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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "english".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html">Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          4th June 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>It has been a while since my last English
  32 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
  33 interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
  34 pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
  35 time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
  36 in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
  37
  38 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  39
  40 <p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
  41 professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
  42 mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
  43 probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
  44
  45 <p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
  46 and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
  47 packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
  48
  49 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  50 project?</strong></p>
  51
  52 <p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
  53 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
  54 Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
  55 then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
  56 manual.
  57
  58 <p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
  59 virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
  60 shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
  61 how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
  62
  63 <p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
  64 ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
  65 by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>.  What pleased
  66 me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
  67 there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
  68 to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
  69 artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
  70 <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
  71 movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
  72 <a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
  73
  74 <p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
  75 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
  76 Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
  77 beautiful project.</p>
  78
  79 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  80 Edu?</strong></p>
  81
  82 <p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
  83 community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
  84 fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
  85
  86 <p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
  87 distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
  88 of educational free software.</p>
  89
  90 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  91 Edu?</strong></p>
  92
  93 <p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
  94 project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
  95 not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
  96 solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
  97 is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
  98
  99 <p>One can find support from a company by looking at
 100 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
 101 wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
 102 companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
 103 Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
 104 for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
 105 consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
 106 support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
 107
 108 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 109
 110 <p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
 111 most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
 112 scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
 113 also using the mathematical software
 114 <a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and
 115 <a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from
 116 source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
 117
 118 <p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
 119 using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
 120 statistics?</strong></p>
 121
 122 <p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
 123 university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and
 124 Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
 125 geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
 126
 127 <ul>
 128
 129 <li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
 130 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do
 131 constructions in planar geometry
 132
 133 <li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
 134 to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
 135 groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
 136
 137 </ul>
 138
 139 <p>I like also
 140 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
 141 provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
 142 <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
 143
 144 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 145 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 146
 147 <p>My suggestions would be to</p>
 148
 149 <ul>
 150
 151 <li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
 152
 153 <li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
 154     well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
 155     OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
 156
 157 <li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
 158
 159 <li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
 160     system.</li>
 161
 162 </ul>
 163
 164       </div>
 165       <div class="tags">
 166
 167
 168         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>.
 169
 170
 171       </div>
 172     </div>
 173     <div class="padding"></div>
 174
 175     <div class="entry">
 176       <div class="title">
 177         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">Educational applications included in Debian Edu / Skolelinux (the screenshot collection :-)</a>
 178       </div>
 179       <div class="date">
 180          1st June 2013
 181       </div>
 182       <div class="body">
 183         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
 184 Skolelinux</a>, there are quite a lot of educational software.
 185 Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn.  We have tried to
 186 tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
 187 the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
 188 educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
 189 debtag field.  Here it is.  Click on a image to learn more about the
 190 program.</p>
 191
 192 <!-- for f in $(debtags tagcat|grep field::|awk '{print $2}'); do   echo; echo "<p><strong>$f</strong></p>"; echo "<p>";   (     for p in $(debtags search --names "use::learning && interface::x11 && role::program && $f"); do img="<img src='http://screenshots.debian.net/thumbnail/$p' alt='$p'>"; if dpkg -s $p > /dev/null 2>&1; then           echo "<a href='http://packages.qa.debian.org/$p'>$img</a>"; fi;     done;   ) | LANG=C sort; echo "</p>"; done -->
 193
 194 <p><strong>field::arts</strong></p>
 195 <p>
 196 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=audacity'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/audacity.png' alt='audacity'></a>
 197 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
 198 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=denemo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/denemo.png' alt='denemo'></a>
 199 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=freebirth'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/freebirth.png' alt='freebirth'></a>
 200 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 201 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gimp'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gimp.png' alt='gimp'></a>
 202 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=hydrogen'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/hydrogen.png' alt='hydrogen'></a>
 203 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lilypond'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lilypond.png' alt='lilypond'></a>
 204 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lmms'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lmms.png' alt='lmms'></a>
 205 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rosegarden'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rosegarden.png' alt='rosegarden'></a>
 206 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scribus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scribus.png' alt='scribus'></a>
 207 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=solfege'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/solfege.png' alt='solfege'></a>
 208 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stopmotion'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stopmotion.png' alt='stopmotion'></a>
 209 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxpaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxpaint.png' alt='tuxpaint'></a>
 210 </p>
 211
 212 <p><strong>field::astronomy</strong></p>
 213 <p>
 214 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=celestia-gnome'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/celestia-gnome.png' alt='celestia-gnome'></a>
 215 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpredict'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gpredict.png' alt='gpredict'></a>
 216 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kstars'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kstars.png' alt='kstars'></a>
 217 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=planets'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/planets.png' alt='planets'></a>
 218 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stellarium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stellarium.png' alt='stellarium'></a>
 219 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
 220 </p>
 221
 222 <p><strong>field::biology:structural</strong></p>
 223 <p>
 224 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
 225 </p>
 226
 227 <p><strong>field::chemistry</strong></p>
 228 <p>
 229 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=atomix'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/atomix.png' alt='atomix'></a>
 230 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=chemtool'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/chemtool.png' alt='chemtool'></a>
 231 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=easychem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/easychem.png' alt='easychem'></a>
 232 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gchempaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gchempaint.png' alt='gchempaint'></a>
 233 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gdis'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gdis.png' alt='gdis'></a>
 234 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ghemical'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ghemical.png' alt='ghemical'></a>
 235 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gperiodic'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gperiodic.png' alt='gperiodic'></a>
 236 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalzium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalzium.png' alt='kalzium'></a>
 237 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
 238 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=viewmol'>[viewmol]</a>
 239 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xdrawchem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xdrawchem.png' alt='xdrawchem'></a>
 240 </p>
 241
 242 <p><strong>field::electronics</strong></p>
 243 <p>
 244 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 245 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpsim'>[gpsim]</a>
 246 </p>
 247
 248 <p><strong>field::geography</strong></p>
 249 <p>
 250 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kgeography'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kgeography.png' alt='kgeography'></a>
 251 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=marble'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/marble.png' alt='marble'></a>
 252 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
 253 </p>
 254
 255 <p><strong>field::linguistics</strong></p>
 256 <p>
 257 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 258 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kanagram'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kanagram.png' alt='kanagram'></a>
 259 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=khangman'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/khangman.png' alt='khangman'></a>
 260 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=klettres'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/klettres.png' alt='klettres'></a>
 261 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=parley'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/parley.png' alt='parley'></a>
 262 </p>
 263
 264 <p><strong>field::mathematics</strong></p>
 265 <p>
 266 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
 267 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=drgeo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/drgeo.png' alt='drgeo'></a>
 268 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 269 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geogebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/geogebra.png' alt='geogebra'></a>
 270 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geomview'>[geomview]</a>
 271 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=grace'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/grace.png' alt='grace'></a>
 272 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphmonkey'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphmonkey.png' alt='graphmonkey'></a>
 273 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphthing'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphthing.png' alt='graphthing'></a>
 274 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalgebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalgebra.png' alt='kalgebra'></a>
 275 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kbruch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kbruch.png' alt='kbruch'></a>
 276 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kig'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kig.png' alt='kig'></a>
 277 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kmplot'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kmplot.png' alt='kmplot'></a>
 278 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=mathwar'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/mathwar.png' alt='mathwar'></a>
 279 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rocs'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rocs.png' alt='rocs'></a>
 280 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
 281 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxmath'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxmath.png' alt='tuxmath'></a>
 282 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xabacus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xabacus.png' alt='xabacus'></a>
 283 </p>
 284
 285 <p><strong>field::physics</strong></p>
 286 <p>
 287 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 288 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=step'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/step.png' alt='step'></a>
 289 </p>
 290
 291 <p><strong>field::TODO</strong></p>
 292 <p>
 293 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=blinken'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/blinken.png' alt='blinken'></a>
 294 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=cgoban'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/cgoban.png' alt='cgoban'></a>
 295 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
 296 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
 297 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnuchess'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnuchess.png' alt='gnuchess'></a>
 298 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnugo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnugo.png' alt='gnugo'></a>
 299 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gtans'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gtans.png' alt='gtans'></a>
 300 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ktouch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ktouch.png' alt='ktouch'></a>
 301 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=librecad'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/librecad.png' alt='librecad'></a>
 302 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
 303 </p>
 304
 305 <p>In total, 61 applications.  3 of them lacked screen shots on
 306 <a href="http://screenshot.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a>.  If
 307 you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
 308 know on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu
 309 on irc.debian.org</a>, or our
 310 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">mailing list
 311 debian-edu@</a>.</p>
 312
 313       </div>
 314       <div class="tags">
 315
 316
 317         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>.
 318
 319
 320       </div>
 321     </div>
 322     <div class="padding"></div>
 323
 324     <div class="entry">
 325       <div class="title">
 326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
 327       </div>
 328       <div class="date">
 329         27th May 2013
 330       </div>
 331       <div class="body">
 332         <p>Two days ago, I asked
 333 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
 334 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
 335 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
 336 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
 337 and Windows 8.</p>
 338
 339 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
 340 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
 341 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
 342 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
 343 enough to tell.</p>
 344
 345 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
 346 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
 347 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
 348 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
 349 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
 350 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
 351 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
 352 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
 353 to follow.</p>
 354
 355 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
 356 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
 357 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
 358 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
 359 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
 360 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
 361 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
 362 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
 363
 364 <p>I've updated the
 365 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
 366 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
 367 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
 368 machine.</p>
 369
 370 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
 371 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
 372
 373       </div>
 374       <div class="tags">
 375
 376
 377         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 378
 379
 380       </div>
 381     </div>
 382     <div class="padding"></div>
 383
 384     <div class="entry">
 385       <div class="title">
 386         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
 387       </div>
 388       <div class="date">
 389         25th May 2013
 390       </div>
 391       <div class="body">
 392         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
 393 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
 394 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
 395 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
 396 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
 397 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
 398
 399 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
 400 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
 401 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
 402 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
 403 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
 404 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
 405 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
 406 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
 407 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
 408 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
 409
 410 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
 411 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 412 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
 413 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
 414 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
 415 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
 416
 417 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
 418 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
 419 on new Laptops?</p>
 420
 421       </div>
 422       <div class="tags">
 423
 424
 425         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 426
 427
 428       </div>
 429     </div>
 430     <div class="padding"></div>
 431
 432     <div class="entry">
 433       <div class="title">
 434         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
 435       </div>
 436       <div class="date">
 437         17th May 2013
 438       </div>
 439       <div class="body">
 440         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
 441 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
 442 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
 443 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
 444 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
 445 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
 446 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
 447 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
 448 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
 449 donate some money</a>.
 450
 451 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
 452 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
 453 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
 454 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
 455 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
 456
 457 <p>The script,
 458 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
 459 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
 460 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
 461 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
 462
 463 <ol>
 464
 465 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
 466 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
 467 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
 468     our configuration.</li>
 469 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
 470     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
 471     according to the profile specified in the config above,
 472     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
 473 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
 474     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
 475 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
 476
 477 </ol>
 478
 479 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
 480 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
 481 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
 482 the needed packages.</p>
 483
 484 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
 485 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
 486 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
 487 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
 488 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
 489 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
 490
 491 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
 492 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
 493 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
 494
 495 <p><pre>
 496 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
 497 DESKTOP="lxde"
 498 </pre></p>
 499
 500 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
 501 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
 502 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
 503 boot.</p>
 504
 505       </div>
 506       <div class="tags">
 507
 508
 509         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>.
 510
 511
 512       </div>
 513     </div>
 514     <div class="padding"></div>
 515
 516     <div class="entry">
 517       <div class="title">
 518         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
 519       </div>
 520       <div class="date">
 521         14th May 2013
 522       </div>
 523       <div class="body">
 524         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 525 project</a> is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
 526 release today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
 527
 528 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
 529 2013-05-14</strong></p>
 530
 531 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
 532 alpha1, based on <ahref="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> with
 533 codename "Wheezy".</p>
 534
 535 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
 536
 537 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
 538 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
 539 configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
 540 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
 541 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
 542 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
 543 initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
 544 other machines can be installed via the network.</p>
 545
 546 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
 547 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
 548 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
 549
 550 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
 551 <ul>
 552   <li>Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
 553     default.</li>
 554   <li>Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.</li>
 555   <li>Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.</li>
 556   <li>Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
 557     ibus-anthy.</li>
 558 </ul>
 559
 560 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
 561 <ul>
 562
 563   <li>Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
 564     reliability improvements.</li>
 565   <li>Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
 566     of <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706434">706434</a>.</li>
 567   <li>Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
 568     problems.</li>
 569   <li>Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
 570     direct:// URL.</li>
 571   <li>Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.</li>
 572   <li>Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.</li>
 573   <li>Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.</li>
 574   <li>Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
 575     servers, to make room for all the software installed.</li>
 576   <li>Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
 577     log in (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706753">706753</a>).</li>
 578 </ul>
 579
 580 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
 581 <ul>
 582
 583   <li>IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
 584     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/705900">705900</a>).  Only install
 585     libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.</li>
 586   <li>DVD images are not yet ready.</li>
 587   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 588     available yet (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">698840</a>).</li>
 589   <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).</li>
 590   <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.</li>
 591   <li>LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
 592     (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.</li>
 593   <li>Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
 594     password submission problem
 595     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">700257</a>).</li>
 596
 597 </ul>
 598
 599 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
 600
 601 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
 602 <ul>
 603
 604   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
 605   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
 606   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</li>
 607
 608 </ul>
 609
 610 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b</p>
 611
 612 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c</p>
 613
 614 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
 615
 616 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
 617
 618       </div>
 619       <div class="tags">
 620
 621
 622         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>.
 623
 624
 625       </div>
 626     </div>
 627     <div class="padding"></div>
 628
 629     <div class="entry">
 630       <div class="title">
 631         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
 632       </div>
 633       <div class="date">
 634         11th May 2013
 635       </div>
 636       <div class="body">
 637         <P>In January,
 638 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
 639 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
 640 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
 641 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
 642 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
 643 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
 644 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
 645 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
 646 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
 647 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
 648 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
 649 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
 650
 651 <p><table>
 652 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
 653 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
 654 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
 655 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
 656 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
 657 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
 658 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
 659 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
 660 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
 661 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
 662 </table></p>
 663
 664 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
 665 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
 666 available in experimental.</p>
 667
 668 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
 669 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
 670 for LEGO designers.</p>
 671
 672       </div>
 673       <div class="tags">
 674
 675
 676         Tags: <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>.
 677
 678
 679       </div>
 680     </div>
 681     <div class="padding"></div>
 682
 683     <div class="entry">
 684       <div class="title">
 685         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
 686       </div>
 687       <div class="date">
 688          5th May 2013
 689       </div>
 690       <div class="body">
 691         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
 692 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
 693 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
 694 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
 695 soon.</p>
 696
 697 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
 698 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
 699 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
 700 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
 701 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
 702 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
 703 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
 704 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
 705 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
 706 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
 707 Edu.</a>
 708
 709 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
 710 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
 711 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
 712 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
 713 follow.<p>
 714
 715       </div>
 716       <div class="tags">
 717
 718
 719         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>.
