next version of
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
5259 / Skolelinux
</a> will include a new tool
5260 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp
</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
5261 the computers in a school without much manual labour. Here is a short
5262 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.
</p>
5264 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
5265 central server in the network. Next, PXE boot all the client machines
5266 as thin clients and wait
5 minutes after the last client booted to
5267 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server. When
5268 this is done, log on to the central server and run
5269 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
</tt> in the
<tt>konsole
</tt> to use the
5270 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP. The output
5271 will look similar to this:
</p>
5273 <p><blockquote><pre>
5274 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
5275 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [
10.0.2.2] id ether-
00:
01:
02:
03:
04:
05.
5276 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.
5278 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
5280 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5281 enter password: *******
5283 </pre></blockquote></p>
5285 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
5286 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
5287 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
5288 automatically generated names. The final step to set up the school is
5289 then to log into
<a href=
"https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa
</a>,
5290 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
5291 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
5292 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems. All clients that should be used
5293 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
5294 group. After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
5295 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
5298 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
5299 enabled this weekend. You might want to give it a try.
</p>
5301 <p>Update
2012-
01-
28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
5302 hosts, one need to add the option -a. I forgot to mention this in my
5303 original text, and have added it to the text now.
</p>
5309 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>.
5314 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5318 <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>
5324 <p>In the Squeeze version of
5325 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> soon
5326 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
5327 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
5328 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP. In
5329 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
5330 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
5333 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
5334 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
5335 default content. By changing this value to another URL, all users get
5336 to see the page behind this new URL.
</p>
5338 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool. It can be
5339 called as "
<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'
</tt>' to update LDAP with the
5342 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
5343 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
5344 from within Iceweasel instead.
</p>
5350 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>.
5355 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5359 <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>
5365 <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
5366 the second beta version of
5367 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>. If
5368 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
5369 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
5370 machines, check it out. If you need a software solution for your
5371 school, check it out too. The full announcement is
5372 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available
</a>
5373 on the project announcement list.
</p>
5379 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>.
5384 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5388 <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>
5394 <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
5395 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> ready
5396 for release. The initial problem I looked at was particularly
5399 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
5400 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
5401 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
5402 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
5403 scratch. I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
5404 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
5405 wrap up its tasks.
</p>
5407 <p>Eventually the cause was found. The kernel was simply running out
5408 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
5409 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
5410 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
5411 because I was typing.
</P>
5413 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
5414 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
5415 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
5416 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
5417 generate some disk IO. Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
5418 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
5419 generate entropy.
</p>
5422 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
5423 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze
</a> version, and we
5424 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
5425 developers
</a>. We plan to release beta2 this weekend.
</p>
5431 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>.
5436 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5440 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge
</a>
5446 <p>At work we have heaps of servers. I believe the total count is
5447 around
1000 at the moment. To be able to get help from the vendors
5448 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
5449 up to date. If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
5450 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
5451 firmware is upgraded. So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
5452 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
5453 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
5454 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
5455 the tools to do so.
</p>
5457 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
5458 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got. Most of
5459 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
5460 so far. This blog post is about the Dell part.
</P>
5462 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
5463 <a href=
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file
</a>
5464 with firmware information for all
11th generation servers, listing
5465 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
5466 site I can find it. Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
5467 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
5468 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
5469 be activated on the first reboot.
</p>
5471 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
5472 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
5473 servers at a site? Please get in touch and lets share resources.
</p>
5479 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
5481 # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
5483 'XML::Simple' =
> 'perl-XML-Simple',
5485 for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
5486 eval "use $module;";
5488 my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
5489 system("yum install -y $pkg");
5490 eval "use $module;";
5494 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
5500 sub run_firmware_script {
5501 my ($opts, $script) = @_;
5503 print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
5506 print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
5508 if (
0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
5509 print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
5511 print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
5515 sub run_firmware_scripts {
5516 my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
5517 # Run firmware packages
5518 for my $dir (@dirs) {
5519 print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
5520 opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
5521 while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
5522 next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
5523 run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
5531 print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
5532 system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
5537 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5540 if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
5542 # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
5543 system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-
33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
5545 my $tmpdir = tempdir(
5549 fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
5550 system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
5551 my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
5552 # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
5555 for my $url (@paths) {
5556 fetch_dell_fw($url);
5558 run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
5560 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5561 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5565 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5566 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5572 my $url =
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
5576 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
5577 # firmware packages to download from Dell. Only work for Linux
5578 # machines and
11th generation Dell servers.
5579 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
5580 my $filename = shift;
5582 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5584 my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
5586 print STDERR
"Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
5588 my $xml = XMLin($filename);
5590 for my $bundle (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareBundle}}) {
5591 my $brand = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
5592 my $model = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Model}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
5594 if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}) {
5595 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}[
0]-
>{osCode};
5597 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}-
>{osCode};
5599 if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
5601 @paths = map { $_-
>{path} } @{$bundle-
>{Contents}-
>{Package}};
5604 for my $component (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5605 my $componenttype = $component-
>{ComponentType}-
>{value};
5607 # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5608 next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
5610 my $cpath = $component-
>{path};
5611 for my $path (@paths) {
5612 if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5613 push(@paths, $cpath);
5621 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5622 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking. Anyone know a
5623 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers? At the
5624 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5631 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>.
5636 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5640 <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>
5646 <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
5647 publishing houses how to handle electronic books. Surprisingly, the
5648 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
5649 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
5650 publishing houses. Time limited renting (
2-
3 years) is one proposed
5651 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
5652 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
5655 <p>Anyway, while reading
<a href=
"http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
5656 this debate
</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
5657 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
5658 to a better model. The idea is simple:
</p>
5660 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
5661 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
5662 solution to hand out free e-books. As a start, the books distributed
5663 by
<a href=
"http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg
</a> (about
5664 36,
000 books),
<a href=
"http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg
</a>
5665 (
1149 books) and
<a href=
"http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
5666 Internet Archive
</a> (
3,
033,
748 books) could be included, but any book
5667 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
5670 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:
</p>
5674 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
5675 other relevant equipment.
</li>
5677 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.
</li>
5681 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
5682 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
5683 visiting the library. The site would be the distribution point for
5684 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
5685 books available.
</p>
5687 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this? I guess it would
5688 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
5695 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>.
5700 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5704 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage
</a>
5710 <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
5711 server. It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
5712 movie collection easily available. It also make it possible to let
5713 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
5714 down. I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
5715 subtitle options intact. It also ensure that the entire film is one
5716 file on the disk. As this is for personal use, the ripping is
5717 perfectly legal here in Norway.
</p>
5719 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:
</p>
5723 # apt-get install lsdvd
5724 title=$(lsdvd
2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $
3}')
5725 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=
1M
5728 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
5729 been looking for a better alternative. I have no idea why this I/O
5730 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
5731 something fishy with the DVDs in question. Or perhaps all three.
</p>
5733 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
5734 genisoimage. This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
5735 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
5740 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
5742 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
5743 title=$(lsdvd
2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $
3}')
5744 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
5745 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
5746 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
5749 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?
</p>
5751 <p>Update
2011-
09-
18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
5752 readom program from the wodim package. It is specially written to
5753 read optical media, and is called like this:
<tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
5754 f=image.iso
</tt>. It got
6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
5755 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.
</p>
5757 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
5758 <a href=
"http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
5759 program python-dvdvideo
</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
5760 for. Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
5761 creating a ISO image. The git source built and installed just fine in
5762 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.
</p>
5768 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>.
5773 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5777 <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>
5783 <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
5784 <a href=
"http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
5785 comments and opinions
</a> on my blog post on
5786 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
5787 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian
</a> and my blog post about
5788 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
5789 default KDE desktop in Debian
</a>. I only have time to address one
5790 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5791 misunderstanding he bring forward:
</p>
5794 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5795 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
5796 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5799 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5800 and booting into runlevel
1 is the same. I am not surprised he
5801 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5802 thing to believe. But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5803 runlevel
1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
5804 mode. I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5805 hard to explain.
</p>
5807 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5808 "
<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
</tt>". This means the only thing that is
5809 executed in single user mode is sulogin. Single user mode is a boot
5810 state "between
" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5811 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5812 enters the single user state. When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5813 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5814 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5815 runs "init -t1 S
" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5816 1. It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
5817 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5820 <p>This summary might make it clearer. When booting for the first
5821 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5822 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin
</tt>". When booting into
5823 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
5824 S; /etc/init.d/rc
1; /sbin/sulogin
</tt>". A problem show up when
5825 trying to continue after visiting single user mode. Not all services
5826 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5827 unpredicatble state. This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5828 after visiting single user mode.</p>
5830 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5831 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/. When switching from say runlevel 2
5832 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5833 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5834 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5835 2-5. I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5836 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
5837 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
5839 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5840 and discovered this problem a few years ago. I suspect it originates
5841 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
5847 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>.
5852 <div class="padding
"></div>
5856 <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>
5862 <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
5863 are started from /etc/rcS.d/. In fact, there is a bite more of them
5864 than make sense, and this causes a few problems. What kind of
5865 problems, you might ask. There are at least two problems. The first
5866 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
5867 runlevel 1. One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
5868 the expected state. The other is that single user boot will sometimes
5869 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
5870 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
5871 machine from a problem in that subsystem. A minor additional point is
5872 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
5873 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
5874 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
5876 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/. In short, only the
5877 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
5878 presented during a single user boot should go there. Everything else
5879 should go into the numeric runlevels. This means things like
5880 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
5881 the numeric runlevels. Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
5882 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
5883 out. Do your package have one of them? Please help us make single
5884 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
5886 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
5887 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
5888 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
5891 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound. To keep
5892 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
5893 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
5894 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
5895 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
5896 moved first. This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
5897 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
5898 the system state correct. This will require some coordination when it
5899 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
5900 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
5901 on them. Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
5902 package, while others are still left to do. I wish I had time to work
5903 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
5904 find time to push this forward.</p>
5910 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>.
5915 <div class="padding
"></div>
5919 <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>
5925 <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
5926 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
5927 desktop to be useful for more people. The use case for this is my
5928 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
5931 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
5932 implement. After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
5933 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
5937 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
5938 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
5939 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
5940 tool to handle it. I have no problem guiding both of my parents
5941 through the process over the phone. If a kernel reboot is required,
5942 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool. Last
5943 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
5946 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
5947 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
5948 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
5949 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
5950 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
5951 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
5952 Packages file in the APT archive). If one or more packages are found,
5953 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5954 type. If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5955 license, this is explained to the user. The entire process make it
5956 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5957 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5958 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
5960 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5961 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
5962 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5963 should search for a package that would add support for it. This
5964 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264. The selection
5965 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5966 plugin handling. This is as far as I know implemented using a
5967 gstreamer hook. The end result is that the user easily get access to
5968 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5969 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
5971 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
5972 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5973 start emacs to show it. If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5974 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser. At least I
5975 know Opera will show text files within the browser. I much prefer the
5976 latter behaviour.</li>
5980 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5981 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5982 it do not matter much.</p>
5984 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5985 Debian release. It would require the coordinated effort of several
5986 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
5992 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>.
5997 <div class="padding
"></div>
6001 <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>
6007 <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</A>
6008 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
6009 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
6010 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
6011 security support for a few years.</p>
6013 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
6014 that are missing in Debian at the moment. It would be great if these
6015 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
6016 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com
">FixMyStreet</a> clone
6017 in their own country using only Debian packages. The list of modules
6018 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
6019 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
6020 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
6021 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
6022 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
6023 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
6024 easier in the future.</p>
6026 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
6027 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
6028 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package. But this leave me
6029 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
6030 do not have time for.</p>
6036 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>.
6041 <div class="padding
"></div>
6045 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html
">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
6052 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/
2011/
06/
20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/
">the
6053 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
6055 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA
">Autodesk</a>
6057 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/
2011/
06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html
">Microsoft
6058 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
6059 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs. Whenever I take
6060 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
6066 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>.
6071 <div class="padding
"></div>
6075 <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>
6081 <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
6082 <a href="http://www.open311.org/
">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
6083 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a> started to
6084 work. It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
6085 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
6086 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
6087 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
6088 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
6089 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
6090 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
6092 <p>Where is it? Visit
6093 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/
">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
6094 to have a look. Please send feedback to the
6095 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami
6096 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
6102 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>.
6107 <div class="padding
"></div>
6111 <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>
6117 <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
6118 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/
">Open311 API</a> in the
6119 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
6120 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
6121 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
6122 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/
">New Zealand version</a> of
6123 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
6124 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
6125 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
6126 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
6127 FixMyStreet. The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
6128 to get a draft limping along. In the process, I have discovered a few
6129 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
6131 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
6132 handling in the specification. The specification seem to assume all
6133 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
6134 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there. To be
6135 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
6136 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
6137 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
6138 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
6139 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
6140 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
6141 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
6142 know which language to use when writing a problem report. I suspect
6143 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
6145 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
6146 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet. One issue I
6147 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
6148 each category. The specification do not state that the identifier
6149 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
6150 here. In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
6151 category. As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
6152 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
6155 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
6156 differ in a key part. FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
6157 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title. I'm not
6158 quite sure how to best handle this yet. When asking for a FixMyStreet
6159 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
6160 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
6161 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
6163 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
6164 near a geographic location. I believe this is important if one is to
6165 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units. The specification
6166 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
6167 and range= options.</p>
6169 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
6170 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
6171 to assume only one administration. For FixMyStreet, this mean a
6172 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
6173 available depend on the location of the problem. Not quite sure how
6174 to best handle this. I've noticed
6175 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/
">SeeClickFix</a> added
6176 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
6177 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
6178 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
6180 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
6181 up with the open311 developer group. I really wish they had a email
6182 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/
">Gmane</a> to use for
6183 discussions instead of only
6184 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss
">a forum<a/>. Oh,
6185 well. That will probably resolve itself, one way or another. I've
6186 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
6187 seem to reply to my questions there. This make me wonder if I just
6188 fail to understand how the open311 community work. It sure do not
6189 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
6195 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>.
6200 <div class="padding
"></div>
6204 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html
">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
6210 <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/
">The Gnash project</a> is still
6211 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
6212 A few days ago the project
6213 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/
2011-
04/msg00011.html
">announced</a>
6214 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code. I hope many
6215 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
6222 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>.
6227 <div class="padding
"></div>
6231 <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>
6237 <p>Here is a small update for my English readers. Most of my blog
6238 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
6239 update in English.</p>
6241 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
6242 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
6243 of the British service
6244 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/
">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
6245 and it has been running for a month now. The entire project has been
6246 organised by me and two others. Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
6247 to fund the development work. In January I drafted a contract with
6248 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/
">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
6249 and in February the development took place. Most of it involved
6250 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
6251 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
6252 running in any country by now. The Norwegian
6253 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a> is using
6254 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/
">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
6255 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
6256 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
6258 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
6259 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th. The system is
6260 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
6261 problem reports in a few weeks. Soon we hope to announce the Android
6262 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
6263 public infrastructure.</p>
6265 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
6272 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>.
6277 <div class="padding
"></div>
6281 <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>
6287 <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
6288 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo. My idea is that
6289 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
6290 available on the Internet, and check our locally
6291 maintained/distributed software against this information. It should
6292 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten. The
6293 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
6294 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
6295 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
6296 out which security holes were present in our free software
6299 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
6300 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
6301 consistent way across data sources. I considered several ways to do
6302 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
6303 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
6304 existing naming scheme. And it seem like I am not the first one to
6305 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
6306 solution. Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html
">Common
6307 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
6308 software, hardware and other platform components. The CPE ids are
6309 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/
">National
6310 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
6311 issues for any CPE name. With this in place, all I need to do is to
6312 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
6313 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
6314 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
6316 <p>To give you an example. The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
6317 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip. If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
6318 check out, one could look up
6319 <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
6320 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
6321 The most recent one is
6322 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-
2010-
0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
6323 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
6324 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
6326 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
6327 for offline processing of issues. Using this dump, I've written a
6328 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
6329 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs. One give it CPEs
6330 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
6331 security issues out.</p>
6333 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
6334 information need to be high. For that to happen, I believe as many as
6335 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database. I notice
6337 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt
">a
6338 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
6339 information. I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
6341 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
6342 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
6343 the CVE database in NVD. The result look fairly good, but there are
6344 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
6345 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
6346 Debian believe are affected by a CVE). Hope to find time to improve
6347 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
6348 someone maintaining it. So far my three emails with questions and
6349 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
6350 established soon.</p>
6352 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
6353 mapping. It would be useful to know which packages in for example
6354 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
6355 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
6356 for their packages.</p>
6362 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>.
6367 <div class="padding
"></div>
6371 <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>
6378 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data
">discover-data</a>
6379 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
6380 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
6381 information. One part of this script that I find very useful when
6382 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
6383 to the PCI device it claims. It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
6384 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with. To see
6385 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
6386 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>. The relevant output on
6387 one of my machines like this:</p>
6391 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
6394 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
6403 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
6404 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
6407 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
6408 echo loaded pci modules:
6410 cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
6411 for address in * ; do
6412 if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6413 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6414 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6415 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
6416 id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk '{print $
3}'`
6426 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
6430 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
6431 echo loaded usb modules:
6433 cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
6434 for address in * ; do
6435 if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6436 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6437 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6438 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
6439 id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk '{print $
6}')
6451 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
6458 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>.
6463 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6467 <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>
6473 <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
6474 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H
.264 and WebM. Most video sites
6475 seem to use H
.264, while others use Ogg Theora. Interestingly enough,
6476 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
6477 H
.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
6478 the Wikipedia article on
6479 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video
</a>,
6480 this is not true. Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
6481 different browsers there. The format supported by most browsers is
6482 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
6483 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
6484 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
6485 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
6486 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
6487 Firefox. H
.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
6488 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
6489 Explorer. Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
6490 Safari can install plugins to get it.
</p>
6492 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
6493 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
6494 HTML5 video tag. Of course to reach all those without a browser
6495 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms. In
6496 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG
</a>, we provide first fallback to a
6497 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
6498 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
6499 Theora. This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an
<a
6500 href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
6501 from last week
</a>.
</p>
6503 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H
.264 is
6504 the least supported is simple. Implementing and using H
.264
6505 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
6506 are incompatible with free software licensing. If you believed H
.264
6507 was without royalties and license terms, check out
6508 "
<a href=
"http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H
.264 – Not The Kind Of
6509 Free That Matters
</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
6511 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
6513 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos
">the
6514 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look. I'm not aware of a
6515 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
6517 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
6518 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
6519 <video> tag support in browsers and not the video support
6520 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
6526 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>.
6531 <div class="padding
"></div>
6535 <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 <video></a>
6541 <p>Today I discovered
6542 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome
">via
6543 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
6544 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/
2011/
01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html
">yesterday
6545 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 <video> in
6546 the browser. The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
6547 open" codec technology. If you believe H
.264 was free for everyone
6548 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
6549 "
<a href=
"http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H
.264 – Not The Kind Of
6550 Free That Matters
</a>". It is not free of cost for creators of video
6551 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
6552 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
6553 licensing the patents needed for H.264. Some background information
6554 on the Google announcement is available from
6555 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/
24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome
">OSnews</a>.
6558 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
6559 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
6560 the Internet. This can only be done by publishing using free and open
6561 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
6562 for these free and open standards. At the moment there seem to be two
6563 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support. Some
6564 browsers support H.264, and others support
6565 <a href="http://www.theora.org/
">Ogg Theora</a> and
6566 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/
">WebM</a>
6567 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/
">Dirac</a> is not really an option
6568 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
6569 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
6570 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
6571 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video
">an
6572 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
6574 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
6575 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
6576 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/
2011/
01/simple_questions
">presents
6577 the mind set</a> of these people quite well. His rhetorical questions
6578 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
6579 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/
24245/
10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM
">presenting
6580 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
6582 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
6583 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin. This
6584 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
6585 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2011/
01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm
">todays
6586 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context. To me it
6587 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
6588 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
6590 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
6591 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
6592 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse. A lot of TV
6593 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
6594 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
6595 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
6596 publishing. Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
6598 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this. While the
6599 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
6600 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
6601 perspective. One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
6602 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
6603 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
6604 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
6605 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
6606 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
6607 video format not requiring royalties at all. A third reason might be
6608 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
6609 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
6610 I guess time will tell.</p>
6612 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
6613 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/
2011/
01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html
">more
6614 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
6620 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>.
6625 <div class="padding
"></div>
6629 <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>
6636 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html
">compare
6638 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">the Digistan
6639 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
6640 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
6641 this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
6642 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
6643 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
6644 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
6646 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
6647 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse
">the
6648 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
6649 to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
6650 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
6651 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
6652 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
6654 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
6655 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
6661 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>.
6666 <div class="padding
"></div>
6670 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html
">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
6676 <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
6677 "<a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
6678 Open Standard
</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
6679 the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard
" has
6680 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
6681 about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
6682 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
6683 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
6685 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
6686 standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
6687 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
6688 complete survey. More definitions are available on the
6689 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard
">wikipedia
6692 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
6693 Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
6694 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
6695 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
6696 their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
6697 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
6698 specification on equal terms.</p>
6702 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
6703 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
6708 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
6709 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
6710 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
6711 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
6713 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
6714 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
6715 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
6718 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
6719 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
6722 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
6727 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
6728 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/
">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
6729 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/
">this
6730 definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
6731 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/
20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm
">their
6732 definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
6733 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
6737 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
6741 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
6744 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
6745 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
6747 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
6748 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.
</li>
6754 <p>Then there is
<a href=
"http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
6755 definition
</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.
</p>
6759 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is
</p>
6763 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
6764 manner equally available to all parties;
</li>
6766 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
6767 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
6768 Standard themselves;
</li>
6770 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
6771 any party or in any business model;
</li>
6773 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
6774 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
6777 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
6778 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
6785 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
6787 <a href=
"http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
6788 Standards Checklist
</a> with a fairly detailed description.
</p>
6791 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
6795 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
6800 <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
6801 participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
6802 imposed by the organization under which it is developed
6805 <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
6806 method, can be changed through input from all
6809 <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
6810 the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.
</li>
6812 <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
6813 and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.
</li>
6815 <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
6816 public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
6817 comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.
</li>
6825 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard
</p>
6828 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
6829 and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
6830 implementations to the interface described in the standard without
6831 undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
6832 protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.
</li>
6834 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
6835 a technical or economic barriers
</li>
6837 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
6838 interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
6839 program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
6840 programs and mutually to use the information which has been
6841 exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
6842 file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
6843 conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
6844 computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
6845 intended to function.
</li>
6847 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
6848 standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
6849 must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.
</li>
6851 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
6852 fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
6853 perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
6854 sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
6855 terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
6856 outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
6857 patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
6858 only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
6862 <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
6863 licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
6864 (also known as a reciprocity clause)
</li>
6866 <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
6867 or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
6868 essential to practice that standard (also known as a
6869 "defensive suspension" clause)
</li>
6871 <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
6877 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
6878 implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
6879 or restricted licensing terms
</li>
6885 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
6886 there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
6887 open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
6888 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
6889 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
6890 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
6891 competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
6892 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
6899 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>.
6904 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6908 <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>
6914 <p><a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
6915 Digistan definition
</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:
</p>
6919 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
6924 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
6925 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
6926 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.
</li>
6928 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
6929 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
6930 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
6933 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
6934 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
6935 distribute, and use it freely.
</li>
6937 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
6938 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
</li>
6940 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.
</li>
6944 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
6945 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
6946 products based on the standard.
</p>
6949 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
6950 and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
6951 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
6952 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
6953 <a href=
"http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
6954 July
2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
6955 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
6956 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.
</p>
6958 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?
</strong></p>
6960 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
6961 Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
6962 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation
</A> is such vendor, but
6963 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
6964 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
6965 obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
6966 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
6967 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
6968 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
6969 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
6970 where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
6971 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
6972 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
6973 specification. But it seem unlikely.
</p>
6975 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?
</strong></p>
6977 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
6978 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
6979 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
6980 documentation indicating this.
</p>
6983 <a href=
"http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report
</a>
6984 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
6985 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
6986 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
6987 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
6988 report is correct.
</p>
6990 <p><strong>Specification freely available?
</strong></p>
6992 <p>The specification for the
<a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
6993 container format
</a> and both the
6994 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis
</a> and
6995 <a href=
"http://theora.org/doc/">Theora
</a> codeces are available on
6996 the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
7000 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
7001 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
7002 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
7003 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
7004 specification compliance.
7008 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
7009 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC
3533</a>, and
7010 this is the term:
<p>
7014 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
7015 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
7016 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
7017 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
7018 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
7019 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
7020 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
7021 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
7022 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
7023 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
7024 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
7025 translate it into languages other than English.
</p>
7027 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
7028 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
</p>
7031 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
7032 this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
7033 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
7034 thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
7035 requirement for the Digistan definition.
</p>
7037 <p><strong>Royalty-free?
</strong></p>
7039 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
7041 <a href=
"http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA
</a>
7043 <a href=
"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
7044 Jobs
</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
7045 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
7046 them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
7047 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
7048 without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
7049 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H
.264 codec
7050 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.
</p>
7052 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?
</strong></p>
7054 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.
</p>
7056 <p><strong>Conclusion
</strong></p>
7058 <p>3 of
5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining
2
7059 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
7060 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
7061 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
7062 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
7065 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
7066 see if they are free and open standards.
</p>
7072 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>.
7077 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7081 <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>
7088 <a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
7089 article
</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
7091 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
7092 Interoperability Framework
</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
7093 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
7094 Nothing very surprising there, given
7095 <a href=
"http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
7096 reports
</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
7097 this work. But I find this very sad. The definition of
7098 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
7099 open standard from version
1</a> was very good, and something I
7100 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
7101 <a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
7102 definition from Digistan
</A>. Version
2 have removed the open
7103 standard definition from its content.
</p>
7105 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
7106 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
7107 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
7108 in the public sector in Peru. As the text was not available from a
7109 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
7110 <a href=
"http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
7111 source
</a> to ensure it is available also in the future. Some
7112 background information about that story is available in
7113 <a href=
"http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article
</a> from
7114 Linux Journal in
2002.
</p>
7117 <p>Lima,
8th of April,
2002<br>
7118 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ
<br>
7119 General Manager of Microsoft Perú
</p>
7123 <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>
7125 <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>
7127 <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>
7129 <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>
7133 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen.
</li>
7134 <li>Permanence of public data.
</li>
7135 <li>Security of the State and citizens.
</li>
7139 <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>
7141 <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>
7143 <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>
7145 <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>
7147 <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>
7150 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:
<br>
7151 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software
</li>
7152 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software
</li>
7153 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use
</li>
7154 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought
</li>
7155 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.
</li>
7159 <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>
7161 <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>
7163 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:
</p>
7165 <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>
7167 <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>
7169 <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>
7171 <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>
7173 <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>
7175 <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>
7177 <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>
7179 <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>
7181 <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>
7183 <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>
7185 <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>
7187 <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>
7189 <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>
7191 <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>
7193 <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>
7195 <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>
7197 <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>
7199 <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>
7201 <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>
7203 <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>
7205 <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>
7209 <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>
7211 <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>
7213 <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>
7215 <p>In respect of the guarantee:
</p>
7217 <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>
7219 <p>On Intellectual Property:
</p>
7221 <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>
7223 <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>
7225 <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>
7227 <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>
7229 <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>
7231 <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>
7233 <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>
7235 <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>
7237 <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>
7239 <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>
7241 <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>
7243 <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>
7245 <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>
7247 <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>
7249 <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>
7251 <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>
7253 <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>
7255 <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>
7257 <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>
7259 <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>
7261 <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>
7263 <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>
7265 <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>
7267 <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>
7269 <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>
7271 <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>
7273 <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>
7275 <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>
7277 <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>
7280 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ
<br>
7281 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.
</p>
7288 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>.
7293 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7297 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong
</a>
7303 <p>Half a year ago I
7304 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
7305 a bit
</a> about
<a href=
"http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots
</a>,
7306 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
7307 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.
</p>
7309 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
7310 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
7311 different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
7312 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
7313 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
7314 for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
7315 got such a great test tool available.
</p>
7321 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>.
7326 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7330 <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>
7336 <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the
<a
7337 href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a> testing if the new
7338 batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
7339 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
7340 computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
7341 five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
7342 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
7343 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
7346 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
7347 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
7348 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
7349 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
7350 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
7351 on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
7352 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
7353 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.
</p>
7355 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
7356 I perform on a new model.
</p>
7360 <li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
7361 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
7362 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.