 720
 721
 722       </div>
 723     </div>
 724     <div class="padding"></div>
 725
 726     <div class="entry">
 727       <div class="title">
 728         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
 729       </div>
 730       <div class="date">
 731         26th April 2013
 732       </div>
 733       <div class="body">
 734         <p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made
 735 its first Wheezy based release today.  This is the release
 736 announcement:</p>
 737
 738 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released
 739 2013-04-26</strong></p>
 740
 741 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0
 742 edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
 743
 744 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
 745
 746 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
 747 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 748 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 749 network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all
 750 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 751 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 752 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 753 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 754 installed via the network.</p>
 755
 756 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
 757 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
 758 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
 759
 760 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
 761
 762 <ul>
 763 <li>Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg:
 764   <ul>
 765      <li>Linux kernel 3.2.x</li>
 766      <li>Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4
 767          (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see
 768          manual.)</li>
 769      <li>Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR</li>
 770      <li>LibreOffice 3.5.4</li>
 771      <li>LTSP 5.4.2</li>
 772      <li>GOsa 2.7.4</li>
 773      <li>CUPS print system 1.5.3</li>
 774      <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01</li>
 775      <li>Music creator Rosegarden 12.04</li>
 776      <li>Image editor Gimp 2.8.2</li>
 777      <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1</li>
 778      <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3</li>
 779      <li>Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6</li>
 780      <li>New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see
 781          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation
 782          manual</a> for more details.</li>
 783      <li>Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for
 784          installation.</li>
 785      <li>More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the
 786          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/releasenotes">release notes</a> and the <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation manual</a>.</li>
 787   </ul></li>
 788 </ul>
 789
 790 <p><strong>Documentation</strong></p>
 791 <ul>
 792 <li>The (<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy">English</a>) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to
 793     German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist
 794     for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.</li>
 795 </ul>
 796
 797 <p><Strong>LDAP related changes</strong></p>
 798 <ul>
 799 <li>Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to
 800     choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type
 801     server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.</li>
 802 </ul>
 803
 804 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
 805 <ul>
 806 <li>LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be
 807     configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an
 808     entry in lts.conf or LDAP.<li>
 809 <li>GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non
 810     functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are
 811     completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.</li>
 812 </ul>
 813
 814 <p><strong>Regressions</strong></p>
 815 <ul>
 816 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available
 817     yet.</li>
 818 </ul>
 819
 820 <p><strong>No updated artwork</strong></p>
 821
 822 <ul>
 823 <li>Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login
 824     screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we
 825     had for our Squeeze based release.</li>
 826 </ul>
 827
 828 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
 829
 830 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
 831 <ul>
 832 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
 833 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
 834 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</li>
 835 </ul>
 836
 837 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c</p>
 838
 839 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2</p>
 840
 841 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
 842
 843 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
 844
 845       </div>
 846       <div class="tags">
 847
 848
 849         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>.
 850
 851
 852       </div>
 853     </div>
 854     <div class="padding"></div>
 855
 856     <div class="entry">
 857       <div class="title">
 858         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html">First Debian Edu / Skolelinux developer gathering in 2013 take place in Trondheim</a>
 859       </div>
 860       <div class="date">
 861         16th April 2013
 862       </div>
 863       <div class="body">
 864         <p>This years first <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux /
 865 Debian Edu</a> developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim.
 866 Details about the gathering can be found
 867 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim">on
 868 the FRiSK wiki</a>.  The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online
 869 participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome,
 870 and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this
 871 weekend.</p>
 872
 873 <p>The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project
 874 infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian
 875 Edu release.</p>
 876
 877 <p>See you on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,</a> then?</p>
 878
 879       </div>
 880       <div class="tags">
 881
 882
 883         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>.
 884
 885
 886       </div>
 887     </div>
 888     <div class="padding"></div>
 889
 890     <div class="entry">
 891       <div class="title">
 892         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
 893       </div>
 894       <div class="date">
 895          3rd April 2013
 896       </div>
 897       <div class="body">
 898         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
 899 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
 900 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
 901 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
 902
 903 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
 904 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
 905 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
 906 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
 907 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
 908 BTS. :)</p>
 909
 910       </div>
 911       <div class="tags">
 912
 913
 914         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 915
 916
 917       </div>
 918     </div>
 919     <div class="padding"></div>
 920
 921     <div class="entry">
 922       <div class="title">
 923         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html">Change the font, save the world (and save some money in the process)</a>
 924       </div>
 925       <div class="date">
 926         26th March 2013
 927       </div>
 928       <div class="body">
 929         <p>Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same
 930 time, without much sacrifice?  A small step could be to change the
 931 font you use when printing.</p>
 932
 933 <p>Three years ago,
 934 <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/">Ars
 935 Technica</a> reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
 936 changed their default front from
 937 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial">Arial</a> to
 938 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic">Century
 939 Gothic</a> to save money.  The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner
 940 than Arial to print the same text.  In other word, you could cut your
 941 toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time
 942 by more than 30%), by simply changing the default font used in your
 943 prints.</p>
 944
 945 <p>But it is not quite obvious how much one will save by switching.
 946 The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year
 947 on ink and toner cartridges, according to
 948 <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097">a report from
 949 TwinCities.com</a>, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000
 950 per year by asking staff and students to use a different font.  Not
 951 all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external
 952 sources will most likely still use a different font.  Also, the
 953 Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use
 954 more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving
 955 depend on the documents printed.</p>
 956
 957 <p>But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce
 958 the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world,
 959 and save some money in the process.</p>
 960
 961 <p>Update 2013-04-10: If you want to know how much ink/toner could be
 962 saved when switching between fonts, Inkfarm got a
 963 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font">service to calculate the
 964 difference between font pairs</a>.  They also
 965 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---">recommend
 966 which fonts to use</a> to save ink.  Check it out. :) While updating
 967 this blog post, I also came across a blog post from InkCloners,
 968 <a href="http://inkcloners.com/blog/ink-cartridges/change-fonts-to-save-ink-costs/">listing
 969 the fonts they recommend</a>, with Centory Gothic at the top.</p>
 970
 971       </div>
 972       <div class="tags">
 973
 974
 975         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 976
 977
 978       </div>
 979     </div>
 980     <div class="padding"></div>
 981
 982     <div class="entry">
 983       <div class="title">
 984         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_a_short_story_using_docbook_for_PDF__HTML_and_EPUB.html">Typesetting a short story using docbook for PDF, HTML and EPUB</a>
 985       </div>
 986       <div class="date">
 987         24th March 2013
 988       </div>
 989       <div class="body">
 990         <p>A few days ago, during a discussion in
 991 <a href="http://www.efn.no/">EFN</a> about interesting books to read
 992 about copyright and the data retention directive, a suggestion to read
 993 the 1968 short story Kodémus by
 994 <a href="http://web2.gyldendal.no/toraage/">Tore Åge Bringsværd</a>
 995 came up.  The text was only available in old paper books, and thus not
 996 easily available for current and future generations.  Some of the
 997 people participating in the discussion contacted the author, and
 998 reported back 2013-03-19 that the author was OK with releasing the
 999 short story using a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org/">Creative
1000 Commons</a> license.  The text was quickly scanned and OCR-ed, and we
1001 were ready to start on the editing and typesetting.</p>
1002
1003 <p>As I already had some experience formatting text in my project to
1004 provide a Norwegian version of the Free Culture book by Lawrence
1005 Lessig, I chipped in and set up a
1006 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">DocBook</a> processing framework to
1007 generate PDF, HTML and EPUB version of the short story.  The tools to
1008 transform DocBook to different formats are already in my Linux
1009 distribution of choice, <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>, so
1010 all I had to do was to use the
1011 <a href="http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/">dblatex</a>,
1012 <a href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/epub/README">dbtoepub</a>
1013 and <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/">xmlto</a> tools to do the
1014 conversion.  After a few days, we decided to replace dblatex with
1015 xsltproc/fop (aka
1016 <a href="http://wiki.docbook.org/DocBookXslStylesheets">docbook-xsl</a>),
1017 to get the copyright information to show up in the PDF and to get a
1018 nicer &lt;variablelist&gt; typesetting, but that is just a minor
1019 technical detail.</p>
1020
1021 <p>There were a few challenges, of course.  We want to typeset the
1022 short story to look like the original, and that require fairly good
1023 control over the layout.  The original short story have three
1024 parts/scenes separated by a single horizontally centred star (*), and
1025 the paragraphs do not contain only flowing text, but dialogs and text
1026 that started on a new line in the middle of the paragraph.</p>
1027
1028 <p>I initially solved the first challenge by using a paragraph with a
1029 single star in it, ie &lt;para&gt;*&lt;/para&gt;, but it made sure a
1030 placeholder indicated where the scene shifted.  This did not look too
1031 good without the centring.  The next approach was to create a new
1032 preprocessor directive &lt;?newscene?&gt;, mapping to "&lt;hr/&gt;"
1033 for HTML and "&lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;&lt;fo:leader
1034 leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;&lt;/fo:block&gt;"
1035 for FO/PDF output (did not try to implement this in dblatex, as we had
1036 switched at this time).  The HTML XSL file looked like this:</p>
1037
1038 <p><blockquote><pre>
1039 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
1040 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
1041   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
1042     &lt;hr/&gt;
1043   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
1044 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
1045 </pre></blockquote></p>
1046
1047 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
1048
1049 <p><blockquote><pre>
1050 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
1051 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
1052   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
1053     &lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;
1054       &lt;fo:leader leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;
1055     &lt;/fo:block&gt;
1056   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
1057 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
1058 </pre></blockquote></p>
1059
1060 <p>Finally, I came across the &lt;bridgehead&gt; tag, which seem to be
1061 a good fit for the task at hand, and I replaced &lt;?newscene?&gt;
1062 with &lt;bridgehead&gt;*&lt;/bridgehead&gt;.  It isn't centred, but we
1063 can fix it with some XSL rule if the current visual layout isn't
1064 enough.</p>
1065
1066 <p>I did not find a good DocBook compliant way to solve the
1067 linebreak/paragraph challenge, so I ended up creating a new processor
1068 directive &lt;?linebreak?&gt;, mapping to &lt;br/&gt; in HTML, and
1069 &lt;fo:block/&gt; in FO/PDF.  I suspect there are better ways to do
1070 this, and welcome ideas and patches on github.  The HTML XSL file now
1071 look like this:</p>
1072
1073 <p><blockquote><pre>
1074 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
1075 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
1076   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
1077     &lt;br/&gt;
1078   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
1079 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
1080 </pre></blockquote></p>
1081
1082 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
1083
1084 <p><blockquote><pre>
1085 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
1086 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'
1087   xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"&gt;
1088   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
1089     &lt;fo:block/&gt;
1090   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
1091 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
1092 </pre></blockquote></p>
1093
1094 <p>One unsolved challenge is our wish to expose different ISBN numbers
1095 per publication format, while keeping all of them in some conditional
1096 structure in the DocBook source.  No idea how to do this, so we ended
1097 up listing all the ISBN numbers next to their format in the colophon
1098 page.</p>
1099
1100 <p>If you want to check out the finished result, check out the
1101 <a href="https://github.com/sickel/kodemus">source repository at
1102 github</a>
1103 (<a href="https://github.com/EFN/kodemus">future/new/official
1104 repository</a>).  We expect it to be ready and announced in a few
1105 days.</p>
1106
1107       </div>
1108       <div class="tags">
1109
1110
1111         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
1112
1113
1114       </div>
1115     </div>
1116     <div class="padding"></div>
1117
1118     <div class="entry">
1119       <div class="title">
1120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html">Skolelinux 6 got a video review from Pcwizz</a>
1121       </div>
1122       <div class="date">
1123         17th March 2013
1124       </div>
1125       <div class="body">
1126         <p>Via
1127 <a href="https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930">twitter</a>
1128 I just discovered that <a href="http://pcwizz.net/">Pcwizz</a> have
1129 done a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc">video
1130 review</a> on Youtube of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
1131 / Debian Edu</a> version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
1132 the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
1133 a few programs and his view of our distribution.</p>
1134
1135 <p>There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
1136 have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:</p>
1137
1138 <blockquote>
1139 "Basically everything you ever need in a school environment."
1140 </blockquote>
1141
1142 <p>And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:</p>
1143
1144 <blockquote>
1145 "So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
1146 to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
1147 lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
1148 I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
1149 feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network."
1150 </blockquote>
1151
1152 <p>To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
1153 installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
1154 server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
1155 considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)</p>
1156
1157 <p>While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
1158 about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:
1159
1160 <blockquote>
1161 "[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
1162 is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
1163 actually don't need in the education distribution, but have just been
1164 included because it isn't stripped out for some reason."
1165 </blockquote>
1166
1167 <p>I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
1168 Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
1169 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries">one
1170 consistent menu system</a> instead of two incomplete and partly
1171 inconsistent menu systems.</p>
1172
1173 <p>The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
1174 embedding:</p>
1175
1176 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
1177
1178       </div>
1179       <div class="tags">
1180
1181
1182         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>.
1183
1184
1185       </div>
1186     </div>
1187     <div class="padding"></div>
1188
1189     <div class="entry">
1190       <div class="title">
1191         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html">First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</a>
1192       </div>
1193       <div class="date">
1194          8th March 2013
1195       </div>
1196       <div class="body">
1197         <p>Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
1198 of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
1199 based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
1200 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
1201 initial release 2012-03-11</a>.  This is the
1202 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html">release
1203 announcement email from Holger</a>:</p>
1204
1205 <blockquote><p>Hi,</p>
1206
1207 <p>it's my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
1208 Edu 6.0.7+r1 ("Debian Edu Squeeze").</p>
1209
1210 <p>Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
1211 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
1212 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
1213 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
1214 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311">http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311</a>
1215 for more information on "Debian Edu Squeeze".</p>
1216
1217 <p>Images are available for download at
1218 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/</a></p>
1219
1220 <p>md5sums:
1221 <br>1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
1222 <br>a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
1223 <br>ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
1224
1225 <p>sha1sums:
1226 <br>a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
1227 <br>9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
1228 <br>43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
1229
1230 <p>These images are suitable for amd64+i386.</p>
1231
1232 <p>Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename "Squeeze", released
1233 2013-03-03:</p>
1234
1235 <ul>
1236   <li>sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
1237   <ul>
1238         <li>Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient</li>
1239         <li>Comply with 3.X kernel</li>
1240   </ul></li>
1241   <li>debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
1242   <ul>
1243         <li>Minor updates from the wiki</li>
1244         <li>Danish translation now complete</li>
1245   </ul></li>
1246   <li>debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
1247      <ul>
1248         <li>Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880</li>
1249         <li>Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.</li>
1250         <li>Correct Kerberos user policy: don't expire password after 2 days.
1251                 Closes: #664596</li>
1252         <li>Handle '#' characters in the root or first users password.
1253                 Closes: #664976</li>
1254         <li>Fixes for gosa-sync:
1255            <ul>
1256                 <li>Don't fail if password contains "</li>
1257                 <li>Don't disclose new password string in syslog</li>
1258            </ul></li>
1259         <li>Fixes for gosa-create:
1260            <ul>
1261                 <li>Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes</li>
1262                 <li>Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²</li>
1263                 <li>gosa-netgroups plugin: don't erase entries of attribute type
1264                          "memberNisNetgroup". Closes: #687256</li>
1265                 <li>First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users</li>
1266            </ul></li>
1267         <li>Add Danish web page</li>
1268     </ul>
1269   <li>debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
1270     <ul>
1271         <li>Improve preseeding support and documentation</li>
1272     </ul></li>
1273 </ul>
1274
1275 <p>End-user documentation in English is available at
1276 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/</a>
1277 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
1278 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)</p>
1279
1280 <p>If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
1281 mailinglist
1282 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@lists.debian.org</a>!