</li>
7364 <li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
7365 installation, X.org is working.
</li>
7367 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
7368 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
7369 reported by the program.
</li>
7371 <li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
7372 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
7373 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
7374 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
7375 normally test this by playing
7376 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
7377 video
</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.
</li>
7379 <li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
7380 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li>
7382 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
7383 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li>
7385 <li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
7386 picture from the v4l device show up.
</li>
7388 <li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
7389 any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
7392 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
7393 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
7396 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
7397 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
7400 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
7401 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
7402 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
7403 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
7406 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
7407 acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
7408 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
7413 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
7414 for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
7415 the test results later. For now I can report that HP
8100 Elite work
7416 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook
8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
7417 and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with
8440p. As you
7418 can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
7419 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
7420 RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.
</p>
7426 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>.
7431 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7435 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins
</a>
7441 <p>As I continue to explore
7442 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin
</a>, I've starting to wonder
7443 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
7444 and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.
</p>
7446 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
7447 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
7448 is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
7449 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
7450 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
7451 that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
7452 all transactions. There I can see that my address
7453 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a>
7454 have received
16.06 Bitcoin, the
7455 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv
8MHqvwst
3</a>
7456 address of Simon Phipps have received
181.97 BitCoin and the address
7457 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt
</A>
7458 of EFF have received
2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
7459 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
7460 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
7461 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
7462 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
7463 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
7464 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
7465 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.
</p>
7467 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
7468 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
7469 without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
7470 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
7471 If the Skolelinux foundation
7472 (
<a href=
"http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
7473 Debian Labs
</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
7474 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
7475 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
7476 not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
7477 should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
7478 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
7479 BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.
</p>
7481 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
7482 accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
7483 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
7484 easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
7485 access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
7486 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
7487 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
7488 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
7489 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
7490 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
7491 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
7492 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
7493 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
7494 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
7497 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
7498 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
7499 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
7500 to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get
50
7501 BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
7502 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
7503 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
7504 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the
50
7506 <a href=
"http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool
</a>
7507 if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
7508 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
7509 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
7512 <p>Update
2010-
12-
15: Found an
<a
7513 href=
"http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
7514 criticism
</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
7515 it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
7516 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.
</p>
7522 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>.
7527 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7531 <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>
7537 <p>With this weeks lawless
7538 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
7539 attacks
</a> on Wikileak and
7540 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
7541 speech
</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
7542 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
7544 <a href=
"http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
7545 Phipps on bitcoin
</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
7546 mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
7547 involved with
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin
</a>. I got
7548 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
7549 some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
7550 for helping me remember BitCoin.
</p>
7552 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
7553 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
7554 networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
7555 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
7556 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
7557 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets
2.9
7558 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
7559 line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
7560 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
7561 Debian
</a> soon.
</p>
7563 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
7564 There are
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
7565 bitcoins
</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
7566 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
7567 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
7568 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
7570 <a href=
"https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free
</a> (
0.05
7571 bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
7572 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch
</a> to keep an eye
7573 on the current exchange rates.
</p>
7575 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
7576 machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
7577 donations to the address
7578 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</b>. Thank you!
</p>
7584 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>.
7589 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7593 <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>
7599 <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
7600 student assosiation
<a href=
"http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
7601 Osloensis
</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
7602 get their own
3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
7603 work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
7604 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
7605 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
7606 forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
7607 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
7608 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the
3D printer
7611 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
7612 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
7613 forward to being able to print all the cool
3D designs published on
7614 <a href=
"http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse
</a>. I even got
7615 some
3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
7616 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
7617 very cool
3D scanner.
</p>
7623 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>.
7628 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7632 <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>
7638 <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7639 <a href=
"http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
7640 gathering
</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway. I
7641 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
7642 Squeeze release. The gathering is open for everyone interested in
7643 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.
</p>
7645 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
7646 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
7648 <a href=
"http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
7649 for
2010</a>. Membership is open for all, and currently there are
388
7650 people registered as members. Last year
32 members cast their vote in
7651 the memberdb based election system. I hope more people find time to
7658 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>.
7663 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7667 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?
</a>
7673 <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
7674 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
7675 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
7676 to play a video file or stream. Only if VLC fail will I drag out
7677 gmplayer to see if it can do better. The reason is mostly the failure
7678 model and trust. When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
7679 reporting the problem. When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
7680 just hangs. The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.
<p>
7682 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
7683 mplayer in
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7684 Edu/Skolelinux
</a>. The reason is simple. We need a good browser
7685 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
7686 not very good. For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
7687 is no way for the user to pause the video. Also, when I
7688 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
7689 tested the browser plugins
</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
7690 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked. If
7691 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
7692 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.
</P>
7694 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
7695 annoying. The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
7696 keyboard shortcuts. When the player is in full screen mode, its
7697 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
7698 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode. I
7699 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
7700 window mode. Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
7701 the current video. It is very nice when playing short videos from the
7702 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
7703 what is going on.
</p>
7709 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>.
7714 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7718 <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>
7724 <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
7725 upgrade testing of the
7726 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7727 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a> to do
<tt>apt-get autoremove
</tt> when using apt-get.
7728 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
7729 can now present the updated result from today:
</p>
7731 <p>This is for Gnome:
</p>
7733 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
7740 browser-plugin-gnash
7747 freedesktop-sound-theme
7749 gconf-defaults-service
7764 gnome-desktop-environment
7768 gnome-session-canberra
7773 gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7779 libapache2-mod-dnssd
7782 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
7785 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
7786 libboost-python1.42
.0
7787 libboost-thread1.42
.0
7789 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0
7791 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
7798 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7813 libgnomepanel2.24-cil
7818 libgtksourceview2.0-common
7819 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7820 libmono-addins0.2-cil
7821 libmono-cairo2.0-cil
7822 libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7823 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
7824 libmono-posix2.0-cil
7825 libmono-security2.0-cil
7826 libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7827 libmono-system2.0-cil
7830 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
7831 libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
7841 libtelepathy-farsight0
7850 nautilus-sendto-empathy
7854 python-aptdaemon-gtk
7856 python-beautifulsoup
7871 python-gtksourceview2
7882 python-pkg-resources
7889 python-twisted-conch
7895 python-zope.interface
7900 rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7907 system-config-printer-udev
7909 telepathy-mission-control-
5
7922 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
7930 fast-user-switch-applet
7949 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
7951 libsdl1.2debian-alsa
7957 system-config-printer
7964 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
7967 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7970 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
7976 <p>This is for KDE:
</p>
7978 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
7984 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
7991 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
8007 kdeartwork-emoticons
8009 kdeartwork-theme-icon
8013 kdebase-workspace-bin
8014 kdebase-workspace-data
8028 kscreensaver-xsavers
8043 plasma-dataengines-workspace
8045 plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
8046 plasma-runners-addons
8047 plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
8048 plasma-scriptengine-python
8049 plasma-scriptengine-qedje
8050 plasma-scriptengine-ruby
8051 plasma-scriptengine-webkit
8052 plasma-scriptengines
8053 plasma-wallpapers-addons
8054 plasma-widget-folderview
8055 plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8059 xscreensaver-data-extra
8061 xscreensaver-gl-extra
8062 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8065 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
8069 google-gadgets-common
8087 libggadget-qt-
1.0-
0b
8092 libkonqsidebarplugin4a
8101 libplasma-geolocation-interface4
8103 libplasmagenericshell4
8117 libsmokeknewstuff2-
3
8118 libsmokeknewstuff3-
3
8120 libsmokektexteditor3
8128 libsmokeqtnetwork4-
3
8134 libsmokeqtuitools4-
3
8146 plasma-dataengines-addons
8147 plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
8148 plasma-widget-lancelot
8149 plasma-widgets-addons
8150 plasma-widgets-workspace
8154 update-notifier-common
8157 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
8158 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
8159 differences. I have no idea what packages should be installed after
8160 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.
</p>
8166 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>.
8171 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8175 <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>
8181 <p>Most of the computers in use by the
8182 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project
</a>
8183 are virtual machines. And they have been Xen machines running on a
8184 fairly old IBM eserver xseries
345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
8185 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge
2950 host machine. This was a
8186 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
8187 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
8188 know is not supported by KVM. So to migrate, we had to convert
8189 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.
</p>
8192 <a href=
"http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
8193 nice recipe
</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
8194 migration. It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
8195 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
8196 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data. I NFS mounted the
8197 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.
</p>
8203 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/
35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
8208 if [ -z "$
1" ] ; then
8209 echo "Usage: $
0 <hostname
>"
8215 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
8216 echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
8220 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs. not sure why.
8221 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }')
8222 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }')
8223 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
8226 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=
1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
8227 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
8229 parted $img mklabel msdos
8230 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap
0 $disksize
8231 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
8232 parted $img set
1 boot on
8235 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
8236 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
8238 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=
1M
8239 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
8240 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
8242 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
8243 losetup -d /dev/loop0
8246 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
8247 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.
</p>
8249 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
8250 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-
686 and
8251 set up grub to boot from the disk image. After this, the KVM machines
8252 seem to work just fine.
</p>
8258 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>.
8263 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8267 <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>
8273 <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
8274 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8275 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
8276 status. Here is a short update based on a test I ran
20101118.
</p>
8278 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
8279 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
8280 can see if anything should be changed.
</p>
8282 <p>This is for Gnome:
</p>
8284 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
8287 apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
8288 browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-
4.3 cups-pk-helper
8289 dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
8290 freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
8291 gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
8292 geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
8293 gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
8294 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
8295 gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
8296 gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
8297 gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8298 gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8299 gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
8300 libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
8301 libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-
0 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
8302 libboost-python1.42
.0 libboost-thread1.42
.0 libchamplain-
0.4-
0
8303 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
8304 libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-
1.0-
2
8305 libepc-common libepc-ui-
1.0-
2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8306 libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
8307 libgdl-
1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-
0 libgif4
8308 libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8309 libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
8310 libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
8311 libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
8312 libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8313 libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8314 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
8315 libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8316 libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-
6
8317 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6
.8
8318 libpolkit-gtk-
1-
0 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8319 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6
.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
8320 libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-
4
8321 libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-
0.99-
0
8322 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
8323 mono-
2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
8324 nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
8325 openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-
4suite-xml
8326 python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
8327 python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
8328 python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
8329 python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
8330 python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
8331 python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
8332 python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
8333 python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
8334 python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
8335 python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
8336 python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
8337 python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
8338 python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
8339 remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8340 rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
8341 software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
8342 telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-
5 telepathy-salut tomboy
8343 totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
8344 transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
8348 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
8351 arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
8352 epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
8353 fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
8354 gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
8355 gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
8356 gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
8357 guile-
1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
8358 libavahi-ui0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7
8359 libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
8360 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1
8361 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3 libfaad0 libgadu3
8362 libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8363 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
8364 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
8365 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-
1.0-
0
8366 libgtkhtml2-
0 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
8367 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8368 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
8369 libmagick++
10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
8370 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
8371 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9
8372 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8
8373 libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
8374 libspeexdsp1 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libsvga1
8375 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
8376 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
8377 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
8378 sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
8379 totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
8382 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
8385 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8388 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
8394 <p>This is for KDE:
</p>
8396 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
8399 autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-
4.3 dcoprss
8400 edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8401 ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
8402 gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
8403 kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
8404 kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
8405 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8406 kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
8407 kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
8408 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8409 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
8410 kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
8411 killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
8412 kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
8413 ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42
.0
8414 libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
8415 libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
8416 libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
8417 libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
8418 libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
8419 libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
8420 libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
8421 libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
8422 libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
8423 lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
8424 openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
8425 parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
8426 pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
8427 speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
8431 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
8434 amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
8435 dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
8436 kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
8437 kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
8438 keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
8439 kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
8440 kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
8441 klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
8442 kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
8443 kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
8444 kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
8445 ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
8446 ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
8447 kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
8448 kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8449 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8450 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-
0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2
8451 libboost-python1.34
.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
8452 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8453 libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-
0 libicu38
8454 libiec61883-
0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8455 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
8456 libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8457 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8458 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
8459 libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
8460 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
8461 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-
8 librss1 libsensors3
8462 libsmbios2 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90
8463 libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
8464 mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
8465 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
8466 ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
8469 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
8472 dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
8473 kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
8474 kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
8475 kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
8476 netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8477 xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
8478 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8481 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
8484 kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
8491 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>.
8496 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8500 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd
</a>
8507 <a href=
"http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
8508 call from the Gnash project
</a> for
8509 <a href=
"http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot
</a> slaves to test the
8510 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
8511 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
8512 Debian/Squeeze. I hope this can help the developers in getting new
8513 releases out more often.
</p>
8515 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
8516 I have considered setting up a
<a
8517 href=
"http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd
</a>
8518 machine as well. I have also considered using the kfreebsd
8519 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the
5
8520 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video. Because of this, I
8521 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
8522 kfreebsd. Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
8523 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
8524 screen at random locations). Have not gotten very far with the
8525 testing. Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
8526 fatal problem. Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
8527 useful as a file server for NUUG. Will try to find time to set up a
8528 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.
</p>
8534 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>.
8539 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8543 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in
3D
</a>
8549 <p><img src=
"http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
8551 <p>3D printing is just great. I just came across this Debian logo in
8553 <a href=
"http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
8554 thingiverse blog
</a>.
</p>
8560 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>.
8565 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8569 <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>
8575 <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
8576 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a> DVD, which is
8577 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
8578 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard. Even
8579 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
8580 working using this DVD.
</p>
8582 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
8583 installing recommended packages by default. We want the same set of
8584 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
8585 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD. I created
8586 a patch for debian-cd in
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
8587 report #
601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
8588 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.
</p>
8590 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
8591 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
8592 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
8595 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
8596 were using most space. A few large packages are well know;
8597 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont. But I also
8598 discovered that lilypond used
106 MiB and fglrx-driver used
53 MiB.
8599 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
8600 when looking a bit closer I discovered that
99 MiB of the
106 MiB were
8601 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
8602 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
8603 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
8604 documentation. Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
8605 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
8606 free X driver should work.
</p>
8608 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
8609 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
8610 DVD more useful again.
</p>
8616 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>.
8621 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8625 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates
2010-
10-
24</a>
8631 <p>Some updates.