1283 </p></blockquote>
1284
1285 <p>I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)</p>
1286
1287       </div>
1288       <div class="tags">
1289
1290
1291         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>.
1292
1293
1294       </div>
1295     </div>
1296     <div class="padding"></div>
1297
1298     <div class="entry">
1299       <div class="title">
1300         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html">Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web</a>
1301       </div>
1302       <div class="date">
1303          3rd March 2013
1304       </div>
1305       <div class="body">
1306         <p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
1307 broadcast them on the air?  Using free software?  With video on demand
1308 support using
1309 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
1310 open standards</a>?  Included a web based video stream as well?  And
1311 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world?  A
1312 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
1313 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> have been building a
1314 system to do just this.  The source code for the solution is licensed
1315 using the GNU LGPL, and
1316 <a href="http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github</a>.</p>
1317
1318 <p>The idea is simple.  You upload a video file over the web, and
1319 attach meta information to the file.  You select a time slot in the
1320 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
1321 in the web stream.  It is also made available in a video on demand
1322 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time.  All
1323 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.</p>
1324
1325 <p>There are several parts to this web based solution.  I'll mention
1326 the three most important ones.  The first part is the database of
1327 videos and the schedule.  This is written in Django and include a REST
1328 API.  The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
1329 PostgreSQL.  At the moment this system can be tested on
1330 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv</a>.  The
1331 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
1332 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast.  This is done
1333 using <a href="http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT</a> and
1334 <a href="http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit</a>.  Video
1335 signal distribution is handled using
1336 <a href="http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder</a>.  The
1337 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
1338 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
1339 on demand.  It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
1340 decided what it will end up using.  Note that the source of the latter
1341 two parts are not yet pushed to github.  The lead author want to clean
1342 them up a bit more first.</p>
1343
1344 <p>The development is coordinated on the
1345 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
1346 channel</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
1347 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
1348 frikanalen mailing list</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
1349 (phed on IRC).  Anyone is welcome to participate in the
1350 development.</p>
1351
1352       </div>
1353       <div class="tags">
1354
1355
1356         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1357
1358
1359       </div>
1360     </div>
1361     <div class="padding"></div>
1362
1363     <div class="entry">
1364       <div class="title">
1365         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html">Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013</a>
1366       </div>
1367       <div class="date">
1368         27th February 2013
1369       </div>
1370       <div class="body">
1371         <p>Dr. <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a>,
1372 founder of <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a>,
1373 is giving <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
1374 talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00</a>.  The event is public
1375 and organised by <a href="">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)</a>
1376 (where I am the chair of the board) and
1377 <a href="http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
1378 Center</a>.  The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
1379 GNU», with this description:
1380
1381 <p><blockquote>
1382 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
1383 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
1384 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
1385 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
1386 </blockquote></p>
1387
1388 <p>The meeting is open for everyone.  Due to space limitations, the
1389 doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45.  I
1390 am really curious how many will show up.  See
1391 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
1392 page</a> for the location details.</p>
1393
1394       </div>
1395       <div class="tags">
1396
1397
1398         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1399
1400
1401       </div>
1402     </div>
1403     <div class="padding"></div>
1404
1405     <div class="entry">
1406       <div class="title">
1407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html">Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap</a>
1408       </div>
1409       <div class="date">
1410         15th February 2013
1411       </div>
1412       <div class="body">
1413         <p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
1414 now a great source of free maps available from
1415 <a href="http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart</a>.  To
1416 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
1417 download the map type you want.  There are 8 different maps available,
1418 using different colours and data selection.  Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
1419 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
1420 "Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
1421 page for descriptions).</p>
1422
1423 <p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
1424 map you can just edit the
1425 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> map source
1426 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)</p>
1427
1428       </div>
1429       <div class="tags">
1430
1431
1432         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>.
1433
1434
1435       </div>
1436     </div>
1437     <div class="padding"></div>
1438
1439     <div class="entry">
1440       <div class="title">
1441         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</a>
1442       </div>
1443       <div class="date">
1444         12th February 2013
1445       </div>
1446       <div class="body">
1447         <p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
1448 <a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
1449 by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
1450 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
1451 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
1452 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
1453 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
1454 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
1455 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
1456 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
1457 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
1458 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
1459 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
1460 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
1461 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
1462 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
1463
1464 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
1465 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
1466 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
1467 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
1468 for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
1469 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
1470 fields:</p>
1471
1472 <p><pre>
1473 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
1474 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
1475 X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
1476 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
1477 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
1478 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
1479 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
1480 </pre></p>
1481
1482 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
1483 answer regarding
1484 <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
1485 to put bank account information into a vCard</a>.  For payments in
1486 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
1487 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.</p>
1488
1489 <p>The complete vCard could look like this:</p>
1490
1491 <p><pre>
1492 BEGIN:VCARD
1493 VERSION:2.1
1494 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
1495 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
1496 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
1497 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
1498 REV:20130212T095000Z
1499 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
1500 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
1501 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
1502 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
1503 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
1504 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
1505 END:VCARD
1506 </pre></p>
1507
1508 <p>The resulting QR code created using
1509 <a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
1510 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
1511 phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
1512 bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
1513 system.</p>
1514
1515 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
1516
1517 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
1518 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
1519 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
1520 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
1521
1522 <p><strong>Update 2013-02-12 11:30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
1523 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.</p>
1524
1525       </div>
1526       <div class="tags">
1527
1528
1529         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>.
1530
1531
1532       </div>
1533     </div>
1534     <div class="padding"></div>
1535
1536     <div class="entry">
1537       <div class="title">
1538         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html">Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</a>
1539       </div>
1540       <div class="date">
1541         10th February 2013
1542       </div>
1543       <div class="body">
1544         <p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
1545
1546 <p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
1547 during the night and wake up when it is morning.  I mean, when I
1548 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier.  In our household we
1549 have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
1550 sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day.  They have adapted
1551 quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
1552 up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
1553 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
1554 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
1555 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
1556 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
1557
1558 <p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem.  It
1559 involve home automation.  A few years ago I bought a
1560 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
1561 switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
1562 Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
1563 gadgets using my Linux server.  When I moved from the old flat to a
1564 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
1565 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
1566 the gadgets I had.  But recently I bought a
1567 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
1568 Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
1569 sockets.  I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
1570 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding.  The default
1571 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
1572 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
1573 ones own
1574 <a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
1575 with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
1576 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
1577 code.  I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
1578 important.  But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
1579 the kids came to me yesterday.  We can set up a night light controlled
1580 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00.  The kids can
1581 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
1582 get up or not.  They joined me in setting everything up, and I
1583 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
1584 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
1585
1586 <p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
1587 after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
1588 "morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
1589 arrived.  So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
1590 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
1591 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
1592
1593 <p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
1594 to tell the kids to get up.  We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
1595 can also delay it if we want to.</p>
1596
1597       </div>
1598       <div class="tags">
1599
1600
1601         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1602
1603
1604       </div>
1605     </div>
1606     <div class="padding"></div>
1607
1608     <div class="entry">
1609       <div class="title">
1610         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
1611       </div>
1612       <div class="date">
1613          2nd February 2013
1614       </div>
1615       <div class="body">
1616         <p>My
1617 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
1618 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
1619 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
1620 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
1621 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
1622 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
1623 version too.</p>
1624
1625 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
1626 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
1627 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
1628 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
1629 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
1630 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
1631 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
1632 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
1633
1634 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
1635 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
1636 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
1637 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
1638 it. :)</p>
1639
1640 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1641 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1642 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1643
1644       </div>
1645       <div class="tags">
1646
1647
1648         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>.
1649
1650
1651       </div>
1652     </div>
1653     <div class="padding"></div>
1654
1655     <div class="entry">
1656       <div class="title">
1657         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
1658       </div>
1659       <div class="date">
1660         22nd January 2013
1661       </div>
1662       <div class="body">
1663         <p>Yesterday, I
1664 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
1665 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
1666 pluggable hardware devices, which I
1667 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
1668 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
1669 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
1670 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
1671 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
1672 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
1673 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
1674 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
1675 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
1676 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
1677
1678 <pre>
1679 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
1680 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
1681 </pre>
1682
1683 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
1684 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
1685 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
1686 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
1687
1688 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
1689 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
1690 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
1691 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
1692 word.</p>
1693
1694 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
1695 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
1696 process.</p>
1697
1698 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
1699 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
1700
1701       </div>
1702       <div class="tags">
1703
1704
1705         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1706
1707
1708       </div>
1709     </div>
1710     <div class="padding"></div>
1711
1712     <div class="entry">
1713       <div class="title">
1714         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
1715       </div>
1716       <div class="date">
1717         21st January 2013
1718       </div>
1719       <div class="body">
1720         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
1721 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
1722 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
1723 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
1724 it, fetch the
1725 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
1726 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
1727 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
1728 autostart script.</p>
1729
1730 <p>The design is simple:</p>
1731
1732 <ul>
1733
1734 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
1735 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
1736
1737 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
1738 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
1739 initially did.</li>
1740
1741 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
1742 the APT database, a database
1743 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
1744 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
1745
1746 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
1747 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
1748 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
1749 package or packages.</li>
1750
1751 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
1752 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
1753
1754 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
1755 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
1756
1757 </ul>
1758
1759 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
1760 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
1761 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
1762 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
1763
1764 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
1765 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
1766 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
1767 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
1768 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
1769
1770 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
1771 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
1772 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
1773 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
1774 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
1775 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
1776 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
1777 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
1778
1779 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
1780 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
1781 '<tt>svn checkout
1782 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
1783 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
1784 devscripts package.</p>
1785
1786 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
1787 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
1788 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
1789 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
1790 instructions</a> for details.</p>
1791
1792       </div>
1793       <div class="tags">
1794
1795
1796         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1797
1798
1799       </div>
1800     </div>
1801     <div class="padding"></div>
1802
1803     <div class="entry">
1804       <div class="title">
1805         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
1806       </div>
1807       <div class="date">
1808         19th January 2013
1809       </div>
1810       <div class="body">
1811         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
1812 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
1813 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
1814 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
1815 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
1816 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
1817 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
1818 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
1819 not a durable solution.
1820
1821 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
1822 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
1823
1824 <ul>
1825
1826 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
1827   than A4).</li>
1828 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
1829 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
1830 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
1831 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
1832 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
1833 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
1834 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
1835 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
1836 size).</li>
1837 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
1838   X.org packages.</li>
1839 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
1840   the time).
1841
1842 </ul>
1843
1844 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
1845 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
1846 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
1847 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
1848 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
1849 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
1850 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
1851 still be useful.</p>
1852
1853 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
1854 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
1855 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
1856 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
1857 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
1858 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
1859
1860       </div>
1861       <div class="tags">
1862
1863
1864         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1865
1866
1867       </div>
1868     </div>
1869     <div class="padding"></div>
1870
1871     <div class="entry">
1872       <div class="title">
1873         <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>
1874       </div>
1875       <div class="date">
1876         18th January 2013
1877       </div>
1878       <div class="body">
1879         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
1880 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
1881 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
1882 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
1883 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
1884 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
1885 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
1886
1887 <pre>
1888 #!/usr/bin/python
1889 import sys
1890 import apt
1891 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1892     cache = apt.Cache()
1893     cache.open(None)
1894     thepkgs = []
1895     for pkg in cache:
1896         version = pkg.candidate
1897         if version is None:
1898             version = pkg.installed
1899         if version is None:
1900             continue
1901         record = version.record
1902         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
1903             continue
1904         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
1905         for t in mime_types:
1906             t = t.rstrip().strip()
1907             if t == mimetype:
1908                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
1909     return thepkgs
1910 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
1911 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
1912     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
1913 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
1914 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1915     print "  %s" %pkg
1916 </pre>
1917
1918 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
1919
1920 <pre>
1921 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
1922 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
1923   gecko-mediaplayer
1924 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
1925 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
1926   browser-plugin-gnash
1927 %
1928 </pre>
1929
1930 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
1931 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
1932 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
1933 anyone working on adding it?</p>
1934
1935 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
1936 request for icweasel support for this feature is
1937 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
1938 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
1939 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
1940 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
1941
1942       </div>
1943       <div class="tags">
1944
1945
1946         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1947
1948
1949       </div>
1950     </div>
1951     <div class="padding"></div>
1952
1953     <div class="entry">
1954       <div class="title">
1955         <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>
1956       </div>
1957       <div class="date">
1958         16th January 2013
1959       </div>
1960       <div class="body">
1961         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
1962 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
1963 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
1964 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
1965 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
1966 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
1967 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
1968 downloaded by the browser.</p>
1969
1970 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
1971 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
1972 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
1973 can be found on the
1974 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
1975 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
1976 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
1977 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
1978 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
1979
1980 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
1981
1982 <pre>
1983   count MIME type
1984   ----- -----------------------
1985      32 text/plain
1986      30 audio/mpeg
1987      29 image/png
1988      28 image/jpeg
1989      27 application/ogg
1990      26 audio/x-mp3
1991      25 image/tiff
1992      25 image/gif
1993      22 image/bmp
1994      22 audio/x-wav
1995      20 audio/x-flac
1996      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1997      18 video/x-ms-asf
1998      18 audio/x-musepack
1999      18 audio/x-mpeg
2000      18 application/x-ogg
2001      17 video/mpeg
2002      17 audio/x-scpls
2003      17 audio/ogg
2004      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2005 </pre>
2006
2007 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
2008
2009 <pre>
2010   count MIME type
2011   ----- -----------------------
2012      33 text/plain
2013      32 image/png
2014      32 image/jpeg
2015      29 audio/mpeg
2016      27 image/gif
2017      26 image/tiff
2018      26 application/ogg
2019      25 audio/x-mp3
2020      22 image/bmp
2021      21 audio/x-wav
2022      19 audio/x-mpegurl
2023      19 audio/x-mpeg
2024      18 video/mpeg
2025      18 audio/x-scpls
2026      18 audio/x-flac
2027      18 application/x-ogg
2028      17 video/x-ms-asf
2029      17 text/html
2030      17 audio/x-musepack
2031      16 image/x-xbitmap
2032 </pre>
2033
2034 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
2035
2036 <pre>
2037   count MIME type
2038   ----- -----------------------
2039      31 text/plain
2040      31 image/png
2041      31 image/jpeg
2042      29 audio/mpeg
2043      28 application/ogg
2044      27 image/gif
2045      26 image/tiff
2046      26 audio/x-mp3
2047      23 audio/x-wav
2048      22 image/bmp
2049      21 audio/x-flac
2050      20 audio/x-mpegurl
2051      19 audio/x-mpeg
2052      18 video/x-ms-asf
2053      18 video/mpeg
2054      18 audio/x-scpls
2055      18 application/x-ogg
2056      17 audio/x-musepack
2057      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2058      16 video/x-msvideo
2059 </pre>
2060
2061 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
2062 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
2063 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
2064 issues.</p>
2065
2066 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
2067 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
2068
2069       </div>
2070       <div class="tags">
2071
2072
2073         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2074
2075
2076       </div>
2077     </div>
2078     <div class="padding"></div>
2079
2080     <div class="entry">
2081       <div class="title">
2082         <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>
2083       </div>
2084       <div class="date">
2085         15th January 2013
2086       </div>
2087       <div class="body">
2088         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
2089 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
2090 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
2091 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
2092 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
2093 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
2094 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
2095 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
2096 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
2097 packages.</p>
2098
2099 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
2100 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
2101 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
2102 modalias.</p>
2103
2104 <p><blockquote>
2105 Package: package-name
2106 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
2107 </blockquote></p>
2108
2109 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
2110 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
2111
2112 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
2113 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
2114
2115 <p><blockquote>
2116 Package: cheese
2117 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
2118 </blockquote></p>
2119
2120 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
2121 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
2122
2123 <p><blockquote>
2124 Package: pcmciautils
2125 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
2126 </blockquote></p>
2127
2128 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
2129 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
2130
2131 <p><blockquote>
2132 Package: colorhug-client
2133 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
2134 </blockquote></p>
2135
2136 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
2137 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
2138 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
2139
2140 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
2141 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
2142 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
2143 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
2144 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
2145 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
2146 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
2147 Raring.</p>
2148
2149 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
2150 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
2151 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
2152 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
2153 try the
2154 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