</p>
8633 <p>My
<a href=
"http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge
</a> to
8634 raise money for the project is going well. The lower limit of
10
8635 signers was reached in
24 hours, and so far
13 people have signed it.
8636 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
8637 how far we can get before the time limit of December
24 is reached.
8640 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
8641 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
8642 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
8644 <a href=
"http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov
</a>,
8645 and can be used using
<tt>kcov
<directory
> <binary
></tt>.
8646 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
8647 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
8648 libglib2.0-dev. Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
8649 solvable. I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.
</p>
8651 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for
<a
8652 href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
8653 new alpha release of Debian Edu
</a>, and just published the second
8654 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
8655 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a>
8656 release. Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
8657 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
8658 client servers and diskless workstations. A nice touch added
8659 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
8660 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.
</p>
8666 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>.
8671 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8675 <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>
8681 <p><a href=
"http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project
</a> is the
8682 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
8683 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
8684 funding has dried up. I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
8685 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
8686 AVM2 flash files.
</p>
8688 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
8689 <a href=
"http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge
</a> with the
8694 <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
8695 only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
8697 <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer
</p>
8699 <p>Deadline to sign up by:
24th December
2010</p>
8701 <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
8702 format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
8703 web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
8704 format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
8705 days. The project web page is available from
8706 http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
8707 of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
8708 the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.
</p>
8710 <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
8711 time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
8712 to get this to happen.
</p>
8714 <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
8715 <a href=
"http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/
32</a> .
</p>
8719 <p>I hope you will support this effort too. I hope more than
10
8720 people will participate to make this happen. The more money the
8721 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
8728 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>.
8733 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8737 <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>
8743 <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
8744 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
8745 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
8746 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
8747 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
8748 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
8751 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
8752 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them. There are
8753 a few less important features too.
</p>
8755 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
8756 but I never got around to releasing the current source. I decided
8757 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
8758 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.
</p>
8760 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
8761 published the source and deb. If you got a spykee robot, grab the
8762 source or binary package:
</p>
8765 <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>
8766 <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>
8767 <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>
8770 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
8771 please let me know.
</p>
8777 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>.
8782 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8786 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for
2010-
10-
03</a>
8794 <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
8795 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly
</a></li>
8797 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
8798 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
8799 already been misused at Heathrow
</a>.
</li>
8801 <li><a href=
"http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
8802 Webcasting
</a> - interesting alternative for
8803 <ahref=
"http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch
</a> with
8812 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>.
8817 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8821 <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>
8827 <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
8828 camera, a Canon IXUS
130. It was instructive and very disturbing to
8829 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
8830 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
8831 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
8832 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway. What is the
8833 problem, you might ask? It is software patents, MPEG-
4, H
.264 and the
8834 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
8835 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
8837 <p>On page
27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
8841 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-
4 standard
8842 and may be used for encoding MPEG-
4 compliant video and/or decoding
8843 MPEG-
4 compliant video that was encoded only (
1) for a personal and
8844 non-commercial purpose or (
2) by a video provider licensed under the
8845 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-
4 compliant video.
</p>
8847 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-
4
8851 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
8852 (MPEG-
4/H
.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
8853 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
8854 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.
</p>
8856 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
8858 "
<a href=
"http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
8859 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
8860 MPEG-LA
</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
8861 "<a href=
"http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H
.264 Is Not
8862 The Sort Of Free That Matters
</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
8863 the issue. The solution is to support the
8864 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">free and
8865 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/
">Ogg
8866 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
8872 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>.
8877 <div class="padding
"></div>
8881 <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>
8887 <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote
">Debian
8888 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
8889 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth
8890 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that
8891 working flash is important for Debian users. Around 10 percent of the
8892 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
8895 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
8896 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf
">Skolelinux
8897 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
8898 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
8899 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian
8900 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational
8901 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
8902 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
8903 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
8905 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
8906 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
8907 everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a
8908 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
8909 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
8910 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
8911 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
8912 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
8913 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
8914 pages they want to visit.</p>
8916 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
8917 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
8918 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
8919 Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
8920 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
8921 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
8922 unstable. The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
8923 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
8924 release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree
8925 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
8926 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
8932 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>.
8937 <div class="padding
"></div>
8941 <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>
8947 <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application. The last few
8948 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
8949 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
8950 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
8951 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
8952 allow me to drive the robot around. I picked PerlQt as I have had
8953 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
8954 browsing the web for examples. Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
8955 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
8956 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
8957 libqt-perl. Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
8960 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
8961 controlling the robot. Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
8965 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
8966 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
8967 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
8968 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
8980 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
8981 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
8982 implement the protocol used by the robot. I've implemented several of
8983 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
8984 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote. First I
8985 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
8986 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
8987 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
8988 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
8991 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
8992 where to make it available first. I will add a link to
8993 <a href=
"http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki
</a> for
8994 those that want to check back later to find it.
</p>
9000 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>.
9005 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9009 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs
</a>
9015 <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
9016 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
9017 post about sshfs
</a>. He reported another problem with sshfs. It
9018 fail to handle hard links properly. A simple way to spot this is to
9019 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree. These should have
9020 a link count
>1, but on sshfs the count is
1. I just tested to see
9021 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:
</p>
9025 ln: creating hard link `bar' =
> `foo': Function not implemented
9029 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
9030 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
9031 avoid surprised unix programs. Not as useful as working file locking
9032 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
9033 nevertheless. :)
</p>
9035 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
9037 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a></p>
9043 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>.
9048 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9052 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs
</a>
9058 <p>My file system sematics program
9059 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
9060 a few days ago
</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
9061 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit. I'm
9062 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
9063 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs. My friend
9064 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
9065 Edu, but stopped because of problems. I asked today what the problems
9066 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
9067 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
9071 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
9073 int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
9076 struct stat statbuf;
9077 if (-
1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
9078 retval = statbuf.st_mode &
0x1ff;
9085 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
9086 int test_umask(void) {
9087 printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
9089 mode_t orig_umask = umask(
000);
9091 if (
0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar",
0666))) {
9092 printf(" error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode
666 and umask
000\n",
9096 if (
0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar",
0666))) {
9097 printf(" error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode
666 and umask
007\n",
9105 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
9112 <p>Sure enough. On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:
</p>
9115 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
9116 info: testing symlink creation
9117 info: testing subdirectory creation
9118 info: testing fcntl locking
9119 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9120 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9121 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
9122 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9123 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9124 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
9125 info: testing umask effect on file creation
9128 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
9132 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
9133 info: testing symlink creation
9134 info: testing subdirectory creation
9135 info: testing fcntl locking
9136 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9137 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9138 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
9139 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9140 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9141 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
9142 info: testing umask effect on file creation
9143 error: Wrong file mode
644 when creating using mode
666 and umask
000
9144 error: Wrong file mode
640 when creating using mode
666 and umask
007
9147 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
9148 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
9151 <p>Update
2010-
08-
26: Reported the issue in
9152 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #
594498</a></p>
9154 <p>Update
2010-
08-
27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
9155 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
9156 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a>.
</p>
9162 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>.
9167 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9171 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent
</a>
9177 <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
9178 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
9179 to crush dissent
</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
9180 well. Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
9181 should go down. In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
9188 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>.
9193 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9197 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients
</a>
9203 <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
9204 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
9205 configuration settings on the clients. I believe the work to be
9206 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
9207 generated configuration.
</p>
9209 <p>What is the point, you might ask? The point is to allow a Debian
9210 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
9211 without any manual configuration.
</p>
9213 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
9214 the University of Oslo using PXE. With the PXE installation, I am
9215 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
9216 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
9217 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
9218 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret). After answering
9219 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
9220 after around
50 minutes it is done. I press enter to finish the
9221 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE. When the machine is
9222 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
9223 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
9224 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
9225 same username and password to the KDE
4.4 desktop. At no point during
9226 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
9227 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
9228 fetched via DHCP and DNS. The roaming workstation is now ready for
9231 <p>How was this done, you might wonder? First of all, here is the
9232 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
9233 working properly out of the box:
</p>
9236 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.
</li>
9237 <li>Web proxy URL.
</li>
9238 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).
</li>
9239 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.
</li>
9240 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)
</li>
9241 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)
</li>
9242 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)
</li>
9245 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything? Let me knew if I did.)
</p>
9247 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
9248 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
9249 administrators to track their machines. Since yesterday, everything
9250 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
9251 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.
</p>
9253 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
9254 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
9255 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
9256 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
9257 /etc/apt/apt.conf. I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
9258 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
9259 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
9260 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.
</p>
9262 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
9263 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot. First the
9264 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain. If
9265 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead. If an
9266 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
9267 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
9268 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS. If there are several
9269 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
9270 LDAP subtree is used as the base. If defaultNamingContext is missing,
9271 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
9272 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
9273 such an object is used as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar
9274 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
9275 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record. I've been unable to find a way to
9276 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
9277 current DNS domain is used.
</p>
9279 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
9280 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
9281 found. This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
9282 Oslo. A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
9283 server, but have not been implemented yet. I decided to fetch and
9284 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
9285 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
9286 log in nor the passwords required to log in. Usernames and passwords
9287 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
9288 network, and will not change as the laptop move around. For a
9289 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
9290 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much. Perhaps we
9291 should switch those to use sssd too?
</p>
9293 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
9294 located when the user logs in for the first time. The LDAP server is
9295 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
9296 attribute is used if found. If it isn't found, the home directory
9297 path fetched from NSS is used instead. Assuming the path is of the
9298 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
9299 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
9300 smb://server.domain/username. This algorithm works for both Debian
9301 edu and the University of Oslo. Perhaps there are better attributes
9302 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
9305 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
9306 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
9307 more flexible than before. I suspect it will also work for thin
9308 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
9309 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
9312 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
9313 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
9315 <p>Update
2010-
08-
09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
9316 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
9317 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name. Will have to
9318 implement it for Debian Edu. :)
</p>
9324 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>.
9329 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9333 <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>
9339 <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
9340 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
9341 Edu/Skolelinux machines. This was thought to be no problem, as the
9342 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
9343 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
9344 mount home directories without any problems. But, after months of
9345 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.
</p>
9347 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
9348 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
9349 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
9350 underlying file system is a unix file system. When using a Windows
9351 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
9352 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
9353 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.
</p>
9355 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
9356 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
9357 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
9358 it should. If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
9359 help you find your way out again. This is the fs-test.c source:
</p>
9363 * Some tests to check the file system sematics. Used to verify that
9364 * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
9366 * License: GPL v2 or later
9368 * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
9369 * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
9372 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS
64
9373 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE
1
9374 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
1
9376 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
9378 #include
<errno.h
>
9379 #include
<fcntl.h
>
9380 #include
<stdio.h
>
9381 #include
<string.h
>
9382 #include
<stdlib.h
>
9383 #include
<sys/file.h
>
9384 #include
<sys/stat.h
>
9385 #include
<sys/types.h
>
9386 #include
<unistd.h
>
9390 * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
9391 * package and linking with -lsqlite3. A more low level test is
9393 * See also
<URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5
>.
9395 #include
<sqlite3.h
>
9396 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS \
9397 "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
9398 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
9400 char *name = "testsqlite.db";
9403 int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
9405 printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
9411 rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,
0, &zErrMsg);
9412 if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
9413 printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
9417 printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
9421 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
9424 * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3. This
9425 * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows
2003. This is
9426 * done in the sqlite3 library.
9428 *
<URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/
2001-
08/msg00854.html
> and the
9429 * POSIX specification
9430 *
<URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/
009695399/functions/fcntl.html
>.
9432 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
9434 char *name = "testsqlite.db";
9436 int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE,
0644);
9437 printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
9439 fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
9440 fl.l_pid = getpid();
9441 printf(" Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824");
9442 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
9444 fl.l_type = F_RDLCK;
9445 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9447 printf(" Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826");
9448 fl.l_start =
1073741826;
9450 fl.l_type = F_RDLCK;
9451 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9453 printf(" Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824");
9454 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
9456 fl.l_type = F_UNLCK;
9457 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9459 printf(" Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824");
9460 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
9462 fl.l_type = F_WRLCK;
9463 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9465 printf(" Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826");
9466 fl.l_start =
1073741826;
9468 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9470 printf(" Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824");
9471 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
9473 fl.l_type = F_UNLCK;
9474 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
9481 * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
9482 * below them. This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
9483 * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
9484 * slowing down file operations.
9486 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
9488 char *path = strdup("test");
9491 printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
9492 for (level =
0; level
< LEVELS; level++) {
9493 char *newpath = NULL;
9494 if (-
1 == mkdir(path,
0777)) {
9495 printf(" error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
9496 path, strerror(errno));
9499 asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
9507 * Test if symlinks can be created. This was a problem detected with
9510 int test_symlinks(void) {
9511 printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
9513 if (-
1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
9514 printf(" error: Unable to create symlink\n");
9518 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
9519 printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
9521 test_subdirectory_creation();
9524 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
9525 test_gcompris_locking();
9530 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
9534 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
9535 info: testing symlink creation
9536 info: testing subdirectory creation
9538 info: testing fcntl locking
9539 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9540 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9541 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
9542 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9543 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9544 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
9547 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
9548 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
9549 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
9550 the read-only lock (while Windows do not). Another was a bug in the
9551 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
9552 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
9553 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
9554 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.
</p>
9556 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
9559 <p>Update
2010-
08-
27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
9560 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
9561 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a>.
</p>
9567 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>.
9572 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9576 <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>
9582 <p>A few days ago, I
9583 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
9584 to install
</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
9585 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
9586 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
9587 university infrastructure. It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
9588 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
9589 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
9590 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
9591 around it. Now I am a huge step further along that road.
</p>
9593 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
9594 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
9595 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
9596 servers for Kerberos authentication. All this without any
9597 configuration at all during installation. My users home directory got
9598 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
9599 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured. In addition to
9600 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
9601 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
9602 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf. Iceweasel and KDE is
9603 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
9604 a proxy when at the university network. If the machine is moved to a
9605 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
9606 gave it a IP address.
</p>
9608 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
9609 entry ldap.$domain. If this do not exist, it look for the
9610 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
9611 server. Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
9612 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
9613 pick the first one as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar
9614 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
9615 uppercase version of $domain.
</p>
9617 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask. SMB mounting my home
9618 directory do not work. No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
9619 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
9620 the cause. These are not properly configured during installation, and
9621 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
9622 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(
</p>
9624 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
9625 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
9626 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
9627 authentication. It should also work out of the box in a Active
9628 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
9629 with UID and GID values.
</p>
9631 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
9632 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
9638 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>.
9643 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9647 <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>
9653 <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
9654 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
9655 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
9656 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
9657 infrastructure. In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
9658 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
9661 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
9662 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
9663 /etc/mklocaluser.d/
20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
9664 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
9665 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
9666 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
9667 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
9670 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
9671 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
9672 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
9673 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
9674 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
9675 university servers.
</p>
9677 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
9678 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
9679 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
9680 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
9681 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
9688 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>.
9693 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9697 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery
</a>
9703 <p>I discovered this while doing
9704 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
9705 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze
</a>. A few packages
9706 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9707 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9708 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.
</p>
9710 <p>An example is from todays
9711 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
9712 of KDE using aptitude
</a>. In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9713 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade. The cause is simple. If a
9714 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9715 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9716 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9717 because its dependencies are unavailable.
</p>
9719 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:
</p>
9722 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9723 perl-modules depends on perl (
>=
5.10.1-
1); however:
9724 Version of perl on system is
5.10.0-
19lenny
2.
9725 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9726 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9729 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9730 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug
</a>, and will
9731 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9732 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9733 failures. Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9734 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9735 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9736 of dependency loops.
</p>
9739 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
9740 tireless effort by Bill Allombert
</a>, the number of circular
9742 <a href=
"http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
9743 is dropping
</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)
</p>
9745 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9746 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier
</a> and
9747 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour
</a> between
9748 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9749 dependency. Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9756 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>.
9761 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9765 <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>
9771 <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
9772 with the next Debian Edu release. Not nearly done, but one major step
9776 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
9777 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
9778 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
9779 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
9780 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
9781 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
9782 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
9783 language of choice, please let us know too.
</p>
9785 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
9786 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
9787 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.
</p>
9789 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
9790 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
9793 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version
</p>
9796 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
9798 <li>Desktop environment KDE
4.4 =
> the new KDE desktop in
9799 combination with some new artwork
9800 <li>Web browser Iceweasel
3.5
9801 <li>OpenOffice.org
3.2
9802 <li>Educational toolbox GCompris
9.3
9803 <li>Music creator Rosegarden
10.04.2
9804 <li>Image editor Gimp
2.6.10
9805 <li>Virtual universe Celestia
1.6.0
9806 <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium
0.10.4
9807 <li>3D modeler Blender
2.49.2 (new application)
9808 <li>Video editor Kdenlive
0.7.7 (new application)
9810 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
9816 <li>SMTP (sender verification)
9819 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.
</li>
9820 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
9821 fetched from LDAP.
</li>
9822 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.
</li>
9823 <li>General cleanup (not finished)
</li>
9825 <p>The following features are not working as they should
</p>
9828 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
9829 scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
9831 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
9832 and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
9833 clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.
</li>
9834 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.
</li>
9835 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.
</li>
9836 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.
</li>
9837 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
9838 netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.
</li>
9839 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
9840 some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
9841 jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.
</li>
9842 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
9843 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
9844 and help out with translations.
</li>
9847 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use
</p>
9850 <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>
9851 <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>
9852 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
9854 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use
</p>
9857 <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>
9858 <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>
9859 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
9862 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
9863 get closer to the final release.
</p>
9865 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are
</p>
9868 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
9869 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
9872 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are
</p>
9874 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
9875 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
9877 <p>How to report bugs:
9878 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla
</p>
9880 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org
</p>
9887 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>.
9892 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9896 <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>
9902 <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
9903 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
9904 Edu/Skolelinux into shape. This future version will use Kerberos for
9905 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
9906 getting rid of password questions one at the time.
</p>
9908 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
9909 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
9910 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
9911 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server. This
9912 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
9913 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
9914 package. I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.
</p>
9916 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
9917 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
9918 password when mounting the SMB volume. A simple click on the shortcut
9919 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
9922 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
9923 Debian Edu. We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
9924 also Samba. Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.
</p>
9926 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
9927 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
9928 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
9929 the release. It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
9930 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
9931 time for a alpha0 release today. As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
9932 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
9933 release another day.
</p>
9935 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
9936 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
9942 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>.
9947 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9951 <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>
9958 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
9959 opengeodata blog entry
</a>, I just discovered that the
9960 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
9961 <a href=
"http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
9962 for calculating routes
</a>. The support is still experimental and
9963 only available from the development server, until more experience is
9964 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.
</p>
9966 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
9967 was provided by
<a href=
"http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade
</a>,
9968 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
9969 the issue. I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
9970 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
9971 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
9972 www.openstreetmap.org front page.
</p>
9978 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>.
9983 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9987 <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>
9994 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup
</a>
9996 <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
9998 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9999 all
</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.
</p>
10001 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
10002 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
10003 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server. The two
10004 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.
</p>
10006 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
10007 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
10008 on a Debian Edu main-server. Here is a summary.
10010 <p><strong>powerdns
</strong></p>
10012 <a href=
"http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
10013 on how to
</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
10016 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
10017 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
10018 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
10019 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
10020 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
10021 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.
</p>
10023 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
10024 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
10025 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
10026 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
10027 "dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
10028 "(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry. For
10029 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
10030 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
10031 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
10032 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
10033 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
10034 spfrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entries it is looking for
10035 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
10036 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
10037 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. The equivalent
10038 ldapsearch commands could look like this:
</p>
10041 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10042 -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10043 -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10044 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10045 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10046 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10047 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10049 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10050 -b dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10051 -s base -x '(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
10052 dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
10053 hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
10054 srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
10055 </pre></blockquote>
10057 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
10058 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
10059 example LDAP objects used there. In addition to these objects, the
10060 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10064 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10066 objectclass: dnsdomain
10067 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10070 associateddomain: tjener.intern
10072 dn: dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10074 objectclass: dnsdomain2
10075 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10077 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
10078 associateddomain:
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
10079 </pre></blockquote>
10081 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently. When looking for
10082 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
10083 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
10084 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
10085 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
10086 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
10087 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entires it also do a
10088 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=
10.0.2.2)"
10089 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
10090 modifytimestamp. In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
10091 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
10094 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
10098 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10099 '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10100 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10101 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10102 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10103 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10105 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10106 '(arecord=
10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
10107 </pre></blockquote>
10109 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
10110 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
10111 reverse lookups.
</p>
10113 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
10114 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
10115 need to generate a DNS reply. This make it able to work with any
10116 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.
</p>
10118 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC
1274) and
10119 dnsdomain2 schemas. The latter is used for reverse entries like
10120 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.
</p>
10122 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
10123 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
10124 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain). The use
10125 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
10126 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.
</p>
10128 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
10129 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
10130 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
10131 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
10132 (zonename and relativedomainname).
</p>
10134 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
10135 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
10136 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
10137 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
10138 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
10139 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):
</p>
10142 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
10145 MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
10146 DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
10147 TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
10148 NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
10149 A6Record $ DNAMERecord
10151 </pre></blockquote>
10153 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
10154 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
10155 all the attributes PowerDNS wants. I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
10156 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
10157 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
10158 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.
</p>
10160 <p><strong>ISC dhcp
</strong></p>
10162 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10163 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want. This
10164 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10165 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10166 what is needed without having to read the source code.
</p>
10168 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10169 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10170 stored. These are the relevant entries from
10171 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:
</p>
10174 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10175 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10176 </pre></blockquote>
10178 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10179 configuration it need. The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10180 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))". The
10181 search result is this entry:
</p>
10184 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10187 objectClass: dhcpServer
10188 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10189 </pre></blockquote>
10191 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10192 subtree with DHCP configuration. The DHCP configuration subtree base
10193 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10194 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10195 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10196 The search result is this entry:
</p>
10199 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10202 objectClass: dhcpService
10203 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10204 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10205 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10206 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10207 dhcpOption: smtp-server code
69 = array of ip-address
10208 dhcpOption: www-server code
72 = array of ip-address
10209 dhcpOption: wpad-url code
252 = text
10210 </pre></blockquote>
10212 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time. When
10213 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10214 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10215 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10216 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost. These provide options
10217 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc. Leaving out the
10218 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10219 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10220 related computer objects.
</p>
10222 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10223 of the client (
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00 in this example), using a subtree
10224 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10225 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10226 00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00))" as the filter. This is what a host object look
10230 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10233 objectClass: dhcpHost
10234 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
10235 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10236 </pre></blockquote>
10238 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10239 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10240 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure. On the
10241 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10242 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries. The latter should make
10243 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10244 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10245 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10246 structural object class.
10248 <p><strong>Conclusion
</strong></p>
10250 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10251 to which LDAP schemas to use. While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10252 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10253 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10254 in the configuration.
</p>
10256 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10257 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10258 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10259 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10260 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10263 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10264 this might work for Debian Edu:
</p>
10268 cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10269 cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10270 cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10271 cn=
10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10272 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10273 cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10274 cn=
192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10275 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10276 ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10277 cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10278 </pre></blockquote>
10280 <P>This is not tested yet. If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10281 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10282 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10283 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.
</p>
10285 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10289 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10292 objectClass: dhcpHost
10293 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10294 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10295 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10296 arecord:
10.11.12.13
10297 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
10298 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
10299 </pre></blockquote>
10301 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
10302 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
10303 auxiliary object class.
</p>
10309 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>.
10314 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10316 <div class=
"entry">
10317 <div class=
"title">
10318 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects
</a>
10324 <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
10325 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
10326 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
10327 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
10328 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.
</p>
10330 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
10331 information finally found a solution that seem to work.
</p>
10333 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
10334 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry. If
10335 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
10336 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
10337 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
10338 to a slave DNS server.
</p>
10340 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
10341 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
10342 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
10343 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
10344 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup. It
10347 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
10348 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
10349 an earlier email. The combined LDAP object will look something like
10353 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10355 objectClass: dhcphost
10356 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10357 objectclass: dnsdomainaux
10358 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10359 arecord:
10.11.12.13
10360 dhcphwaddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
10361 dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
10363 </pre></blockquote>
10365 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
10366 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
10367 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress. LTSP will use
10368 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.
</p>
10370 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
10371 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
10372 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
10373 that. If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
10374 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
10375 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
10376 content. I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
10377 might be a good place to put it.
</p>
10379 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10380 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10386 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>.
10391 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10393 <div class=
"entry">
10394 <div class=
"title">
10395 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP
</a>
10401 <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
10402 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
10403 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
10404 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.
</p>
10406 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
10407 to get configuration from LDAP. The idea is to look up the MAC
10408 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
10409 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
10412 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
10413 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
10414 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.
</p>
10416 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
10417 this approach. A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
10418 need to be written. Comments, suggestions, etc?
</p>
10421 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
10423 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
10425 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
10426 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
10427 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
10429 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
10430 # existence of attribute names.
10432 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
10433 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
10434 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
10436 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
10437 # configuration settings. Something like this should work:
10439 # objectclass (
1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
10442 # MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
10444 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
10445 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
10446 LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
10447 for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $
5}'|sort -u) ; do
10448 filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
10449 ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
10450 grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
10451 # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
10452 attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
10453 # bass value on to clients
10454 eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
10458 </pre></blockquote>
10460 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
10461 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
10462 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
10463 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
10464 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)
</p>
10466 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10467 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10469 <p>Update
2010-
07-
17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
10470 configuration in LDAP that was created around year
2000 by
10471 <a href=
"http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
10472 Xperience, Inc.,
2000</a>. I found its
10473 <a href=
"http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files
</a> on a
10474 personal home page over at redhat.com.
</p>
10480 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>.
10485 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10487 <div class=
"entry">
10488 <div class=
"title">
10489 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI
</a>
10496 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
10497 last post
</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
10498 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma. The java application
10499 <a href=
"http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer
</a> is claimed to be capable of
10500 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
10501 authenticate using Kerberos. I have only tested the Kerberos
10502 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
10503 LDAP with my test user yet. It is
10504 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
10505 Debian
</a> testing and unstable at the moment. The only problem I
10506 have with it is how it handle errors. If something go wrong, its
10507 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
10508 and remove the failing query. Nothing big, but very annoying.
</p>
10514 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>.
10519 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10521 <div class=
"entry">
10522 <div class=
"title">
10523 <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>
10529 <p>Here is a short update on my
<a
10530 href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
10531 Debian Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrade testing
</a>. Here is a summary of the
10532 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude. I'm
10533 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
10534 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
10535 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#
584861</a> and
10536 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#
585716</a>).
</p>
10538 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
10539 complete list of the installed packages. Based on this I see these
10540 differences when I did a test run today. As usual, I do not really
10541 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
10542 publish the difference.
</p>
10544 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
10547 at-spi cpp-
4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10548 libatspi1.0-
0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-
1-common
10549 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
10550 libgtksourceview-common libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10551 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
10552 libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10553 python-
4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
10554 python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
10557 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
10560 bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
10561 gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
10562 libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-
50
10563 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
10564 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9
10565 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3
10566 libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10567 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
10568 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
10569 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-
0
10570 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
10571 libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++
10
10572 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
10573 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5
10574 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
10575 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
10576 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1
10577 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
10578 libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
10579 mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
10582 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
10585 gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
10586 python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
10587 xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10588 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10589 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
10590 xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
10591 xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
10592 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10593 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10594 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10595 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10596 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
10597 xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
10598 xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
10599 xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
10600 xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
10601 xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
10602 xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
10603 xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
10604 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
10605 xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
10608 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
10611 deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
10612 xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
10613 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
10616 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
10617 <a href=
"http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
10618 in git
</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
10619 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
10620 the difference somewhat.
10626 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>.
10631 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10633 <div class=
"entry">
10634 <div class=
"title">
10635 <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>
10641 <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
10642 a bit troubling. Laptops are typically used also when not connected
10643 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
10644 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
10645 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
10646 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
10647 in Debian. Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
10648 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
10649 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.
</p>
10651 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
</h2>
10653 This is the traditional method with a twist. The password caching is
10654 provided by libpam-ccreds (version
10-
4 or later is needed on
10655 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd. The directory
10656 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP. If one want to use
10657 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
10658 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal. If one is happy having a
10659 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
10660 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
10661 using libpam-mklocaluser. A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
10662 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
10663 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #
568577</a> is in the
10664 archive. Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
10665 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
10666 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/. This
10667 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.