2155 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
2156 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
2157 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
2158
2159 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
2160 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
2161
2162 <p><blockquote>
2163 % ./hw-support-lookup
2164 <br>yubikey-personalization
2165 <br>%
2166 </blockquote></p>
2167
2168 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
2169 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
2170
2171 <p><blockquote>
2172 % ./hw-support-lookup
2173 <br>pcmciautils
2174 <br>%
2175 </blockquote></p>
2176
2177 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
2178 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
2179 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
2180
2181 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
2182 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
2183 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
2184 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
2185 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
2186 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
2187 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
2188 see if it work.</p>
2189
2190 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
2191 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
2192 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
2193 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
2194
2195       </div>
2196       <div class="tags">
2197
2198
2199         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2200
2201
2202       </div>
2203     </div>
2204     <div class="padding"></div>
2205
2206     <div class="entry">
2207       <div class="title">
2208         <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>
2209       </div>
2210       <div class="date">
2211         14th January 2013
2212       </div>
2213       <div class="body">
2214         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
2215 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
2216 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
2217 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
2218 in
2219 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
2220 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
2221
2222 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
2223
2224 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
2225 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
2226 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
2227 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
2228 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
2229 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
2230
2231 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
2232 this shell script:</p>
2233
2234 <pre>
2235 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
2236 </pre>
2237
2238 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
2239 using modinfo:</p>
2240
2241 <pre>
2242 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
2243 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
2244 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
2245 %
2246 </pre>
2247
2248 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
2249
2250 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
2251 Bridge memory controller:</p>
2252
2253 <p><blockquote>
2254 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
2255 </blockquote></p>
2256
2257 <p>This represent these values:</p>
2258
2259 <pre>
2260  v   00008086  (vendor)
2261  d   00002770  (device)
2262  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
2263  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
2264  bc  06        (bus class)
2265  sc  00        (bus subclass)
2266  i   00        (interface)
2267 </pre>
2268
2269 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
2270 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
2271 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
2272 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
2273
2274 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
2275 means.</p>
2276
2277 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
2278
2279 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
2280 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
2281
2282 <p><blockquote>
2283 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
2284 </blockquote></p>
2285
2286 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
2287
2288 <pre>
2289  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
2290  p    0001  (device product)
2291  d    0206  (bcddevice)
2292  dc     09  (device class)
2293  dsc    00  (device subclass)
2294  dp     00  (device protocol)
2295  ic     09  (interface class)
2296  isc    00  (interface subclass)
2297  ip     00  (interface protocol)
2298 </pre>
2299
2300 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
2301 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
2302 these alias entries show up:</p>
2303
2304 <p><blockquote>
2305 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
2306 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
2307 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
2308 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
2309 </blockquote></p>
2310
2311 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
2312 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
2313 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
2314
2315 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
2316
2317 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
2318 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
2319
2320 <p><blockquote>
2321 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2322 </blockquote></p>
2323
2324 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
2325
2326 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
2327
2328 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
2329 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
2330 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
2331
2332 <p><blockquote>
2333 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
2334 </blockquote></p>
2335
2336 <p>The values present are</p>
2337
2338 <pre>
2339  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
2340  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
2341  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
2342  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
2343  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
2344  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
2345  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
2346  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
2347  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
2348  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
2349  ct   10             (chassis type)
2350  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
2351 </pre>
2352
2353 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
2354 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
2355
2356 <pre>
2357   3 Desktop
2358   4 Low Profile Desktop
2359   5 Pizza Box
2360   6 Mini Tower
2361   7 Tower
2362   8 Portable
2363   9 Laptop
2364  10 Notebook
2365  11 Hand Held
2366  12 Docking Station
2367  13 All In One
2368  14 Sub Notebook
2369  15 Space-saving
2370  16 Lunch Box
2371  17 Main Server Chassis
2372  18 Expansion Chassis
2373  19 Sub Chassis
2374  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
2375  21 Peripheral Chassis
2376  22 RAID Chassis
2377  23 Rack Mount Chassis
2378  24 Sealed-case PC
2379  25 Multi-system
2380  26 CompactPCI
2381  27 AdvancedTCA
2382  28 Blade
2383  29 Blade Enclosing
2384 </pre>
2385
2386 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
2387 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
2388 claim it is a desktop.</p>
2389
2390 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
2391
2392 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
2393 test machine:</p>
2394
2395 <p><blockquote>
2396 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
2397 </blockquote></p>
2398
2399 <p>The values present are</p>
2400
2401 <pre>
2402   ty  01  (type)
2403   pr  00  (prototype)
2404   id  00  (id)
2405   ex  00  (extra)
2406 </pre>
2407
2408 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
2409 the valid values are.</p>
2410
2411 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
2412
2413 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
2414 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
2415 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
2416 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
2417 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
2418 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
2419 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
2420
2421 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
2422
2423 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
2424 one can use the following shell script:</p>
2425
2426 <pre>
2427   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
2428     echo "$id" ; \
2429     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
2430   done
2431 </pre>
2432
2433 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
2434 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
2435
2436 <pre>
2437   acpi:ACPI0003:
2438     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
2439   acpi:device:
2440   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
2441   acpi:IBM0068:
2442     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
2443     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
2444     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
2445     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
2446   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
2447     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
2448     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
2449     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
2450   [...]
2451 </pre>
2452
2453 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
2454 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
2455 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
2456 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
2457
2458 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
2459 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
2460 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
2461
2462       </div>
2463       <div class="tags">
2464
2465
2466         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2467
2468
2469       </div>
2470     </div>
2471     <div class="padding"></div>
2472
2473     <div class="entry">
2474       <div class="title">
2475         <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>
2476       </div>
2477       <div class="date">
2478         10th January 2013
2479       </div>
2480       <div class="body">
2481         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
2482 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
2483 Launcher and updated the Debian package
2484 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
2485 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
2486 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
2487 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
2488 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
2489 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
2490 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
2491 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
2492 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
2493 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
2494 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
2495 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
2496 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
2497 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
2498 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
2499
2500       </div>
2501       <div class="tags">
2502
2503
2504         Tags: <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>.
2505
2506
2507       </div>
2508     </div>
2509     <div class="padding"></div>
2510
2511     <div class="entry">
2512       <div class="title">
2513         <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>
2514       </div>
2515       <div class="date">
2516          9th January 2013
2517       </div>
2518       <div class="body">
2519         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
2520 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
2521 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
2522 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
2523 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
2524 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
2525 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
2526 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
2527 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
2528 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
2529 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
2530
2531 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
2532 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
2533 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
2534 simple:
2535
2536 <ul>
2537
2538 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
2539   starting when a user log in.</li>
2540
2541 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
2542   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
2543
2544 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
2545   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
2546   packages.</li>
2547
2548 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
2549   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
2550
2551 </ul>
2552
2553 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
2554 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
2555 discover database to find packages and
2556 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
2557 packages.</p>
2558
2559 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
2560 draft package is now checked into
2561 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
2562 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
2563 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
2564 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
2565 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
2566 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
2567 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
2568 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
2569 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
2570 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
2571 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
2572 because of the freeze).</p>
2573
2574 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
2575 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
2576 inserted):</p>
2577
2578 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
2579
2580 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
2581 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
2582 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
2583
2584 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
2585 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
2586 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
2587 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
2588 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
2589 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
2590 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
2591
2592 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
2593 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
2594 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
2595 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
2596 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
2597 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
2598 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
2599 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
2600 not be installed?</p>
2601
2602 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
2603 please send me an email. :)</p>
2604
2605       </div>
2606       <div class="tags">
2607
2608
2609         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2610
2611
2612       </div>
2613     </div>
2614     <div class="padding"></div>
2615
2616     <div class="entry">
2617       <div class="title">
2618         <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>
2619       </div>
2620       <div class="date">
2621          2nd January 2013
2622       </div>
2623       <div class="body">
2624         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
2625 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
2626 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
2627 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
2628 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
2629 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
2630 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
2631 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
2632 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
2633 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
2634
2635 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
2636 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
2637 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
2638
2639       </div>
2640       <div class="tags">
2641
2642
2643         Tags: <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>.
2644
2645
2646       </div>
2647     </div>
2648     <div class="padding"></div>
2649
2650     <div class="entry">
2651       <div class="title">
2652         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
2653       </div>
2654       <div class="date">
2655         28th December 2012
2656       </div>
2657       <div class="body">
2658         <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
2659 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
2660 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
2661 Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
2662 December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
2663 present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
2664 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
2665 gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
2666 cost around NOK 15&nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
2667 development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
2668 followed by many others. :)</p>
2669
2670 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
2671 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
2672 donation page</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
2673 you want to donate to the project.</p>
2674
2675       </div>
2676       <div class="tags">
2677
2678
2679         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>.
2680
2681
2682       </div>
2683     </div>
2684     <div class="padding"></div>
2685
2686     <div class="entry">
2687       <div class="title">
2688         <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>
2689       </div>
2690       <div class="date">
2691         25th December 2012
2692       </div>
2693       <div class="body">
2694         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
2695 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
2696
2697 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
2698 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
2699 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
2700 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
2701 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
2702 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
2703 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
2704 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
2705 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
2706 name.</p>
2707
2708 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
2709 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
2710 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
2711
2712 <blockquote><pre>
2713 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
2714 cd bitcoin
2715 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
2716 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
2717 </pre></blockquote>
2718
2719 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
2720 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
2721 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
2722 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
2723 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
2724 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
2725 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
2726 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
2727 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
2728
2729 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2730 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2731 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2732
2733       </div>
2734       <div class="tags">
2735
2736
2737         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>.
2738
2739
2740       </div>
2741     </div>
2742     <div class="padding"></div>
2743
2744     <div class="entry">
2745       <div class="title">
2746         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
2747       </div>
2748       <div class="date">
2749         21st December 2012
2750       </div>
2751       <div class="body">
2752         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
2753 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
2754 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
2755 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
2756 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
2757 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
2758 is now maintained by a
2759 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
2760 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
2761 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
2762 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
2763 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
2764 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
2765 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
2766 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
2767 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
2768 Corallo in a
2769 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
2770 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
2771 Debian package.</p>
2772
2773 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
2774 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
2775 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
2776 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
2777 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
2778 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
2779 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
2780 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
2781 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
2782 new version to unstable.
2783
2784 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
2785 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
2786 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
2787 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
2788 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
2789 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
2790 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
2791 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
2792 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
2793 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
2794 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
2795 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
2796 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
2797 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
2798 have not tested them.</p>
2799
2800 <p>My
2801 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
2802 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
2803 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
2804 years ago, as can be
2805 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
2806 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
2807 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
2808 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
2809 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
2810 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
2811 the same address as last time,
2812 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2813
2814       </div>
2815       <div class="tags">
2816
2817
2818         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>.
2819
2820
2821       </div>
2822     </div>
2823     <div class="padding"></div>
2824
2825     <div class="entry">
2826       <div class="title">
2827         <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>
2828       </div>
2829       <div class="date">
2830         18th December 2012
2831       </div>
2832       <div class="body">
2833         <p>A few days ago I came across
2834 <a href="http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
2835 Hess</a> describing <a href="http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger</a> and
2836 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
2837 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
2838 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
2839 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
2840 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
2841 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
2842 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
2843
2844 are at least <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
2845 different implementations</a> able to read the format.  An example
2846 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
2847 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:</p>
2848
2849 <blockquote><pre>
2850 2004-05-27 Book Store
2851       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
2852       Liabilities:Visa
2853 </pre></blockquote>
2854
2855 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
2856 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
2857 <a href="http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
2858 Spang</a>,
2859 <a href="http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
2860 Keen</a>,
2861 <a href="http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
2862 Cantino</a> and
2863 <a href="http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
2864 Ip</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
2865 <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
2866 M. Kuhn</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
2867 recommendations fitting my need.</p>
2868
2869 <p>The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger</a>
2870 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
2871 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger</a>
2872 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
2873 seemed the best choice to get started.</p>
2874
2875 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
2876 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper</a> for
2877 <a href="http://www.lodo.no/">LODO</a>, the accounting system used by
2878 the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> association, and started to
2879 play with the data set.  I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
2880 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
2881 using the "<tt>ledger balance</tt>" command.  But I will have to
2882 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
2883 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
2884
2885       </div>
2886       <div class="tags">
2887
2888
2889         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>.
2890
2891
2892       </div>
2893     </div>
2894     <div class="padding"></div>
2895
2896     <div class="entry">
2897       <div class="title">
2898         <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>
2899       </div>
2900       <div class="date">
2901          6th December 2012
2902       </div>
2903       <div class="body">
2904         <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of
2905 Oslo</a>, we use the
2906 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/">Cerebrum user
2907 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
2908 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
2909 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a> API, but
2910 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
2911 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
2912 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
2913 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
2914 Python.</p>
2915
2916 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
2917 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/">bofh
2918 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
2919 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
2920 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html">a
2921 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
2922
2923 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
2924 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
2925 user currently logged in:</p>
2926
2927 <blockquote><pre>
2928 #!/usr/bin/env python
2929 import getpass
2930 import xmlrpclib
2931 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
2932 username = getpass.getuser()
2933 password = getpass.getpass()
2934 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
2935 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
2936 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
2937 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
2938 result = server.logout(sessionid)
2939 print result
2940 </pre></blockquote>
2941
2942 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
2943 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.</p>
2944
2945       </div>
2946       <div class="tags">
2947
2948
2949         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>.
2950
2951
2952       </div>
2953     </div>
2954     <div class="padding"></div>
2955
2956     <div class="entry">
2957       <div class="title">
2958         <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>
2959       </div>
2960       <div class="date">
2961         17th November 2012
2962       </div>
2963       <div class="body">
2964         <p>While working on a
2965 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
2966 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a> (76% done),
2967 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
2968 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
2969 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
2970 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.</p>
2971
2972 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
2973 <a href="http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
2974 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
2975 by John Perry Barlow</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
2976 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
2977 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
2978 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
2979 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
2980 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I'm sharing the idea here to
2981 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
2982 arguments.</p>
2983
2984 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
2985 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
2986 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
2987 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
2988 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
2989 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
2990 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
2991 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?</p>
2992
2993 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
2994 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
2995 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
2996 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
2997 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
2998 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
2999 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
3000 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
3001 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
3002 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
3003 correct right holder.</p>
3004
3005 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
3006 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
3007 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
3008 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
3009 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
3010 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
3011 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
3012 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
3013 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
3014 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
3015 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
3016 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
3017 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
3018 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.</p>
3019
3020 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
3021 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
3022 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .</p>
3023
3024 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
3025 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.</p>
3026
3027       </div>
3028       <div class="tags">
3029
3030
3031         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>.