</p>
10669 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured
</p>
10672 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
10673 </pre></blockquote>
10675 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
10676 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site. Make sure the
10677 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
10678 sent in clear text to the LDAP server. I've been unable to get TLS
10679 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
10680 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
10681 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
10682 on how to get this working.
</p>
10684 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
10685 caching until
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #
485282</a>
10686 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
10687 currently in /etc/nscd.conf. The changes are in the fields
10688 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
10689 instructions I found in the
10690 <a href=
"http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops
</a>
10691 instructions by Flyn Computing.
</p>
10695 reload-count unlimited
10698 enable-cache passwd yes
10699 positive-time-to-live passwd
2592000
10700 negative-time-to-live passwd
20
10701 suggested-size passwd
211
10702 check-files passwd yes
10703 persistent passwd yes
10705 max-db-size passwd
33554432
10706 auto-propagate passwd yes
10708 enable-cache group yes
10709 positive-time-to-live group
2592000
10710 negative-time-to-live group
20
10711 suggested-size group
211
10712 check-files group yes
10713 persistent group yes
10715 max-db-size group
33554432
10716 auto-propagate group yes
10718 enable-cache hosts no
10719 positive-time-to-live hosts
2592000
10720 negative-time-to-live hosts
20
10721 suggested-size hosts
211
10722 check-files hosts yes
10723 persistent hosts yes
10725 max-db-size hosts
33554432
10727 enable-cache services yes
10728 positive-time-to-live services
2592000
10729 negative-time-to-live services
20
10730 suggested-size services
211
10731 check-files services yes
10732 persistent services yes
10733 shared services yes
10734 max-db-size services
33554432
10735 </pre></blockquote>
10737 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
10738 automatically like the one provided in
10739 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #
496915</a>, the file
10740 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
10741 directory service on the machine. /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
10742 look like this:
</p>
10748 hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
10754 netgroup: files ldap
10755 </pre></blockquote>
10757 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
10758 shadow and netgroup.
</p>
10760 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
10761 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
10762 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
10765 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
10766 libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
</h2>
10768 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
10769 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
10770 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
10771 LDAP database is available. I have not tested such setup, because I
10772 discovered sssd.
</p>
10774 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser
</h2>
10776 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
10777 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
10778 <a href=
"https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd
</a> package from Redhat.
10779 It is part of the
<a href=
"http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA
</A> project
10780 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
10781 machines. The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
10782 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
10783 libpam-ccreds. It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS. Version
10784 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
10785 in version
1.5 expected to show up later in
2010. Because the
10786 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package
</a>
10787 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
10788 version
1.2 is now in testing.
10790 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
10791 roaming setup I want
</p>
10794 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
10795 </pre></blockquote>
10797 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
10798 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf
</tt>.
10802 config_file_version =
2
10803 reconnection_retries =
3
10805 services = nss, pam
10809 filter_groups = root
10810 filter_users = root
10811 reconnection_retries =
3
10814 reconnection_retries =
3
10818 cache_credentials = true
10821 auth_provider = ldap
10822 chpass_provider = ldap
10824 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
10825 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10826 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
10827 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
10828 </pre></blockquote>
10830 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking. Had to set
10831 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.
</p>
10833 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
10834 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
10835 modify it manually.
</p>
10837 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10838 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10844 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>.
10849 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10851 <div class=
"entry">
10852 <div class=
"title">
10853 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI
</a>
10859 <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10860 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10861 tool to browse the LDAP tree. The only one I was able to find in
10862 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10863 <a href=
"http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA
</a>, which has proved to
10864 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10865 populated by default in Skolelinux. Thanks to it, I have been able to
10866 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10867 objects. It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze. If you
10868 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)
</p>
10870 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10871 the BTS yet. There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10872 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10873 Debian submenu in KDE. I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10876 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet. I would
10877 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10878 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet. So in the mean time, I use
10879 <a href=
"http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi
</a> for that.
</p>
10881 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10882 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10884 <p>Update
2010-
06-
29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10885 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq
</a> package as a
10886 useful GUI alternative. It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10887 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze. Unless that
10888 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.
</p>
10894 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>.
10899 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10901 <div class=
"entry">
10902 <div class=
"title">
10903 <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>
10910 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
10911 about the fact
</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10912 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10913 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.
</p>
10915 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10916 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10917 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10918 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.
</p>
10920 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10921 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10922 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10925 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10927 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
10928 schema
</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10929 available today from IETF.
</p>
10932 --- dhcp.schema (revision
65192)
10933 +++ dhcp.schema (working copy)
10934 @@ -
376,
7 +
376,
7 @@
10935 objectclass (
2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10937 DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
10939 + SUP top AUXILIARY
10941 MAY (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10942 X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
10945 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10946 Edu/Squeeze. We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10947 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.
</p>
10949 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10950 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10956 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>.
10961 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10963 <div class=
"entry">
10964 <div class=
"title">
10965 <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>
10971 <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10972 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now,
10973 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10974 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10975 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10979 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10980 tasksel --new-install
10981 </pre></blockquote>
10983 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10984 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10985 any output what so ever.
10987 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10988 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10989 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10990 happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10991 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10992 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using
10996 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10997 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10999 </pre></blockquote>
11001 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "
<tt>aptitude -q
11002 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
11003 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
11004 ~pimportant
</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
11005 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
11006 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
11009 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
11010 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
11017 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>.
11022 <div class="padding
"></div>
11024 <div class="entry
">
11025 <div class="title
">
11026 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html
">Officeshots taking shape</a>
11032 <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
11033 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/
">OfficeShots</a>
11034 is a great service. It is to ODF documents what
11035 <a href="http://browsershots.org/
">BrowserShots</a> is for web
11038 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
11039 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
11040 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
11041 interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his
11042 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
11043 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
11044 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is
11045 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
11046 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
11047 see how the project is doing.</p>
11049 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
11050 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
11051 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
11052 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
11053 Windows. This is great.</p>
11059 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>.
11064 <div class="padding
"></div>
11066 <div class="entry
">
11067 <div class="title
">
11068 <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>
11075 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">testing
11076 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
11077 finally made the upgrade logs available from
11078 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
11079 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
11080 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting. This time
11081 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
11083 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
11084 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze. The
11085 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
11086 xserver-xorg-video* drivers. Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
11087 sure why. When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
11088 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
11089 longer needed. Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
11090 I do not know. Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
11092 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
11093 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
11094 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
11095 too surprising.</p>
11097 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
11098 and avoided, and perhaps others as well. Here are the complete list
11099 of planned removals. The complete logs is available from the URL
11100 above. Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
11101 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
11102 conffile questions. No idea why. I worked around it by using
11103 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
11106 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
11107 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
11108 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
11109 iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
11110 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
11111 nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
11112 serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
11113 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11114 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11115 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11116 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11117 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11118 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11119 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11120 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11121 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11122 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11123 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11124 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11125 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11126 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11127 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11128 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11129 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11130 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11131 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11132 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11133 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11134 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
11135 xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
11137 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
11139 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
11140 djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
11141 gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
11142 gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
11143 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11144 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
11145 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
11146 libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
11147 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
11148 libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
11149 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11150 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
11151 libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
11152 libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
11153 libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
11154 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
11155 libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
11156 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
11157 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
11158 libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
11159 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
11160 libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
11161 libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
11162 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
11163 openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
11164 python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
11165 python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
11166 python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
11167 swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
11168 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11169 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11172 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
11174 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
11175 kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
11176 kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
11177 kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
11178 kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
11179 libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
11180 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11181 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11182 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11183 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11184 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11185 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11186 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11187 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11188 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11189 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11190 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11191 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11192 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11193 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11194 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11195 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11196 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11197 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11198 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11199 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11200 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11201 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
11203 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
11204 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
11205 djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11206 ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
11207 kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
11208 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11209 kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
11210 kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
11211 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11212 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
11213 kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
11214 kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
11215 klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
11216 kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
11217 krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
11218 ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
11219 kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
11220 kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
11221 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
11222 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11223 libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
11224 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
11225 libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
11226 libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
11227 libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
11228 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
11229 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
11230 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
11231 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
11232 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
11233 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
11234 libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
11235 openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
11236 superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
11237 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
11238 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11239 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11247 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>.
11252 <div class="padding
"></div>
11254 <div class="entry
">
11255 <div class="title
">
11256 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
11262 <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
11263 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly. A few bugs
11264 have been discovered and reported in the process
11265 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
11266 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
11267 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
584861">#584861</a> in
11268 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
11269 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
11271 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
11272 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
11273 it. To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
11274 script is inserted. To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
11275 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
11276 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
11278 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
11279 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
11280 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11281 is created. The bug report
11282 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
11283 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
11284 to make sure the upgrade go well. Testing on virtual and real
11285 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
11286 do the trick in such settings anyway. This is a
11287 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-
26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-
804130/
">known
11288 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
11289 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
11290 working with old kernels or something like that. I really wish the
11291 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
11292 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
11293 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
11294 Debian Squeeze.</p>
11296 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades. This test
11297 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
11313 exec
< /dev/null
11315 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
11316 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
11318 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
11319 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11320 cat
> $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
<<EOF
11324 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
11326 umount $tmpdir/proc
11328 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
11329 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
11330 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
11332 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
11334 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger. It need the test scripts
11335 # to return the correct answers.
11336 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
11337 chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
11339 # Include the desktop and laptop task
11340 for test in desktop laptop ; do
11341 echo
> $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
<<EOF
11345 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
11348 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11349 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
11350 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
11351 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
11353 echo deb $mirror $to main
> $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
11354 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11355 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11356 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
11358 </pre></blockquote>
11360 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
11361 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
11362 differently so far. I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
11363 regularly and post the result on the web. The Gnome upgrade currently
11364 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
11365 kdebase-workspace-data
</p>
11367 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
11368 (KDE
167 KiB, Gnome
516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
11369 post, so I will refrain from trying. I can report that for Gnome,
11370 aptitude report
760 packages upgraded,
448 newly installed,
129 to
11371 remove and
1 not upgraded and
1024MB need to be downloaded while for
11372 KDE the same numbers are
702 packages upgraded,
507 newly installed,
11373 193 to remove and
0 not upgraded and
1117MB need to be downloaded
</p>
11375 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
11376 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
11377 booting without a hitch. Was unsure if there were still bugs with
11378 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
11379 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
11386 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>.
11391 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11393 <div class=
"entry">
11394 <div class=
"title">
11395 <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>
11401 <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
11402 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
11403 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd. The packages with such
11404 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
11405 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart. Because of
11406 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
11407 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.
</p>
11409 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
11410 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
11419 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
11421 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
11422 </pre></blockquote>
11424 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
11428 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-
2.88
11433 </pre></blockquote>
11435 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
11436 sysvinit are not set by upstart. Not sure if it is intentional or not
11437 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.
</p>
11439 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
11440 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
11447 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>.
11452 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11454 <div class=
"entry">
11455 <div class=
"title">
11456 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...
</a>
11463 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
11464 of Rob Weir
</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
11465 <a href=
"http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
11466 Standards Wars
</a> (PDF
25 pages). I recommend it for everyone
11467 following the standards wars of today.
</p>
11473 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>.
11478 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11480 <div class=
"entry">
11481 <div class=
"title">
11482 <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>
11488 <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
11489 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
11490 information extracted from each machine. The script to do so is
11491 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
11492 the Skolelinux build servers:
</p>
11495 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
11497 Dell Computer Corporation
1
11500 eserver xSeries
345 -[
8670M1X]-
1
11504 </pre></blockquote>
11506 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
11507 provided in each machine. Here there are Intel machines without model
11508 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
11509 machines listed as [no-dmi-info]. One can add -l as a command line
11510 option to list the individual machines.
</p>
11512 <p>A larger list is
11513 <a href=
"http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
11514 city of Narvik
</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
11515 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly. In their report there
11516 are ~
1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
11517 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
11518 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
11525 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>.
11530 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11532 <div class=
"entry">
11533 <div class=
"title">
11534 <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>
11540 <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
11541 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled. The
11542 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
11543 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
11546 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
11547 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#
583312</a> initially filed
11548 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
11549 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
11550 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#
524751</a> initially filed against
11551 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.
</p>
11553 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
11554 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
11555 distribution work out of the box for these users. The nvidia driver
11556 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
11557 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
11558 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
11559 distribution that work for them. I have no idea what the solution is,
11560 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.
</p>
11562 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.
</p>
11568 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>.
11573 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11575 <div class=
"entry">
11576 <div class=
"title">
11577 <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>
11583 <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
11584 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
11585 issues are known and should be solved:
11589 <li>The wicd package seen to
11590 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting
</a> and
11591 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup
</a> when
11592 parallel booting is enabled. No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
11593 seem to be on the case.
</li>
11595 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
11596 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition
</a>
11597 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect. The
11598 maintainer is on the case.
</li>
11600 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
11601 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
11602 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back
</a> to
11603 sysv-rc. One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
11604 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
11605 sysv-rc more robust. Will investigate some more and probably upload a
11606 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
11607 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.
</li>
11611 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
11612 solvable before Squeeze is released. In addition to these there are
11613 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
11614 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.
</p>
11616 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11617 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11618 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11619 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
11621 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.
</p>
11627 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>.
11632 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11634 <div class=
"entry">
11635 <div class=
"title">
11636 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer
</a>
11642 <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
11643 found time today to return to the project. Having to spend less time
11644 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
11645 definitely helped freeing some time.
</p>
11647 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu. We
11648 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
11649 get disk and network controllers working. Without having these
11650 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
11651 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
11652 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
11653 an external medium is a support pain. Initially, I expected it to be
11654 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
11655 debian-installer to find and use them. This proved to be wrong.
11656 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
11657 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
11658 /cdrom/firmware/). This also proved to not work, and at this point I
11659 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
11662 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
11663 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
11664 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
11665 packages. It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
11666 "external" media devices. Today I changed it to also look in the
11667 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
11668 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu. I also changed it to
11669 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
11670 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
11671 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
11674 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
11675 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
11676 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
11677 run these before activating the firmware during installation. The
11678 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
11679 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.
</p>
11681 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
11682 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11688 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>.