3032
3033
3034       </div>
3035     </div>
3036     <div class="padding"></div>
3037
3038     <div class="entry">
3039       <div class="title">
3040         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</a>
3041       </div>
3042       <div class="date">
3043         14th November 2012
3044       </div>
3045       <div class="body">
3046         <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a
3047 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
3048 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
3049 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
3050 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
3051 the people behind the German
3052 "<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>"
3053 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
3054 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
3055
3056 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3057
3058 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
3059 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
3060 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
3061
3062 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
3063 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
3064 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
3065 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
3066 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
3067 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p>
3068
3069 <p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
3070 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
3071 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
3072 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
3073 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
3074 relationship management and the communication processes in the
3075 project.</p>
3076
3077 <p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
3078 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
3079 and a yoga teacher.</p>
3080
3081 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
3082 project?</strong></p>
3083
3084 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p>
3085
3086 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
3087 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
3088 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
3089 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
3090 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
3091 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
3092 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
3093 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
3094 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
3095 parents.</p>
3096
3097 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
3098 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
3099 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
3100 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
3101 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
3102 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
3103 Germany.</p>
3104
3105 <p>For information about our school project you can read
3106 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
3107 interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p>
3108
3109 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3110 Edu?</strong></p>
3111
3112 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
3113 answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p>
3114
3115 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
3116 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
3117 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
3118 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
3119 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
3120 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
3121 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
3122 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
3123 teachers, parents...</p>
3124
3125 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3126 Edu?</strong></p>
3127
3128 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
3129 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
3130
3131 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
3132 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
3133 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
3134 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
3135 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
3136
3137 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
3138 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
3139 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
3140 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
3141 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
3142 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
3143 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
3144
3145 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3146
3147 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
3148 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
3149 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
3150 my N900 running with Maemo.</p>
3151
3152 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3153 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3154
3155 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
3156 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
3157 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
3158 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
3159 strategy has three crucial pillars:</p>
3160
3161 <ul>
3162
3163 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
3164 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
3165 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li>
3166
3167 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
3168 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
3169 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
3170 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
3171 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
3172 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
3173 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li>
3174
3175 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
3176 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
3177 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
3178 offer to become more and more independent from us.</li>
3179
3180 </ul>
3181
3182       </div>
3183       <div class="tags">
3184
3185
3186         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>.
3187
3188
3189       </div>
3190     </div>
3191     <div class="padding"></div>
3192
3193     <div class="entry">
3194       <div class="title">
3195         <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>
3196       </div>
3197       <div class="date">
3198          4th November 2012
3199       </div>
3200       <div class="body">
3201         <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
3202 <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
3203 a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and
3204 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>.  It is interesting to
3205 see how a member of the bitcoin community
3206 <a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
3207 the report</a>.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
3208 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
3209 competition.  My thoughts go to the
3210 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with
3211 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
3212 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
3213 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
3214 powerful forces to work against it.</p>
3215
3216 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
3217 that the community already seem to have
3218 <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
3219 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>.  Not very surprising, given
3220 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
3221 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
3222 wealth is available.</p>
3223
3224       </div>
3225       <div class="tags">
3226
3227
3228         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>.
3229
3230
3231       </div>
3232     </div>
3233     <div class="padding"></div>
3234
3235     <div class="entry">
3236       <div class="title">
3237         <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>
3238       </div>
3239       <div class="date">
3240         26th October 2012
3241       </div>
3242       <div class="body">
3243         <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
3244 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
3245 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
3246 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn
3247 make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>.  NUUG
3248 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
3249 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
3250 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
3251 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
3252 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the
3253 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
3254 it every time.</p>
3255
3256 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
3257 article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from
3258 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
3259 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
3260 Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also
3261 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available
3262 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
3263 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
3264 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
3265 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
3266 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
3267 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
3268
3269 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
3270 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
3271 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
3272 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
3273 article: First the unplanned outage:
3274
3275 <blockquote><pre>
3276 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
3277 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
3278 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
3279 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
3280 Duration:    40 minutes
3281 Scope:       Exchange 2003
3282 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
3283              a cluster failover.
3284
3285 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
3286              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
3287 Technician:  [xxx]
3288 </pre></blockquote>
3289
3290 Next the planned outage:
3291
3292 <blockquote><pre>
3293 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
3294 Severity:    Major (Planned)
3295 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
3296 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
3297 Duration:    10 hours
3298 Scope:       H2 Transport
3299 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
3300              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
3301              4510s.
3302 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
3303              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
3304              connectivity.
3305 Technician:  [xxx]
3306 </pre></blockquote>
3307
3308 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
3309 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
3310 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
3311 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
3312 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
3313 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
3314 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
3315
3316 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
3317 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
3318 university too.  We do register
3319 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned
3320 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
3321 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
3322 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
3323 for other sites to consider too?</p>
3324
3325       </div>
3326       <div class="tags">
3327
3328
3329         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>.
3330
3331
3332       </div>
3333     </div>
3334     <div class="padding"></div>
3335
3336     <div class="entry">
3337       <div class="title">
3338         <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>
3339       </div>
3340       <div class="date">
3341         22nd October 2012
3342       </div>
3343       <div class="body">
3344         <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
3345 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how
3346 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
3347 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>.  If a real book store did
3348 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
3349 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
3350 background information is available in Norwegian from
3351 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>.
3352 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
3353 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
3354 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
3355 willing to
3356 <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html">
3357 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
3358 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
3359 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
3360 sounded like
3361 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon
3362 would never do that again</a>.  And here we are, three years
3363 later.</p>
3364
3365 <p>And thought this action is
3366 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against
3367 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
3368 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
3369 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
3370 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
3371 rights.</p>
3372
3373 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
3374 unacceptable terms.  For example
3375 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
3376 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
3377 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet
3378 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
3379 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
3380
3381 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
3382 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
3383 restored the account of the user, as reported by
3384 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a>
3385 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>.
3386 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
3387 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
3388 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
3389 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
3390 reading two opinions from
3391 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon
3392 Phipps</a> and
3393 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen
3394 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
3395 details about the original story.</p>
3396
3397       </div>
3398       <div class="tags">
3399
3400
3401         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>.
3402
3403
3404       </div>
3405     </div>
3406     <div class="padding"></div>
3407
3408     <div class="entry">
3409       <div class="title">
3410         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
3411       </div>
3412       <div class="date">
3413         18th October 2012
3414       </div>
3415       <div class="body">
3416         <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
3417 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
3418 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
3419 across a marvellous drawing by
3420 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a>
3421 visualising some of what is going on.
3422
3423 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html">
3424 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p>
3425
3426 <blockquote>
3427 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
3428 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
3429 </blockquote>
3430
3431 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
3432 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
3433 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
3434 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the
3435 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
3436 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
3437
3438       </div>
3439       <div class="tags">
3440
3441
3442         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>.
3443
3444
3445       </div>
3446     </div>
3447     <div class="padding"></div>
3448
3449     <div class="entry">
3450       <div class="title">
3451         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
3452       </div>
3453       <div class="date">
3454         12th October 2012
3455       </div>
3456       <div class="body">
3457         <p>Thanks to a blog post by
3458 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html">Eddy
3459 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
3460 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
3461 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
3462 <a href="http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
3463 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions</a>, the producer
3464 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
3465 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
3466 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
3467 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
3468 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
3469 matter".</p>
3470
3471 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
3472 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
3473 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
3474 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
3475 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
3476 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
3477 to argue its side.</p>
3478
3479 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
3480 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
3481 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
3482 effect</a> can make it rethink its strategy.</p>
3483
3484 <p>What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
3485 <a href="http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
3486 victims of detoxification</a>.</p>
3487
3488       </div>
3489       <div class="tags">
3490
3491
3492         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>.
3493
3494
3495       </div>
3496     </div>
3497     <div class="padding"></div>
3498
3499     <div class="entry">
3500       <div class="title">
3501         <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>
3502       </div>
3503       <div class="date">
3504          3rd October 2012
3505       </div>
3506       <div class="body">
3507         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
3508 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
3509 the computer science book collection available in his local
3510 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
3511 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
3512 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
3513 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
3514 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
3515 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
3516 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
3517 recently published books.</p>
3518
3519 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
3520 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
3521 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
3522 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
3523 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
3524 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
3525 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
3526 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
3527 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
3528 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
3529 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
3530 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
3531 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
3532 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
3533 for the library that evening.</p>
3534
3535 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
3536 going to know that for example
3537 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
3538 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
3539 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
3540 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
3541 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
3542 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
3543 book right away.</p>
3544
3545       </div>
3546       <div class="tags">
3547
3548
3549         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3550
3551
3552       </div>
3553     </div>
3554     <div class="padding"></div>
3555
3556     <div class="entry">
3557       <div class="title">
3558         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture</a>
3559       </div>
3560       <div class="date">
3561         23rd September 2012
3562       </div>
3563       <div class="body">
3564         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
3565 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
3566 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
3567 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
3568 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
3569 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
3570
3571 When I started, I
3572 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
3573 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
3574 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
3575 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
3576 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
3577 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
3578 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
3579
3580 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
3581
3582 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
3583 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
3584 the project files currently available from
3585 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
3586
3587 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
3588 the updated
3589 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
3590 and
3591 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
3592 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
3593 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
3594 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
3595
3596       </div>
3597       <div class="tags">
3598
3599
3600         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>.
3601
3602
3603       </div>
3604     </div>
3605     <div class="padding"></div>
3606
3607     <div class="entry">
3608       <div class="title">
3609         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
3610       </div>
3611       <div class="date">
3612         17th September 2012
3613       </div>
3614       <div class="body">
3615         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
3616 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
3617 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
3618 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
3619 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
3620 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
3621 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
3622
3623 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3624
3625 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
3626 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
3627 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
3628 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
3629 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
3630 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
3631 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
3632 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
3633 training is anyway very important</p>
3634
3635 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
3636 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
3637 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
3638 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
3639 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
3640
3641 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3642 project?</strong></p>
3643
3644 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
3645 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
3646 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
3647 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
3648 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
3649 hole.</p>
3650
3651 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3652 Edu?</strong></p>
3653
3654 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
3655 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
3656 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
3657 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
3658 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
3659 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
3660 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
3661 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
3662 hassle.</p>
3663
3664 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3665 Edu?</strong></p>
3666
3667 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
3668 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
3669 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
3670 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
3671 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
3672 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
3673 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
3674 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
3675
3676 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3677
3678 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
3679 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
3680 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
3681 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
3682 has the same...</p>
3683
3684 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
3685 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
3686 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
3687 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
3688
3689 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3690 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3691
3692 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
3693 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
3694 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
3695
3696 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
3697 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
3698 don't.</p>
3699
3700 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
3701 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
3702 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
3703 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
3704 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
3705 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
3706 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
3707
3708       </div>
3709       <div class="tags">
3710
3711
3712         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>.
3713
3714
3715       </div>
3716     </div>
3717     <div class="padding"></div>
3718
3719     <div class="entry">
3720       <div class="title">
3721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
3722       </div>
3723       <div class="date">
3724         15th September 2012
3725       </div>
3726       <div class="body">
3727         <p>After the
3728 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
3729 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
3730 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
3731 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
3732 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
3733 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
3734 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
3735 was
3736 <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
3737 formal working group should be formed.</p>
3738
3739 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
3740 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
3741 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
3742 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
3743 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
3744 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
3745 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
3746 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
3747
3748 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
3749 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
3750 IETF.</p>
3751
3752       </div>
3753       <div class="tags">
3754
3755
3756         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>.
3757
3758
3759       </div>
3760     </div>
3761     <div class="padding"></div>
3762
3763     <div class="entry">
3764       <div class="title">
3765         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
3766       </div>
3767       <div class="date">
3768         12th September 2012
3769       </div>
3770       <div class="body">
3771         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
3772 publication of of
3773 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
3774 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
3775 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
3776 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
3777 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
3778 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
3779 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
3780 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
3781 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
3782 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
3783
3784 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
3785 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
3786 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
3787 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
3788
3789 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
3790 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
3791
3792       </div>
3793       <div class="tags">
3794
3795
3796         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>.
3797
3798
3799       </div>
3800     </div>
3801     <div class="padding"></div>
3802
3803     <div class="entry">
3804       <div class="title">
3805         <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>
3806       </div>
3807       <div class="date">
3808          7th September 2012
3809       </div>
3810       <div class="body">
3811         <p>As I
3812 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
3813 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
3814 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
3815 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
3816 repository for the project</a>.</p>
3817
3818 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
3819 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
3820 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
3821 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
3822
3823 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
3824 PostScript formats at
3825 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
3826 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
3827
3828       </div>
3829       <div class="tags">
3830
3831
3832         Tags: <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>.
3833
3834
3835       </div>
3836     </div>
3837     <div class="padding"></div>
3838
3839     <div class="entry">
3840       <div class="title">
3841         <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>
3842       </div>
3843       <div class="date">
3844         23rd August 2012
3845       </div>
3846       <div class="body">
3847         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
3848 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
3849 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
3850 revisit the great site
3851 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
3852 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
3853 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
3854
3855       </div>
3856       <div class="tags">
3857
3858
3859         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>.
3860
3861
3862       </div>
3863     </div>
3864     <div class="padding"></div>
3865
3866     <div class="entry">
3867       <div class="title">
3868         <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>
3869       </div>
3870       <div class="date">
3871         17th August 2012
3872       </div>
3873       <div class="body">
3874         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
3875 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
3876 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
3877 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
3878 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
3879 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
3880 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
3881 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
3882 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
3883 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
3884 summer I
3885 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
3886 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
3887 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
3888
3889 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
3890 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
3891 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
3892 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
3893 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
3894 progress:</p>
3895
3896 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
3897
3898 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
3899 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
3900 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
3901 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
3902 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
3903 english version of the docbook source.</p>
3904
3905 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
3906 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
3907 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
3908 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
3909 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
3910 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
3911 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
3912 project files currently available from <a
3913 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
3914
3915 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
3916 the updated
3917 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
3918 and
3919 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
3920 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
3921 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
3922 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
3923
3924       </div>
3925       <div class="tags">
3926
3927
3928         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>.
3929
3930
3931       </div>
3932     </div>
3933     <div class="padding"></div>
3934
3935     <div class="entry">
3936       <div class="title">
3937         <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>
3938       </div>
3939       <div class="date">
3940         10th August 2012
3941       </div>
3942       <div class="body">
3943         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
3944 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
3945 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
3946 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
3947 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
3948 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
3949 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
3950 case for the language
3951 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
3952 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
3953
3954 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
3955 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
3956 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
3957 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
3958 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
3959
3960 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
3961 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
3962 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
3963 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
3964 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
3965 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
3966 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
3967 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
3968 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
3969 alias for 'nb'.</p>
3970
3971 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
3972 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
3973 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
3974 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
3975 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
3976 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
3977 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
3978 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
3979 at the same time. :(</p>
3980
3981 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
3982 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
3983 processors. :(</p>
3984
3985 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
3986
3987       </div>
3988       <div class="tags">
3989
3990
3991         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>.
3992
3993
3994       </div>
3995     </div>
3996     <div class="padding"></div>
3997
3998     <div class="entry">
3999       <div class="title">
4000         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
4001       </div>
4002       <div class="date">
4003         31st July 2012
4004       </div>
4005       <div class="body">
4006         <p>I tried to send this text to the
4007 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
4008 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
4009 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
4010 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
4011 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
4012 out.</p>
4013
4014 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
4015 learning curve at the moment.</p>
4016
4017 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
4018 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
4019 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
4020 available from
4021 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
4022 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
4023 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
4024 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
4025 Squeeze.</p>
4026
4027 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
4028 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
4029 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
4030 problems.</p>
4031
4032 <ul>
4033
4034 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
4035    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
4036    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
4037    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
4038    index references spanning several pages (See
4039    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
4040    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
4041    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
4042
4043 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
4044    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
4045    #683163</a>).</li>
4046
4047 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
4048    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
4049    footnote and text body, see
4050    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
4051    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
4052    refs listed are not right).</li>
4053
4054 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
4055
4056 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
4057    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
4058
4059 </ul>
4060
4061 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
4062 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
4063 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
4064
4065 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
4066
4067       </div>
4068       <div class="tags">
4069
4070
4071         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>.
4072
4073
4074       </div>
4075     </div>
4076     <div class="padding"></div>
4077
4078     <div class="entry">
4079       <div class="title">
4080         <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>
4081       </div>
4082       <div class="date">
4083         21st July 2012
4084       </div>
4085       <div class="body">
4086         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
4087 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
4088 norwegian version</a> of the book
4089 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
4090 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
4091 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
4092 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
4093 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
4094
4095 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
4096 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
4097 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
4098 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
4099 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
4100 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
4101 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
4102 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
4103 print. :)</p>
4104
4105 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
4106 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
4107 language.</p>
4108
4109       </div>
4110       <div class="tags">
4111
4112
4113         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>.
4114
4115
4116       </div>
4117     </div>
4118     <div class="padding"></div>
4119
4120     <div class="entry">
4121       <div class="title">
4122         <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>
4123       </div>
4124       <div class="date">
4125         16th July 2012
4126       </div>
4127       <div class="body">
4128         <p>I am currently working on a
4129 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
4130 to translate</a> the book
4131 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
4132 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
4133 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
4134 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
4135 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
4136 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
4137 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
4138
4139 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
4140 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
4141 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
4142 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
4143 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
4144 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
4145 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
4146 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
4147 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
4148
4149       </div>
4150       <div class="tags">
4151
4152
4153         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>.
4154
4155
4156       </div>
4157     </div>
4158     <div class="padding"></div>
4159
4160     <div class="entry">
4161       <div class="title">
4162         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
4163       </div>
4164       <div class="date">
4165          9th July 2012
4166       </div>
4167       <div class="body">
4168         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4169 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
4170 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
4171 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
4172 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
4173 to adjust and scale the just released
4174 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
4175 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
4176 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
4177
4178 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4179
4180 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
4181 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
4182 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
4183 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
4184 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
4185 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
4186 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
4187 perspective when working with IT.</p>
4188
4189 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4190 project?</strong></p>
4191
4192 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
4193 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
4194 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
4195 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
4196 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
4197 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
4198
4199 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4200 Edu?</strong></p>
4201
4202 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
4203 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
4204 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
4205 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
4206 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
4207 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
4208 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
4209 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
4210 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
4211 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
4212 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
4213 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
4214 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
4215 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
4216 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
4217 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
4218 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
4219 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
4220 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
4221 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
4222 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
4223 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
4224 quicker to update.
4225
4226 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4227 Edu?</strong></p>
4228
4229 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
4230 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
4231 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
4232 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
4233 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
4234 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
4235
4236 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
4237 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
4238 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
4239 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
4240 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
4241 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
4242 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
4243 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
4244 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
4245 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
4246 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
4247 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
4248 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
4249 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
4250 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
4251
4252 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
4253 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
4254 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
4255 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
4256 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
4257 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
4258 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
4259 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
4260
4261 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
4262 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
4263 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
4264 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
4265 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
4266 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
4267 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
4268 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
4269 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
4270 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
4271 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
4272 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
4273 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
4274 sound file.</p>
4275
4276 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
4277 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
4278 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
4279 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
4280 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
4281 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
4282 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
4283 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
4284 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
4285
4286 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4287
4288 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
4289 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
4290 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
4291 )</p>
4292
4293 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4294 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4295
4296 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
4297 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
4298 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
4299 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
4300 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
4301 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
4302 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
4303 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
4304 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
4305 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
4306 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
4307 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
4308 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
4309 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
4310 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
4311
4312 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
4313 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
4314 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
4315 management with Airtime</a>,
4316 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
4317 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
4318 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
4319 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
4320 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
4321
4322       </div>
4323       <div class="tags">
4324
4325
4326         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>.
4327
4328
4329       </div>
4330     </div>
4331     <div class="padding"></div>
4332
4333     <div class="entry">
4334       <div class="title">
4335         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
4336       </div>
4337       <div class="date">
4338          8th July 2012
4339       </div>
4340       <div class="body">
4341         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
4342 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
4343 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
4344 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
4345 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
4346 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
4347 Steinberg in his blog post
4348 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
4349 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
4350 spending of your tax money.</p>
4351
4352 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
4353 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
4354 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
4355 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
4356 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
4357 purchases.</p>
4358
4359       </div>
4360       <div class="tags">
4361
4362
4363         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>.
4364
4365
4366       </div>
4367     </div>
4368     <div class="padding"></div>
4369
4370     <div class="entry">
4371       <div class="title">
4372         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
4373       </div>
4374       <div class="date">
4375          7th July 2012
4376       </div>
4377       <div class="body">
4378         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4379 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
4380 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
4381 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
4382 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
4383 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
4384 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
4385 receive.  The software is
4386
4387 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
4388 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
4389 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
4390 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
4391 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
4392 Windows</a>.</p>
4393
4394 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
4395 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
4396
4397 <p><ul>
4398
4399   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
4400     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
4401
4402   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
4403     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
4404     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
4405     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
4406     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
4407     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
4408     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
4409     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
4410     </li>
4411
4412   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
4413     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
4414
4415   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
4416     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
4417
4418   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
4419     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
4420
4421   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
4422
4423   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
4424     formats </li>
4425
4426   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
4427     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
4428     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
4429     (as separate sets)</li>
4430
4431   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
4432     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
4433     percentage)</li>
4434
4435   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
4436     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
4437     memory):
4438     <ul>
4439       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
4440       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
4441       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
4442       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
4443       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
4444       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
4445       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
4446       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
4447       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
4448       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
4449           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
4450           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
4451           activity)</li>
4452       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
4453       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
4454     </ul></li>
4455
4456   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
4457     <ul>
4458       <li>Break periods</li>
4459       <li>For teacher(s):
4460         <ul>
4461           <li>Not available periods</li>
4462           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
4463           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
4464           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
4465           <li>Min hours daily</li>
4466           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
4467
4468           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
4469             days per week</li>
4470         </ul></li>
4471       <li>For students (sets):
4472         <ul>
4473           <li>Not available periods</li>
4474           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
4475           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
4476           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
4477           <li>Min hours daily</li>
4478           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
4479
4480           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
4481             days per week</li>
4482         </ul></li>
4483       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
4484         <ul>
4485           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
4486           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
4487           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
4488           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
4489           <li>End(s) students day</li>
4490           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
4491           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
4492             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
4493           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
4494           <li>Not overlapping</li>
4495           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
4496           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
4497         </ul></li>
4498     </ul></li>
4499
4500   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
4501     <ul>
4502       <li>Room not available periods</li>
4503       <li>For teacher(s):
4504         <ul>
4505           <li>Home room(s)</li>
4506           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
4507           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
4508         </ul>
4509       </li>
4510
4511       <li>For students (sets):
4512         <ul>
4513           <li>Home room(s)</li>
4514           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
4515           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
4516         </ul>
4517       </li>
4518       <li>Preferred room(s):
4519         <ul>
4520           <li>For a subject</li>
4521           <li>For an activity tag</li>
4522           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
4523           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
4524         </ul>
4525       </li>
4526
4527       <li>For a set of activities:
4528         <ul>
4529           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
4530         </ul>
4531       </li>
4532     </ul>
4533   </li>
4534 </ul></p>
4535
4536 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
4537 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
4538 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
4539 manually, check it out.
4540
4541 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
4542 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
4543 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
4544 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
4545 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
4546 section</a>.</p>
4547
4548       </div>
4549       <div class="tags">
4550
4551
4552         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>.
4553
4554
4555       </div>
4556     </div>
4557     <div class="padding"></div>
4558
4559     <div class="entry">
4560       <div class="title">
4561         <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>
4562       </div>
4563       <div class="date">
4564          3rd July 2012
4565       </div>
4566       <div class="body">
4567         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
4568 project (Norwegian version of
4569 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
4570 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
4571 a problem with the municipalities using
4572 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
4573 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
4574 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
4575 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
4576 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
4577 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
4578 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
4579 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
4580 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
4581 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
4582 the From: header.</p>
4583
4584 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
4585 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
4586 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
4587 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
4588 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
4589 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
4590 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
4591 behaviour.</p>
4592
4593 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
4594 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
4595 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
4596 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
4597 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
4598 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
4599 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
4600
4601       </div>
4602       <div class="tags">
4603
4604
4605         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>.
4606
4607
4608       </div>
4609     </div>
4610     <div class="padding"></div>
4611
4612     <div class="entry">
4613       <div class="title">
4614         <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>
4615       </div>
4616       <div class="date">
4617         26th June 2012
4618       </div>
4619       <div class="body">
4620         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
4621 another interview with the people behind
4622 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
4623 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
4624 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
4625 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
4626 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
4627 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
4628 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
4629
4630 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4631
4632 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
4633 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
4634 ICT in schools</p>
4635
4636 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4637 project?</strong></p>
4638
4639 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
4640 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
4641 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
4642 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
4643
4644 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4645 Edu?</strong></p>
4646
4647 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
4648 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
4649 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
4650 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
4651
4652 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4653 Edu?</strong></p>
4654
4655 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
4656 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
4657 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
4658 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
4659 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
4660 technologies in school.</p>
4661
4662 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4663
4664 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
4665 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
4666 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
4667
4668 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4669 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4670
4671 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
4672 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
4673 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
4674 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
4675
4676 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
4677 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
4678 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
4679
4680 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
4681 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
4682 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
4683 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
4684 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
4685 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
4686 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
4687 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
4688 working there.</p>
4689
4690       </div>
4691       <div class="tags">
4692
4693
4694         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>.
4695
4696
4697       </div>
4698     </div>
4699     <div class="padding"></div>
4700
4701     <div class="entry">
4702       <div class="title">
4703         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
4704       </div>
4705       <div class="date">
4706         24th June 2012
4707       </div>
4708       <div class="body">
4709         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
4710 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
4711 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
4712 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
4713 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
4714 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
4715 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
4716 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
4717 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
4718 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
4719 missing in my book.</p>
4720
4721 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
4722 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
4723 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
4724 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
4725 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
4726 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
4727 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
4728
4729       </div>
4730       <div class="tags">
4731
4732
4733         Tags: <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>.
4734
4735
4736       </div>
4737     </div>
4738     <div class="padding"></div>
4739
4740     <div class="entry">
4741       <div class="title">
4742         <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>
4743       </div>
4744       <div class="date">
4745         11th June 2012
4746       </div>
4747       <div class="body">
4748         <p>During my work on
4749 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
4750 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
4751 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
4752 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
4753 explanation.</p>
4754
4755 <p><ul>
4756
4757 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
4758 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
4759 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
4760 system depend on tasksel tasks in
4761 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
4762 installation.</li>
4763
4764 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
4765 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
4766 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
4767 at least try to enable it for these services:
4768 <ul>
4769
4770   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
4771     quotas.</li>
4772   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
4773   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
4774   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
4775   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
4776   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
4777
4778 </ul></li>
4779
4780 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
4781 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
4782 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
4783 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
4784
4785 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
4786 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
4787 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
4788
4789 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
4790 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
4791 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
4792 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
4793 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
4794 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
4795
4796 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
4797 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
4798 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
4799 in Wheezy.
4800
4801 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
4802 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
4803 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
4804
4805 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
4806 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
4807 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
4808 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
4809
4810 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
4811 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
4812 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
4813 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
4814
4815 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
4816 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
4817 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
4818
4819 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
4820 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
4821 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
4822
4823 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
4824 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
4825 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
4826 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
4827 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
4828
4829 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
4830 <ul>
4831
4832 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
4833 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
4834 <li>and probably more?</li>
4835 </ul></li>
4836
4837 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
4838 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
4839 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
4840 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
4841 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
4842 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
4843 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
4844 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
4845
4846
4847 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
4848 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
4849 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
4850 use.</li>
4851
4852 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
4853 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
4854 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
4855 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
4856 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
4857
4858 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
4859 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
4860 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
4861 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
4862 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
4863 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
4864
4865 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
4866 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
4867 There are at least three implementations,
4868 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
4869 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
4870 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
4871 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
4872 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
4873 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
4874 given room.</li>
4875
4876 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
4877 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
4878 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
4879 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
4880 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
4881 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
4882 investigated.</li>
4883
4884 </ul></p>
4885
4886 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
4887 version.</p>
4888
4889       </div>
4890       <div class="tags">
4891
4892
4893         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4894
4895
4896       </div>
4897     </div>
4898     <div class="padding"></div>
4899
4900     <div class="entry">
4901       <div class="title">
4902         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</a>
4903       </div>
4904       <div class="date">
4905          9th June 2012
4906       </div>
4907       <div class="body">
4908         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
4909 <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
4910 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
4911 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
4912 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
4913 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
4914 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
4915 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
4916 be willing to pay for.</p>
4917
4918 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
4919 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
4920 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
4921 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
4922 Orwell</a>.</p>
4923
4924       </div>
4925       <div class="tags">
4926
4927
4928         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>.
4929
4930
4931       </div>
4932     </div>
4933     <div class="padding"></div>
4934
4935     <div class="entry">
4936       <div class="title">
4937         <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>
4938       </div>
4939       <div class="date">
4940          6th June 2012
4941       </div>
4942       <div class="body">
4943         <p>A few days ago
4944 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
4945 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
4946 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
4947 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
4948 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
4949 code for HP, Dell and IBM
4950 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
4951 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
4952 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
4953 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
4954 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
4955
4956 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
4957 output:
4958
4959 <blockquote><pre>
4960 % 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>
4961 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": ""})
4962 %
4963 </pre></blockquote>
4964
4965 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
4966 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
4967 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
4968
4969       </div>
4970       <div class="tags">
4971
4972
4973         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>.