11693 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11695 <div class=
"entry">
11696 <div class=
"title">
11697 <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>
11703 <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
11704 Edu finally entered the Debian archive. Today, the new
11705 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser
</a>
11706 package was accepted. Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
11708 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python
</a>
11709 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
11710 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd
</a> package
11711 passed NEW on Monday. In addition, the
11712 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds
</a>
11713 package we need is in experimental (version
10-
4) since Saturday, and
11714 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.
</p>
11716 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
11717 roaming laptops. The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
11718 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
11719 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
11720 for nscd in
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
11721 #
485282</a> is implemented. The alternative setup is to use sssd with
11722 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
11723 care of the caching of passwords and group information.
</p>
11725 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
11726 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
11727 problem with the server certificate. I plan to update the Debian
11728 package to version
1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
11729 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
11730 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches. Upstream is friendly and responsive,
11731 and I am sure we will find a good solution.
</p>
11733 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
11734 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
11735 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
11736 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
11737 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information. The
11738 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
11739 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
11740 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used. To avoid confusion
11741 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
11742 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
11743 on the home directory servers.
</p>
11745 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
11746 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
11747 is created. Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
11748 message. The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
11749 a bug in gdm. Have not investigated if there is some other message
11750 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.
</p>
11752 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11753 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11759 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>.
11764 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11766 <div class=
"entry">
11767 <div class=
"title">
11768 <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>
11774 <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
11775 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
11776 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
11777 expected, if I am to believe the
11778 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11779 on debian-devel@
</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
11780 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
11781 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen. If serious problems are
11782 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
11783 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
11786 More information about
11787 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11788 based boot sequencing
</a> is available from the Debian wiki. It is
11789 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
11790 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:
</p>
11794 </pre></blockquote>
11796 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11797 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11798 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11799 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
11805 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>.
11810 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11812 <div class=
"entry">
11813 <div class=
"title">
11814 <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>
11820 <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
11821 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
11822 system
</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
11823 network. Each machine will automatically report its status to the
11824 central server after boot and once per night. The network setup is
11825 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
11826 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines. This is useful
11827 to update the DHCP configuration.
</p>
11829 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
11830 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary. Run
11831 this on the collector host:
</p>
11834 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
11835 </pre></blockquote>
11837 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
11838 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.
</p>
11840 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
11841 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
11842 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
11843 tables in LDAP using this information. Such tool is unfortunately not
11850 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>.
11855 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11857 <div class=
"entry">
11858 <div class=
"title">
11859 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart
</a>
11865 <p>The last few days a new boot system called
11866 <a href=
"http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd
</a>
11868 <a href=
"http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced
</a>
11870 to the free software world. I have not yet had time to play around
11871 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
11872 <a href=
"http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart
</a>, and might prove to be
11873 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
11874 based boot system. Tollef is
11875 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process
</a> of getting
11876 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work. I
11877 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
11878 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
11879 at the moment do not.
</p>
11881 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
11882 platform support. It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
11883 some new kernel features enabled to function properly. This means
11884 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
11885 system. Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
11888 <p>In the mean time, based on the
11889 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11890 on debian-devel@
</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
11891 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
11892 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
11893 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies. A
11894 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
11895 already in experimental. If all go well, Squeeze will be released
11896 with parallel booting enabled by default.
</p>
11902 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>.
11907 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11909 <div class=
"entry">
11910 <div class=
"title">
11911 <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>
11917 <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
11918 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
11919 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies. If you want
11920 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
11921 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11922 based boot sequencing
</a> is enabled, and add this line to
11923 /etc/default/rcS:
</p>
11926 CONCURRENCY=makefile
11927 </pre></blockquote>
11929 <p>That is it. It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
11930 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
11931 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
11932 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts. Startpar is configured
11933 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
11934 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
11935 make this happen.
</p>
11937 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result. If some services
11938 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
11939 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
11940 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies). Report bugs and get
11941 the package maintainers to fix it. :)
</p>
11943 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
11944 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct. I
11945 expect we will get there in Squeeze+
1, if we get manage to test and
11946 fix the remaining issues.
</p>
11948 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11949 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11950 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11951 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
11957 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>.
11962 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11964 <div class=
"entry">
11965 <div class=
"title">
11966 <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>
11972 <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
11973 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
11974 change the password on the first login attempt.
</p>
11976 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
11977 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account. The account
11978 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
11979 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
11980 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.
</p>
11982 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
11983 settings in /etc/shadow:
</p>
11986 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
11987 Last password change : May
02,
2010
11988 Password expires : never
11989 Password inactive : never
11990 Account expires : never
11991 Minimum number of days between password change :
0
11992 Maximum number of days between password change :
99999
11993 Number of days of warning before password expires :
7
11995 </pre></blockquote>
11997 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
11998 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
11999 lowest value possible (January
1th
1970), and the maximum password age
12000 to the difference in days between that date and today. To make it
12001 simple, I went for
30 years (
30 *
365 =
10950) and January
2th (to
12002 avoid testing if
0 is a valid value).
</p>
12004 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
12008 root@tjener:~# chage -d
1 test; chage -M
10950 test
12009 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
12010 Last password change : Jan
02,
1970
12011 Password expires : never
12012 Password inactive : never
12013 Account expires : never
12014 Minimum number of days between password change :
0
12015 Maximum number of days between password change :
10950
12016 Number of days of warning before password expires :
7
12018 </pre></blockquote>
12020 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
12021 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
12022 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).
</p>
12024 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
12025 sure only the user itself have the account password?
</p>
12027 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
12028 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12030 <p>Update
2010-
05-
02 17:
20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
12031 shadow(
8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
12032 last password change to zero (
0) will force the password to be changed
12033 on the first login. This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
12034 I did not notice this in my initial testing. I have tested it on
12035 Squeeze, and '
<tt>chage -d
0 username
</tt>' do work there. I have not
12036 tested it on Lenny yet.
</p>
12038 <p>Update
2010-
05-
02-
19:
05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
12039 equivalent command to expire a password is '
<tt>passwd -e
12040 username
</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
12047 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>.
12052 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12054 <div class=
"entry">
12055 <div class=
"title">
12056 <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>
12062 <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
12063 Debian Edu. The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
12064 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
12067 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
12068 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
12069 example called Roaming Workstations. Here are my thought on this.
12070 The setup would consist of the following:
</p>
12074 <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
12075 the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
12076 the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
12077 server. This allow the user to work also when offline. The
12078 central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
12079 request, for example mounted via CIFS. It could be mounted
12080 automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
12081 and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
12082 hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
12083 request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
12084 can be used to access it when needed. Perhaps it is enough to use
12085 the fish protocol in KDE?
</li>
12087 <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
12088 authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
12089 to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
12090 to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server. This can be done using
12091 <a href=
"http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds
</a>
12092 or the Fedora developed
12093 <a href=
"https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
12094 Security Services Daemon
</a> packages.
</li>
12096 <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
12097 using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
12098 directory, using unison.
</li>
12100 <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
12101 their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
12102 the box with CUPS. For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
12103 system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
12106 <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
12107 sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.
</li>
12109 <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
12110 cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
12111 local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.
</li>
12115 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
12116 the moment. If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
12117 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze. Some of the pieces need
12118 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
12119 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#
566718</a>) and nslcd (or
12120 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
12121 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
12122 when disconnected from the net. If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
12123 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.
</p>
12125 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12126 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12132 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>.
12137 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12139 <div class=
"entry">
12140 <div class=
"title">
12141 <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>
12147 <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
12148 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
12149 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
12150 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
12151 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
12152 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
12153 restrictions on the web, for example from
12154 <a href=
"http://craphound.com/content/">his own site
</a>. I read the
12156 <a href=
"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks
</a> using
12157 <a href=
"http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader
</a> and my N810. I
12158 strongly recommend this book.
</p>
12164 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>.
12169 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12171 <div class=
"entry">
12172 <div class=
"title">
12173 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?
</a>
12179 <p><a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
12180 NUUG presentation
</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
12181 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux. Setting up a
12182 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
12183 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
12184 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
12185 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
12186 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
12187 users and cryptographic keys instead.
</p>
12189 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration. Is there a
12190 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
12191 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups? With it, the
12192 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
12193 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.
</p>
12195 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
12196 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together. Anyone know?
</p>
12198 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
12199 Nagios. I have no idea how much work that will be to implement. We
12200 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
12201 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
12202 to work properly.
</p>
12204 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
12205 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
12206 configuration and integration. A natural starting point would be
12207 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
12208 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
12211 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
12212 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
12213 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home. The video show show
12214 up in a few days.
</p>
12220 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>.
12225 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12227 <div class=
"entry">
12228 <div class=
"title">
12229 <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>
12235 <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
12236 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
12237 when the user log out. A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
12238 package in
2004 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#
230422</a>),
12239 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
12240 Today, this finally paid off.
</p>
12242 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
12243 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
12244 been updated to use this framework. Next on my agenda is to make sure
12245 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.
</p>
12247 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
12248 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
12249 after a user. With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
12250 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
12251 framework. My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
12252 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.
<p>
12258 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>.
12263 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12265 <div class=
"entry">
12266 <div class=
"title">
12267 <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>
12273 <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
12274 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a> was finally
12275 shipped. This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
12276 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up. Work on the first
12277 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
12278 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
12279 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.
</p>
12281 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?
</p>
12283 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
12284 next major release, based on Squeeze. We will try to get as many of
12285 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
12286 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.
</p>
12292 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>.
12297 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12299 <div class=
"entry">
12300 <div class=
"title">
12301 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration
</a>
12307 <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
12308 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
12309 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
12310 Nagios. The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
12311 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
12314 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
12315 configured as a Munin and Nagios server. In addition, it is
12316 configured to be a server for the
12317 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
12318 system
</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu. The SiteSummary
12319 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
12320 work. In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
12321 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
12322 computer submitting information to this collector. This allow for
12323 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
12324 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
12325 packages got etc. This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
12326 and Nagios configuration.
</p>
12328 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
12329 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
12330 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
12331 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.
</p>
12333 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
12334 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
12335 services detected). In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
12336 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
12337 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
12338 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
12341 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
12342 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
12343 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
12344 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.
</p>
12346 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
12347 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP. The system
12348 administrator need to run "
<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
12349 nagiosadmin
</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
12350 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages. After that,
12351 everything is taken care of.</p>
12357 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>.
12362 <div class="padding
"></div>
12364 <div class="entry
">
12365 <div class="title
">
12366 <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>
12372 <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
12373 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
12374 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage. I searched using
12375 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
12378 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
12379 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
12380 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
12381 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500 </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
12384 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
12385 got these numbers:</p>
12388 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
12389 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
12390 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299 </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
12391 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187 </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
12394 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
12396 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
12397 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
12398 they are conduced in another country. Because of this, I did the same
12399 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
12400 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
12404 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
12405 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
12406 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
12407 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500 </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
12410 <p>And with 'site:no':
12413 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
12414 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
12415 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
12416 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186 </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
12419 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
12426 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>.
12431 <div class="padding
"></div>
12433 <div class="entry
">
12434 <div class="title
">
12435 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html
">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
12442 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/
2009/
08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html
">a
12443 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
12444 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages. His interesting point is that the
12445 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
12446 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
12447 can be fixed in ISO. Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
12448 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
12449 close to solving the problems. I was part of the Norwegian committee
12450 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
12451 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
12453 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
12454 with the future ahead of it. We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
12455 seminar this autumn.</p>
12461 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>.
12466 <div class="padding
"></div>
12468 <div class="entry
">
12469 <div class="title
">
12470 <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>
12476 <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
12477 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
12478 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing. This
12479 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
12480 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
12481 installation. Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
12482 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
12484 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
12485 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
12486 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
12492 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>.
12497 <div class="padding
"></div>
12499 <div class="entry
">
12500 <div class="title
">
12501 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html
">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
12507 <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
12508 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
12509 take over the package and become the new upstream. The number of
12510 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
12511 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
12512 the package up to date.</p>
12514 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
12515 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman. About 10 days ago, I made
12516 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
12517 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
12518 distributions. We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
12519 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge. Since the
12520 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
12521 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/
">Savannah</a>, and continue
12522 development there. The project is registered and currently waiting
12523 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
12524 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
12525 working on the future release.</p>
12527 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
12528 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
12534 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>.
12539 <div class="padding
"></div>
12541 <div class="entry
">
12542 <div class="title
">
12543 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html
">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
12549 <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
12550 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
12551 could find more ways to speed up the boot system. This was an Ubuntu
12553 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint
">developer
12554 gathering</a>. It was quite productive. We also discussed the future
12555 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
12556 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
12557 asynchronous and event base. The Ubuntu approach using udev and
12558 upstart might be a good way forward. Time will show.</p>
12560 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
12561 process in Debian. All of these should be applied to get a quick
12566 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
12568 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
12569 clock is in UTC.</li>
12571 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
12572 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot
">dependency
12573 based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
12577 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
12578 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/
">Carlos
12581 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
12582 unstable yesterday. When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
12583 from the boot sequence. It depend on very correct dependency
12584 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
12585 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
12588 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
12589 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
12590 startup speed as well. Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
12591 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
12592 possible to run a of them in the same process. A quick way to test
12593 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
12594 insserv'. Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
12600 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>.
12605 <div class="padding
"></div>
12607 <div class="entry
">
12608 <div class="title
">
12609 <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>
12615 <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
12616 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
12617 do not yet know them.</p>
12619 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/
">valgrind</a>, a
12620 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
12621 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
12622 and it will report any problems on stdout. It is even better if the
12623 program include debug information. With debug information, it is able
12624 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
12625 occurs. It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
12626 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
12627 'using uninitialised value in control logic'. This tool has made it
12628 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
12629 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
12631 <p>The second one is
12632 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity
">Coverity</a> which is
12633 a source code checker. It is able to process the source of a program
12634 and find problems in the logic without running the program. It
12635 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
12636 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel. It is now a commercial tool
12637 and the company behind it is running
12638 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/
">a community service</a> for the
12639 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
12640 their source checked for free. Several thousand defects have been
12641 found and fixed so far. It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
12642 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
12643 Y lines O to P can never be executed'. The projects included in the
12644 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
12645 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
12647 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
12648 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
12649 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
12650 surrounded by today.</p>
12656 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>.
12661 <div class="padding
"></div>
12663 <div class="entry
">
12664 <div class="title
">
12665 <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>
12672 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/
2009/
04/
12/
214">claim that no
12673 patch is better than a useless patch</a>. I completely disagree, as a
12674 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
12675 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
12676 time on fixing it. No patch do not provide any of these positive
12683 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>.