4974
4975
4976       </div>
4977     </div>
4978     <div class="padding"></div>
4979
4980     <div class="entry">
4981       <div class="title">
4982         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
4983       </div>
4984       <div class="date">
4985          2nd June 2012
4986       </div>
4987       <div class="body">
4988         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
4989 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
4990 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
4991 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
4992 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
4993 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
4994
4995 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4996
4997 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
4998 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
4999 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
5000 by Angela).</p>
5001
5002 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
5003 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
5004 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
5005 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
5006 becoming an osteopath.</p>
5007
5008 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
5009 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
5010 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
5011 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
5012 skills with communication skills.</p>
5013
5014 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5015 project?</strong></p>
5016
5017 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
5018 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
5019 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
5020 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
5021 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
5022
5023 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
5024 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
5025 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
5026 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
5027 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
5028 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
5029 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
5030 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
5031 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
5032
5033 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
5034 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
5035 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
5036
5037 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
5038
5039 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
5040 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
5041 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
5042 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
5043 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
5044 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
5045 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
5046 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
5047 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
5048 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
5049 point.</p>
5050
5051 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
5052 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
5053 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
5054 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
5055 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
5056 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
5057
5058 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
5059 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
5060 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
5061 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
5062 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
5063 spare time.</p>
5064
5065 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
5066 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
5067 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
5068 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
5069 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
5070
5071 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
5072 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
5073 avoidance do exist.</p>
5074
5075 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
5076 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
5077 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
5078 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
5079 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
5080 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
5081 and probably a gain for all.</p>
5082
5083 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5084 Edu?</strong></p>
5085
5086 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
5087 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
5088 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
5089 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
5090 project communication, honest communication within the group of
5091 developers, etc.</p>
5092
5093 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5094 Edu?</strong></p>
5095
5096 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
5097
5098 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
5099 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
5100 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
5101 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
5102 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
5103 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
5104 contribute).</p>
5105
5106 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
5107 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
5108 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
5109 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
5110 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
5111 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
5112 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
5113 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
5114 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
5115 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
5116
5117 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5118
5119 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
5120
5121 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
5122 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
5123 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
5124
5125 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
5126 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
5127 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
5128 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
5129
5130 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
5131 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
5132 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
5133 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
5134 whiteboard.</p>
5135
5136 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
5137
5138 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5139 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5140
5141 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
5142 enrol people.</p>
5143
5144       </div>
5145       <div class="tags">
5146
5147
5148         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>.
5149
5150
5151       </div>
5152     </div>
5153     <div class="padding"></div>
5154
5155     <div class="entry">
5156       <div class="title">
5157         <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>
5158       </div>
5159       <div class="date">
5160          1st June 2012
5161       </div>
5162       <div class="body">
5163         <p>A few years ago I wrote
5164 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
5165 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
5166 I have learned from colleges here at the
5167 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
5168 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
5169 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
5170 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
5171 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
5172
5173 <p><pre>
5174 use strict;
5175 use warnings;
5176 use SOAP::Lite;
5177 use Data::Dumper;
5178 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
5179 my $App = 'test';
5180 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
5181 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
5182 my $s = SOAP::Lite
5183     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
5184     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
5185     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
5186     ;
5187 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
5188     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
5189     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
5190     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
5191 );
5192 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
5193 </pre></p>
5194
5195 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
5196
5197 <p><pre>
5198 $VAR1 = {
5199           'Asset' => {
5200                      'Entitlements' => {
5201                                        'EntitlementData' => [
5202                                                             {
5203                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
5204                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
5205                                                               'Provider' => '',
5206                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
5207                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
5208                                                             },
5209                                                             {
5210                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
5211                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
5212                                                               'Provider' => '',
5213                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
5214                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
5215                                                             },
5216                                                             {
5217                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
5218                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
5219                                                               'Provider' => '',
5220                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
5221                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
5222                                                             }
5223                                                           ]
5224                                      },
5225                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
5226                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
5227                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
5228                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
5229                                           'Buid' => '2323',
5230                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
5231                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
5232                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
5233                                         }
5234                    }
5235         };
5236 </pre></p>
5237
5238 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
5239 service outside the
5240 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
5241 documentation</a>, and according to
5242 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
5243 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
5244 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
5245
5246 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
5247 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
5248
5249       </div>
5250       <div class="tags">
5251
5252
5253         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>.
5254
5255
5256       </div>
5257     </div>
5258     <div class="padding"></div>
5259
5260     <div class="entry">
5261       <div class="title">
5262         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
5263       </div>
5264       <div class="date">
5265         31st May 2012
5266       </div>
5267       <div class="body">
5268         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
5269 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
5270 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
5271 running Debian Squeeze, where
5272 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
5273 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
5274 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
5275 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
5276 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
5277 another day.</p>
5278
5279 <p>After calibration, I get a
5280 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
5281 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
5282 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
5283 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
5284 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
5285 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
5286 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
5287 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
5288 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
5289 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
5290 and a simple</p>
5291
5292 <p><pre>
5293 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
5294 </pre></p>
5295
5296 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
5297 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
5298 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
5299 enough for now.</p>
5300
5301       </div>
5302       <div class="tags">
5303
5304
5305         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5306
5307
5308       </div>
5309     </div>
5310     <div class="padding"></div>
5311
5312     <div class="entry">
5313       <div class="title">
5314         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
5315       </div>
5316       <div class="date">
5317         27th May 2012
5318       </div>
5319       <div class="body">
5320         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
5321 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
5322 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
5323 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
5324 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
5325 since then, helping to make sure the
5326 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
5327 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
5328
5329 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5330
5331 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
5332 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
5333 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
5334 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
5335 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
5336 our computer network.</p>
5337
5338 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
5339 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
5340 (4 months).</p>
5341
5342 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5343 project?</strong></p>
5344
5345 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
5346 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
5347 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
5348 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
5349 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
5350 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
5351 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
5352 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
5353 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
5354 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
5355 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
5356 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
5357 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
5358 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
5359
5360 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5361 Edu?</strong></p>
5362
5363 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
5364 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
5365 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
5366 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
5367 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
5368 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
5369 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
5370 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
5371
5372 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5373 Edu?</strong></p>
5374
5375 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
5376 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
5377 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
5378 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
5379 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
5380 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
5381 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
5382 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
5383 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
5384 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
5385 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
5386 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
5387
5388 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5389
5390 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
5391 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
5392 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
5393
5394 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5395 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5396
5397 <p><ol>
5398
5399 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
5400 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
5401 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
5402 developing.</li>
5403
5404 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
5405 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
5406 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
5407 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
5408 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
5409
5410 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
5411 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
5412 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
5413
5414 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
5415 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
5416 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
5417 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
5418
5419 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
5420 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
5421 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
5422
5423 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
5424
5425 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
5426 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
5427 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
5428 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
5429
5430 </ol></p>
5431
5432       </div>
5433       <div class="tags">
5434
5435
5436         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>.
5437
5438
5439       </div>
5440     </div>
5441     <div class="padding"></div>
5442
5443     <div class="entry">
5444       <div class="title">
5445         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
5446       </div>
5447       <div class="date">
5448         26th May 2012
5449       </div>
5450       <div class="body">
5451         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
5452 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
5453 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
5454 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
5455 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
5456
5457 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
5458 <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>
5459 comment:</p>
5460
5461 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
5462 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
5463 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
5464 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
5465 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
5466 </blockquote></p>
5467
5468 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
5469 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
5470 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
5471 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
5472 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
5473 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
5474 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
5475 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
5476 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
5477 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
5478 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
5479 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
5480 of wasted effort.</p>
5481
5482 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
5483 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
5484 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
5485
5486 <p>See
5487 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
5488 and
5489 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
5490 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
5491 </blockquote></p>
5492
5493       </div>
5494       <div class="tags">
5495
5496
5497         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>.
5498
5499
5500       </div>
5501     </div>
5502     <div class="padding"></div>
5503
5504     <div class="entry">
5505       <div class="title">
5506         <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>
5507       </div>
5508       <div class="date">
5509         18th May 2012
5510       </div>
5511       <div class="body">
5512         <p>In january, I
5513 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
5514 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
5515 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
5516 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
5517 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
5518 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
5519 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
5520 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
5521 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
5522 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
5523
5524 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
5525 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
5526 drivers. :)</p>
5527
5528       </div>
5529       <div class="tags">
5530
5531
5532         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5533
5534
5535       </div>
5536     </div>
5537     <div class="padding"></div>
5538
5539     <div class="entry">
5540       <div class="title">
5541         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
5542       </div>
5543       <div class="date">
5544         13th May 2012
5545       </div>
5546       <div class="body">
5547         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
5548 publish another interview with the people behind
5549 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
5550 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
5551 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
5552 details get right before release.
5553
5554 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5555
5556 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
5557 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
5558 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
5559 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
5560 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
5561 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
5562 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
5563 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
5564
5565 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
5566 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
5567 home since 2006.</p>
5568
5569 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5570 project?</strong></p>
5571
5572 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
5573 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
5574 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
5575 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
5576 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
5577 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
5578
5579 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
5580 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
5581 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
5582 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
5583 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
5584 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
5585 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
5586 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
5587 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
5588 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
5589 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
5590 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
5591 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
5592 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
5593 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
5594 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
5595
5596 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5597 Edu?</strong></p>
5598
5599 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
5600 for me as today.</p>
5601
5602 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
5603
5604 <p><ul>
5605
5606 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
5607 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
5608
5609 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
5610 cost.</li>
5611
5612 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
5613 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
5614 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
5615 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
5616 server</li>
5617
5618 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
5619 school.</li>
5620
5621 </ul></p>
5622
5623 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
5624 came up in this way:</p>
5625
5626 <p><ul>
5627
5628 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
5629 now.</li>
5630
5631 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
5632 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
5633 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
5634
5635 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
5636 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
5637 interfaces used in the past.</li>
5638
5639 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
5640 different needs.</li>
5641
5642 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
5643
5644 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
5645 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
5646 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
5647
5648 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
5649 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
5650
5651 </ul></p>
5652
5653 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5654 Edu?</strong></p>
5655
5656 <p><ul>
5657
5658 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
5659 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
5660 whole municipality areas.</li>
5661
5662 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
5663 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
5664 politicians.</li>
5665
5666 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
5667
5668 </ul></p>
5669
5670 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5671
5672 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
5673 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
5674 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
5675 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
5676 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
5677 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
5678
5679 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
5680 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
5681 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
5682 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
5683 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
5684
5685 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5686 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5687
5688 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
5689 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
5690 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
5691
5692       </div>
5693       <div class="tags">
5694
5695
5696         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>.
5697
5698
5699       </div>
5700     </div>
5701     <div class="padding"></div>
5702
5703     <div class="entry">
5704       <div class="title">
5705         <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>
5706       </div>
5707       <div class="date">
5708         30th April 2012
5709       </div>
5710       <div class="body">
5711         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
5712 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
5713
5714 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
5715 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
5716 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
5717 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
5718 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
5719 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
5720 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
5721 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
5722 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
5723 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
5724 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
5725 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
5726 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
5727 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
5728 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
5729 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
5730
5731 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
5732 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
5733 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
5734 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
5735 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
5736 finally found a Danish supplier
5737 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
5738 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
5739 days ago.</p>
5740
5741 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
5742 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
5743 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
5744 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
5745 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
5746 toys.</p>
5747
5748       </div>
5749       <div class="tags">
5750
5751
5752         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5753
5754
5755       </div>
5756     </div>
5757     <div class="padding"></div>
5758
5759     <div class="entry">
5760       <div class="title">
5761         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
5762       </div>
5763       <div class="date">
5764         26th April 2012
5765       </div>
5766       <div class="body">
5767         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
5768 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
5769 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
5770 that the video editor application included with
5771 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
5772 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
5773 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
5774
5775 <p><blockquote>
5776 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
5777 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
5778 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
5779 </blockquote></p>
5780
5781 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
5782
5783 <p><blockquote>
5784 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
5785 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
5786 </blockquote></p>
5787
5788 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
5789 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
5790 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
5791 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
5792 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
5793 video.  AMR is
5794 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
5795 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
5796 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
5797 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
5798 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
5799 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
5800 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
5801
5802 <p>I know why I prefer
5803 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
5804 standards</a> also for video.</p>
5805
5806       </div>
5807       <div class="tags">
5808
5809
5810         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>.
5811
5812
5813       </div>
5814     </div>
5815     <div class="padding"></div>
5816
5817     <div class="entry">
5818       <div class="title">
5819         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
5820       </div>
5821       <div class="date">
5822         19th April 2012
5823       </div>
5824       <div class="body">
5825         <p>Here in Norway, the
5826 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
5827 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
5828 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
5829 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
5830 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
5831 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
5832 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
5833 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
5834 on the same level.</p>
5835
5836 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
5837 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
5838 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
5839 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
5840 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
5841 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
5842 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
5843 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
5844 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
5845 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
5846 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
5847 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
5848 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
5849 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
5850 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
5851 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
5852 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
5853 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
5854
5855 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
5856 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
5857 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
5858 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
5859 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
5860 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
5861 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
5862 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
5863
5864 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
5865 from Simon Phipps
5866 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
5867 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
5868
5869 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
5870 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
5871 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
5872 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
5873 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
5874 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
5875 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
5876 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
5877 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
5878
5879       </div>
5880       <div class="tags">
5881
5882
5883         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>.
5884
5885
5886       </div>
5887     </div>
5888     <div class="padding"></div>
5889
5890     <div class="entry">
5891       <div class="title">
5892         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
5893       </div>
5894       <div class="date">
5895         15th April 2012
5896       </div>
5897       <div class="body">
5898         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
5899 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
5900 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
5901 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
5902 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
5903 up in the recently released
5904 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
5905 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
5906
5907 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5908
5909 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
5910 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
5911 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
5912 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
5913 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
5914 information technology and science/technology.</p>
5915
5916 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5917 project?</strong></p>
5918
5919 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
5920 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
5921 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
5922 contributing.</p>
5923
5924 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5925 Edu?</strong></p>
5926
5927 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
5928 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
5929 Debian Project!</p>
5930
5931 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5932 Edu?</strong></p>
5933
5934 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
5935 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
5936 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
5937 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
5938 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
5939 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
5940 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
5941
5942 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
5943 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
5944
5945 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5946
5947 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
5948 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
5949 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
5950 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
5951
5952 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5953 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5954
5955 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
5956 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
5957 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
5958 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
5959 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
5960 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
5961 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
5962
5963 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
5964 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
5965 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
5966 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
5967 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
5968 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
5969 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
5970 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
5971
5972       </div>
5973       <div class="tags">
5974
5975
5976         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>.
5977
5978
5979       </div>
5980     </div>
5981     <div class="padding"></div>
5982
5983     <div class="entry">
5984       <div class="title">
5985         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
5986       </div>
5987       <div class="date">
5988          8th April 2012
5989       </div>
5990       <div class="body">
5991         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
5992 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
5993 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
5994 contributor to the
5995 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
5996 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
5997
5998 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5999
6000 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
6001 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
6002
6003 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6004 project?</strong></p>
6005
6006 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
6007 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
6008 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
6009 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
6010 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
6011 "localisation".</p>
6012
6013 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6014 Edu?</strong></p>
6015
6016 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6017 Edu?</strong></p>
6018
6019 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
6020 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
6021 education system.</p>
6022
6023 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
6024 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
6025 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
6026 money on the latest hardware.</p>
6027
6028 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6029
6030 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
6031 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
6032 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
6033
6034 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6035 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6036
6037 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
6038 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
6039 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
6040
6041       </div>
6042       <div class="tags">
6043
6044
6045         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>.