12688 <div class="padding
"></div>
12690 <div class="entry
">
12691 <div class="title
">
12692 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html
">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
12698 <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
12699 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net. The
12700 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
12701 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
12702 vlc. I finally found a way to do it today. I spent an hour or so
12703 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation. The
12704 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
12705 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
12707 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
12709 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
12710 --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
12711 --intf=dummy
</pre></blockquote>
12713 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
12714 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
12715 dummy interface. The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
12716 sure no X interface is needed.
</p>
12718 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
12719 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
12720 the vlc process with SIGTERM. Here is a complete script
12721 <tt>vlc-record
</tt> to use from
<tt>at
</tt> or
<tt>cron
</tt>:
</p>
12723 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
12728 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
12729 --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
12730 --intf=dummy < /dev/null
> /dev/null
2>&
1 &
12734 wait $pid
</pre></blockquote>
12740 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>.
12745 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12747 <div class=
"entry">
12748 <div class=
"title">
12749 <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>
12755 <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
12756 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure. It is the
12757 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
12758 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
12759 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
12760 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
12761 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
12764 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
12765 independently of the server applications. One can even allow users to
12766 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
12767 protocol and format. In the normal case, only one client application
12768 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
12769 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
12770 blocked from doing so.
</p>
12772 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
12773 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
12774 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
12775 requirements change.
</p>
12777 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
12778 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
12779 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.
</p>
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>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
12790 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12792 <div class=
"entry">
12793 <div class=
"title">
12794 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering
</a>
12800 <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
12801 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering. I got a bit done tuning the
12802 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
12803 implementation avahi. It look like it could be useful for us. Almost
12804 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
12805 get to know the Skolelinux system. Walter Bender, involved in the
12806 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
12807 also helped me improve my OLPC installation. He also showed me that
12808 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
12809 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian. As a
12810 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu. We also
12811 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
12812 proved to be too hard for us. The application seem to need more work
12813 before it is ready for me. I look forward to getting home and relax
12820 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>.
12825 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12827 <div class=
"entry">
12828 <div class=
"title">
12829 <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>
12835 <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
12836 optimal. There is RFC
2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
12837 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC
2307bis, with
12838 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory. The RFC
12839 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
12840 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.
</p>
12842 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux
</a>,
12843 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
12844 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
12845 and LTSP configuration in LDAP. These objects have a lot in common,
12846 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
12847 object per entity. For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
12848 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
12849 DNS information and another with DHCP information. The schemas
12850 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
12851 object. In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
12852 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
12853 It just do not scale. I believe it is time for a few RFC
12854 specifications to cleam up this mess.
</p>
12856 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
12857 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
12858 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
12859 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.
</p>
12861 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
12862 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.
</p>
12864 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
12865 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up. Time to start a
12866 new IETF work group?
</p>
12872 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>.
12877 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12879 <div class=
"entry">
12880 <div class=
"title">
12881 <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>
12887 <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
12888 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
12889 contract expire for each server. We have a machine (and service)
12890 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
12891 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
12892 each machine. To make it easier for us to track support contract
12893 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
12894 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
12895 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
12896 machines. I extended a perl script already being used to import
12897 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
12898 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
12899 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
12900 for the relevant machines. This make the support status information
12901 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
12902 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
12903 The result of this work documented that
27% of the machines in the
12904 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
12905 them.
27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
12906 using machines a bit longer than the
3 years a normal support contract
12907 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
12908 services. After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
12909 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
12910 them break down. When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
12911 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
12914 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
12915 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
12916 Werner Forsbring. The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
12917 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
12918 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code. I know the HTML
12919 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
12920 introduce more dependencies. This is the current incarnation:
</p>
12925 use WWW::Mechanize;
12928 sub get_support_info {
12929 my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
12932 if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
12933 # fetch website from Dell support
12934 my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no
&cs=nodhs1
&l=no
&s=dhs
&ServiceTag=$serial";
12935 my $webpage = get($url);
12936 return undef unless ($webpage);
12939 my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
12940 foreach my $line (@lines) {
12941 next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
12942 $line =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
12943 $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$
1/;
12945 my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
12946 @f = @f[
13 .. $#f];
12948 while ($f[
3] eq "DELL") {
12949 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[
0,
5,
7,
10];
12951 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12952 localtime(str2time($startstr)));
12953 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12954 localtime(str2time($endstr)));
12955 $str .= "$type $start -
> $end ";
12956 @f = @f[
14 .. $#f];
12957 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
12959 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
12960 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
12961 if ($lastend lt $today);
12963 } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
12964 my $mech = WWW::Mechanize-
>new();
12966 'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
12969 'BODServiceID' =
> 'NA',
12970 'RegisteredPurchaseDate' =
> '',
12972 'productNumber' =
> $productnumber,
12973 'serialNumber1' =
> $serial,
12975 $mech-
>submit_form( form_number =
> 2,
12976 fields =
> $fields );
12977 # Next step is screen scraping
12978 my $content = $mech-
>content();
12980 $content =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
12981 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
12982 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
12983 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
12985 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
12987 while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
12988 my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
12989 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
12990 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
12991 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12992 localtime(str2time($startstr)));
12993 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12994 localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
12996 $str .= "$type ($status) $start -
> $end ";
12998 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
12999 if ($end lt $today);
13001 } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
13002 # This code ignore extended support contracts.
13003 my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{
4}).+\]-/;
13004 if ($producttype
&& $serial) {
13006 get("http://www-
947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty
&brandind=
5000008&Submit=Submit
&type=$producttype
&serial=$serial");
13008 $content =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
13009 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
13010 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
13011 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
13013 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
13014 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
13016 $str .= "($status) -
> $end ";
13018 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
13019 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
13020 if ($end lt $today);
13028 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
13029 serial numbers. The information passed in as arguments are fetched
13030 from dmidecode.
</p>
13033 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "
1234567890"
13035 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge
2950", "
1234567");
13036 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries
345 -[
867061X]-",
13040 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
13041 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)
</p>
13043 <p>Update
2009-
03-
06: The IBM page do not include extended support
13044 contracts, so it is useless in that case. The original Dell code do
13045 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
13052 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>.
13057 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13059 <div class=
"entry">
13060 <div class=
"title">
13061 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center
</a>
13067 <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
13068 in our computing center. This give us a challenge in tracking the
13069 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
13070 removed. Some times the location register is not updated when a
13071 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
13072 the "missing" computer.
</p>
13074 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
13075 <a href=
"http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx
</a> to write and read bar
13076 code blocks as defined in the
13077 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
13078 Standard
</a>. This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
13079 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
13080 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture. The bar code standard
13081 allow up to
2 KiB to be written in the tag. There is another project
13082 with
<a href=
"http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
13083 writer written in postscript
</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
13084 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
13087 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
13088 machines in our computing center. If both racks and computers are
13089 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
13090 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
13091 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
13092 locations, and can detect movements and removals.
</p>
13094 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
13095 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names. Next, I
13096 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
13097 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read. This worked
13098 fairly well. If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
13099 side, all tags in the image could be read. Because of limited space
13100 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
13101 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
13102 about half the rack. I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
13103 to
60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.
</p>
13105 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
13106 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
13107 easier automatic tracking of computers.
</p>
13113 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>.
13118 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13120 <div class=
"entry">
13121 <div class=
"title">
13122 <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>
13128 <p>As part of the work we do in
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no">NUUG
</a>
13129 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
13130 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording. Putting a
13131 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
13132 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy. I hope this
13133 will become easier when the
<video
> tag is implemented in all
13134 browsers, but I am not sure. We provide the recordings in several
13135 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H
.264 and Quicktime, and want the
13136 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
13137 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
13138 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
13139 <video
> tag, the
<object
> tag, the
<embed
> tag and
13140 the
<applet
> tag. All of these take a lot of options, and
13141 finding the best options is a major challenge.
</p>
13143 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from
<a
13144 href=
"http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com
</a>, to see how it handled
13145 a
<video
> tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
13146 I was not very impressed. The browser start by fetching a picture
13147 from the video stream. Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
13148 definitely very early in the recording. So far, so good. Next,
13149 instead of streaming the
76 MiB video file, it start to download all
13150 of it, but do not start to play the video. This mean I have to wait
13151 for several minutes for the downloading to finish. When the download
13152 is done, the playing of the video do not start! Waiting for the
13153 download, but I do not get to see the video? Some testing later, I
13154 discover that I have to add the
controls="true" attribute to be able
13155 to get a play button to pres to start the video. Adding
13156 autoplay="true" did not help. I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
13157 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
13158 <video
> tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
13159 playing when the download is done.
</p>
13161 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
13162 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
13163 from the nuug site
</a>. Will have to test it with the new Firefox
13166 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature. I was unable
13167 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
13168 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video. I
13169 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)
</p>
13175 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>.
13180 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13182 <div class=
"entry">
13183 <div class=
"title">
13184 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick
</a>
13190 <p>The
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group
</a> is
13191 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
13192 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
13193 directly with the video stream. For this, we use the
13194 <a href=
"http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch
</a> package from
13195 the Debian video team. As this require quite one computer per video
13196 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
13197 borrow laptops. And to avoid having to install extra software on
13198 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
13199 bootable USB stick. The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
13200 source, sink and mixer applications and
13201 <a href=
"http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab
</a>. To allow this setup to
13202 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
13203 <a href=
"http://www.avahi.org/">avahi
</a> to connect the various parts
13204 together. And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
13205 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
13206 with USB sources. We have not yet tested this setup in a production
13207 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
13208 video mixer in a very short time frame. We will need it for
13209 <a href=
"http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open
2009</a>.
</p>
13211 <p><a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
13212 USB image
</a> is for a
1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
13213 larger stick as well.
</p>
13219 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>.
13224 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13226 <div class=
"entry">
13227 <div class=
"title">
13228 <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>
13234 <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
13235 Oslo. Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
13236 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
13237 LTSP installation. LTSP now work out of the box on the
10-network.
13238 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
13239 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box. Was working on getting the
13240 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
13241 finish it before the weekend was up.
</p>
13243 <p>Did not find time to look at the
4 VGA cards in one box we got from
13244 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
13245 development gathering. Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
13246 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
13247 of these cards.
</p>
13253 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>.
13258 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13260 <div class=
"entry">
13261 <div class=
"title">
13262 <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>
13268 <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
13269 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
13270 default in Debian Edu. We need an embedded video playing plugin with
13271 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
13272 all the multimedia content available on the web. The test results and
13273 notes are available on
13274 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
13275 Debian wiki
</a>. I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
13276 fill this need. My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
13277 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages. A lot of the MIME
13278 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
13279 video/ogg), just do not work. And simple formats like the
13280 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
13281 totem and vlc plugins. I hope the situation will improve soon. No
13282 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.
</p>
13284 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin. It seem to
13285 be the only one fitting our needs. :/
</p>
13291 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>.
13296 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13298 <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>
13309 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (
8)
</a></li>
13316 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (
7)
</a></li>
13318 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (
10)
</a></li>
13320 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (
17)
</a></li>
13322 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (
12)
</a></li>
13324 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (
12)
</a></li>
13326 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (
20)
</a></li>
13328 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (
17)
</a></li>
13330 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
13332 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (
9)
</a></li>
13334 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (
17)
</a></li>
13336 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (
10)
</a></li>
13338 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
13345 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (
16)
</a></li>
13347 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (
6)
</a></li>
13349 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (
6)
</a></li>
13351 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (
7)
</a></li>
13353 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (
3)
</a></li>
13355 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (
2)
</a></li>
13357 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (
7)
</a></li>
13359 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
13361 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (
4)
</a></li>
13363 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
13365 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
13367 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (
1)
</a></li>
13374 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (
2)
</a></li>
13376 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (
1)
</a></li>
13378 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (
3)
</a></li>
13380 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (
3)
</a></li>
13382 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
13384 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (
14)
</a></li>
13386 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (
12)
</a></li>
13388 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (
13)
</a></li>
13390 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (
7)
</a></li>
13392 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (
9)
</a></li>
13394 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (
13)
</a></li>
13396 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (
12)
</a></li>
13403 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (
8)
</a></li>
13405 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (
8)
</a></li>
13407 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (
12)
</a></li>
13409 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (
10)
</a></li>
13411 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
13413 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (
3)
</a></li>
13415 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (
4)
</a></li>
13417 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (
3)
</a></li>
13419 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (
1)
</a></li>
13421 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
13423 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
13425 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
13432 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (
5)
</a></li>
13434 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
13445 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (
13)
</a></li>
13447 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (
1)
</a></li>
13449 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (
1)
</a></li>
13451 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (
4)
</a></li>
13453 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (
5)
</a></li>
13455 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (
12)
</a></li>
13457 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (
2)
</a></li>
13459 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (
66)
</a></li>
13461 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (
118)
</a></li>
13463 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (
9)
</a></li>
13465 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (
7)
</a></li>
13467 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (
4)
</a></li>
13469 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (
172)
</a></li>
13471 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (
21)
</a></li>
13473 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (
12)
</a></li>
13475 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (
10)
</a></li>
13477 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (
9)
</a></li>
13479 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (
32)
</a></li>
13481 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (
17)
</a></li>
13483 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (
8)
</a></li>
13485 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (
6)
</a></li>
13487 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (
1)
</a></li>
13489 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (
25)
</a></li>
13491 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (
219)
</a></li>
13493 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (
148)
</a></li>
13495 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (
6)
</a></li>
13497 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (
2)
</a></li>
13499 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (
41)
</a></li>
13501 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (
61)
</a></li>
13503 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (
1)
</a></li>
13505 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (
11)
</a></li>
13507 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (
2)
</a></li>
13509 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (
6)
</a></li>
13511 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (
1)
</a></li>
13513 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (
4)
</a></li>
13515 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (
2)
</a></li>
13517 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (
28)
</a></li>
13519 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (
4)
</a></li>
13521 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (
4)
</a></li>
13523 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (
39)
</a></li>
13525 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (
3)
</a></li>
13527 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (
5)
</a></li>
13529 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (
12)
</a></li>
13531 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (
1)
</a></li>
13533 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (
7)
</a></li>
13535 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (
35)
</a></li>
13537 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (
4)
</a></li>
13539 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (
26)
</a></li>
13545 <p style=
"text-align: right">
13546 Created by
<a href=
"http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4
</a>
projects / homepage.git / blob