6046
6047
6048       </div>
6049     </div>
6050     <div class="padding"></div>
6051
6052     <div class="entry">
6053       <div class="title">
6054         <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>
6055       </div>
6056       <div class="date">
6057          6th April 2012
6058       </div>
6059       <div class="body">
6060         <p>Recently I have spent time with
6061 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
6062 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
6063 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
6064 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
6065 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
6066 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
6067 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
6068 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
6069
6070 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
6071 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
6072 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
6073 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
6074 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
6075 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
6076 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
6077 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
6078
6079 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
6080 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
6081 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
6082 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
6083 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
6084 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
6085 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
6086 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
6087
6088 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
6089 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
6090 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
6091 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
6092 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
6093 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
6094 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
6095 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
6096 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
6097 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
6098
6099 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
6100 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
6101 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
6102 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
6103
6104 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
6105 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
6106
6107       </div>
6108       <div class="tags">
6109
6110
6111         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>.
6112
6113
6114       </div>
6115     </div>
6116     <div class="padding"></div>
6117
6118     <div class="entry">
6119       <div class="title">
6120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
6121       </div>
6122       <div class="date">
6123          5th April 2012
6124       </div>
6125       <div class="body">
6126         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
6127 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
6128 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
6129 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
6130 for schools.  Check out his article
6131 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
6132 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
6133
6134       </div>
6135       <div class="tags">
6136
6137
6138         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>.
6139
6140
6141       </div>
6142     </div>
6143     <div class="padding"></div>
6144
6145     <div class="entry">
6146       <div class="title">
6147         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
6148       </div>
6149       <div class="date">
6150          1st April 2012
6151       </div>
6152       <div class="body">
6153         <p>Germany is a core area for the
6154 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
6155 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
6156 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
6157
6158 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6159
6160 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
6161 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
6162 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
6163 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
6164 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
6165 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
6166 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
6167 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
6168
6169 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
6170 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
6171 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
6172 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
6173 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
6174 the end of April this year.</p>
6175
6176 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6177 project?</strong></p>
6178
6179 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
6180 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
6181 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
6182 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
6183 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
6184 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
6185 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
6186 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
6187 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
6188 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
6189 Skolelinux.</p>
6190
6191 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
6192 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
6193 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
6194 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
6195 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
6196 the admin teachers.</p>
6197
6198 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6199 Edu?</strong></p>
6200
6201 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
6202 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
6203 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
6204
6205 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
6206 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
6207 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
6208 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
6209 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
6210
6211 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6212 Edu?</strong></p>
6213
6214 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
6215
6216 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6217
6218 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
6219 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
6220 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
6221 LibreOffice.</p>
6222
6223 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6224 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6225
6226 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
6227 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
6228 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
6229
6230       </div>
6231       <div class="tags">
6232
6233
6234         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>.
6235
6236
6237       </div>
6238     </div>
6239     <div class="padding"></div>
6240
6241     <div class="entry">
6242       <div class="title">
6243         <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>
6244       </div>
6245       <div class="date">
6246         25th March 2012
6247       </div>
6248       <div class="body">
6249         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
6250
6251 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
6252 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
6253 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
6254 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
6255 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
6256 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
6257 and download as a
6258 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
6259 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
6260
6261 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
6262   <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"' />
6263     <p>Download video as
6264       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
6265 </video></p>
6266
6267       </div>
6268       <div class="tags">
6269
6270
6271         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>.
6272
6273
6274       </div>
6275     </div>
6276     <div class="padding"></div>
6277
6278     <div class="entry">
6279       <div class="title">
6280         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
6281       </div>
6282       <div class="date">
6283         19th March 2012
6284       </div>
6285       <div class="body">
6286         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
6287 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
6288 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
6289 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
6290 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
6291
6292 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6293
6294 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
6295 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
6296 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
6297 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
6298 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
6299 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
6300 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
6301 installations.</p>
6302
6303 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6304 project?</strong></p>
6305
6306 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
6307 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
6308 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
6309 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
6310 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
6311 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
6312 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
6313 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
6314 these things we decided to try it.</p>
6315
6316 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6317 Edu?</strong></p>
6318
6319 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
6320 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
6321 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
6322 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
6323 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
6324 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
6325 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
6326 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
6327
6328 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6329 Edu?</strong></p>
6330
6331 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
6332 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
6333 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
6334 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
6335 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
6336
6337 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6338
6339 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
6340 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
6341 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
6342 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
6343 that counts...)</p>
6344
6345 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6346 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6347
6348 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
6349 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
6350 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
6351 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
6352 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
6353 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
6354 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
6355 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
6356 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
6357 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
6358 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
6359
6360 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
6361 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
6362 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
6363
6364       </div>
6365       <div class="tags">
6366
6367
6368         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>.
6369
6370
6371       </div>
6372     </div>
6373     <div class="padding"></div>
6374
6375     <div class="entry">
6376       <div class="title">
6377         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
6378       </div>
6379       <div class="date">
6380         16th March 2012
6381       </div>
6382       <div class="body">
6383         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
6384 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
6385 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
6386 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
6387
6388 <ol>
6389
6390 <li>The documentation is written in a
6391 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
6392 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
6393 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
6394 docbook XML.</li>
6395
6396 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
6397 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
6398 with the translated text.</li>
6399
6400 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
6401 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
6402 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
6403 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
6404 images.</li>
6405
6406 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
6407 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
6408
6409 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
6410 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
6411
6412 </ol>
6413
6414 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
6415 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
6416 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
6417 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
6418 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
6419
6420 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
6421 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
6422 package</a>.</p>
6423
6424       </div>
6425       <div class="tags">
6426
6427
6428         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>.
6429
6430
6431       </div>
6432     </div>
6433     <div class="padding"></div>
6434
6435     <div class="entry">
6436       <div class="title">
6437         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
6438       </div>
6439       <div class="date">
6440         11th March 2012
6441       </div>
6442       <div class="body">
6443         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
6444 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
6445 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
6446 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
6447 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
6448 you have not done so already.</p>
6449
6450 <p>I plan to present the new version at
6451 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
6452 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
6453 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
6454
6455       </div>
6456       <div class="tags">
6457
6458
6459         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>.
6460
6461
6462       </div>
6463     </div>
6464     <div class="padding"></div>
6465
6466     <div class="entry">
6467       <div class="title">
6468         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
6469       </div>
6470       <div class="date">
6471          9th March 2012
6472       </div>
6473       <div class="body">
6474         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
6475 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
6476 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6477 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
6478 more international audience.</p>
6479
6480 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
6481 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
6482 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
6483 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
6484 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
6485 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
6486 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
6487
6488
6489 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6490
6491 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
6492 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
6493 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
6494 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
6495 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
6496 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
6497 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
6498 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
6499 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
6500 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
6501 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
6502
6503 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6504 project?</strong></p>
6505
6506 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
6507 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
6508 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
6509 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
6510 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
6511 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
6512 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
6513 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
6514 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
6515 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
6516 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
6517 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
6518 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
6519
6520 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6521 Edu?</strong></p>
6522
6523 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
6524 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
6525 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
6526 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
6527 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
6528 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
6529 Japan.</p>
6530
6531 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6532 Edu?</strong></p>
6533
6534 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
6535 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
6536 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
6537 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
6538 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
6539 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
6540 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
6541 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
6542 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
6543 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
6544 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
6545 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
6546 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
6547 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
6548 help.</p>
6549
6550 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6551
6552 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
6553 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
6554 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
6555 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
6556 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
6557 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
6558 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
6559 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
6560 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
6561 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
6562 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
6563
6564 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6565 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6566
6567 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
6568 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
6569 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
6570 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
6571 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
6572 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
6573 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
6574 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
6575 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
6576 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
6577 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
6578 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
6579
6580       </div>
6581       <div class="tags">
6582
6583
6584         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>.
6585
6586
6587       </div>
6588     </div>
6589     <div class="padding"></div>
6590
6591     <div class="entry">
6592       <div class="title">
6593         <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>
6594       </div>
6595       <div class="date">
6596          7th March 2012
6597       </div>
6598       <div class="body">
6599         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
6600
6601 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
6602 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
6603 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
6604 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
6605 download as a
6606 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
6607 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
6608
6609 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
6610   <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"' />
6611     <p>Download video as
6612       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
6613 </video></p>
6614
6615       </div>
6616       <div class="tags">
6617
6618
6619         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>.
6620
6621
6622       </div>
6623     </div>
6624     <div class="padding"></div>
6625
6626     <div class="entry">
6627       <div class="title">
6628         <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>
6629       </div>
6630       <div class="date">
6631          4th March 2012
6632       </div>
6633       <div class="body">
6634         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
6635 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
6636 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
6637 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
6638 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
6639 need a software solution for your school.</p>
6640
6641       </div>
6642       <div class="tags">
6643
6644
6645         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>.
6646
6647
6648       </div>
6649     </div>
6650     <div class="padding"></div>
6651
6652     <div class="entry">
6653       <div class="title">
6654         <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>
6655       </div>
6656       <div class="date">
6657          3rd March 2012
6658       </div>
6659       <div class="body">
6660         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
6661 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
6662 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
6663 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
6664 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
6665 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
6666 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
6667 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
6668 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
6669 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
6670 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
6671 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
6672 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
6673 year...</p>
6674
6675 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
6676 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
6677 name,
6678 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
6679 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
6680 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
6681 mean). I've been following
6682 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
6683 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
6684 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
6685 Check it out. :)</p>
6686
6687       </div>
6688       <div class="tags">
6689
6690
6691         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>.
6692
6693
6694       </div>
6695     </div>
6696     <div class="padding"></div>
6697
6698     <div class="entry">
6699       <div class="title">
6700         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
6701       </div>
6702       <div class="date">
6703         27th February 2012
6704       </div>
6705       <div class="body">
6706         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
6707 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
6708 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
6709 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
6710 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
6711 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
6712 need a software solution for your school.</p>
6713
6714       </div>
6715       <div class="tags">
6716
6717
6718         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>.
6719
6720
6721       </div>
6722     </div>
6723     <div class="padding"></div>
6724
6725     <div class="entry">
6726       <div class="title">
6727         <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>
6728       </div>
6729       <div class="date">
6730         19th February 2012
6731       </div>
6732       <div class="body">
6733         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
6734 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
6735 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
6736 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
6737 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
6738 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
6739 solution for your school.</p>
6740
6741       </div>
6742       <div class="tags">
6743
6744
6745         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>.
6746
6747
6748       </div>
6749     </div>
6750     <div class="padding"></div>
6751
6752     <div class="entry">
6753       <div class="title">
6754         <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>
6755       </div>
6756       <div class="date">
6757         14th February 2012
6758       </div>
6759       <div class="body">
6760         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
6761 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
6762 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
6763 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
6764 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
6765 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
6766 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
6767 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
6768 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
6769
6770 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
6771 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
6772 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
6773 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
6774 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
6775
6776 <blockquote><pre>
6777 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
6778 do
6779     printf "Failed disk $d: "
6780     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
6781 done
6782 </blockquote></pre>
6783
6784 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
6785 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
6786
6787 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
6788
6789 <blockquote><pre>
6790 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
6791 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
6792 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
6793 </blockquote></pre>
6794
6795 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
6796 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
6797 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
6798 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
6799 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
6800 mounted inside my box.</p>
6801
6802 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
6803 Software RAID in the
6804 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
6805 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
6806 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
6807 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
6808 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
6809 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
6810
6811       </div>
6812       <div class="tags">
6813
6814
6815         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>.
6816
6817
6818       </div>
6819     </div>
6820     <div class="padding"></div>
6821
6822     <div class="entry">
6823       <div class="title">
6824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
6825       </div>
6826       <div class="date">
6827         13th February 2012
6828       </div>
6829       <div class="body">
6830         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
6831 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
6832 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
6833 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
6834 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
6835 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
6836 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
6837 change the global proxy setting by editing
6838 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
6839 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
6840
6841 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
6842 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
6843 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
6844
6845 <blockquote><pre>
6846 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
6847 {
6848    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
6849        isPlainHostName(host) ||
6850        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
6851       return "DIRECT";
6852    else
6853       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
6854 }
6855 </pre></blockquote>
6856
6857 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
6858
6859 <blockquote><pre>
6860 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
6861 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
6862 </pre></blockquote>
6863
6864 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
6865 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
6866 would be used for
6867 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
6868 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
6869 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
6870 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
6871 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
6872 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
6873 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
6874 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
6875 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
6876 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
6877
6878 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
6879 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
6880 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
6881 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
6882 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
6883 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
6884
6885 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
6886 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
6887 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
6888 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
6889 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
6890 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
6891 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
6892 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
6893 the network setup changes.</p>
6894
6895 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
6896 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
6897 draft</a> and a
6898 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
6899 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
6900
6901       </div>
6902       <div class="tags">
6903
6904
6905         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>.
6906
6907
6908       </div>
6909     </div>
6910     <div class="padding"></div>
6911
6912     <div class="entry">
6913       <div class="title">
6914         <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>
6915       </div>
6916       <div class="date">
6917          5th February 2012
6918       </div>
6919       <div class="body">
6920         <p>Since the Lenny version of
6921 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
6922 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
6923 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
6924 in the morning.  This is done using the
6925 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
6926
6927 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
6928 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
6929 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
6930 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
6931 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
6932 the
6933 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
6934 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
6935 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
6936 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
6937 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
6938
6939 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
6940 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
6941 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
6942 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
6943 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
6944 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
6945 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
6946
6947 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
6948 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
6949 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
6950 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
6951 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
6952
6953       </div>
6954       <div class="tags">
6955
6956
6957         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>.
6958
6959
6960       </div>
6961     </div>
6962     <div class="padding"></div>
6963
6964     <div class="entry">
6965       <div class="title">
6966         <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>
6967       </div>
6968       <div class="date">
6969          4th February 2012
6970       </div>
6971       <div class="body">
6972         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
6973 publish the third beta version of
6974 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
6975 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
6976 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
6977 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
6978 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
6979 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
6980 on the project announcement list.</p>
6981
6982 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
6983 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
6984
6985 <ul>
6986
6987 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
6988   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
6989   the installation.</li>
6990
6991 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
6992   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
6993
6994 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
6995   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
6996   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
6997
6998 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
6999   for the local system administrator is created during installation
7000   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
7001   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
7002   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
7003   up to date on the system.</li>
7004
7005 </ul>
7006
7007 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
7008 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
7009 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
7010 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
7011
7012 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
7013 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
7014 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
7015 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
7016 will see you there?</p>
7017
7018       </div>
7019       <div class="tags">
7020
7021
7022         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>.
7023
7024
7025       </div>
7026     </div>
7027     <div class="padding"></div>
7028
7029     <div class="entry">
7030       <div class="title">
7031         <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>
7032       </div>
7033       <div class="date">
7034         27th January 2012
7035       </div>
7036       <div class="body">
7037         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
7038 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
7039 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
7040 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
7041 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
7042 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
7043 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
7044
7045 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
7046 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
7047 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
7048 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
7049 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
7050 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
7051 not taken care of by this.</p>
7052
7053 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
7054 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
7055 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
7056 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
7057 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
7058 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
7059 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
7060 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
7061 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
7062 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
7063 firmware packages.</p>
7064
7065 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
7066 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
7067 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
7068 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
7069 initrd with extra firmware, the
7070 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
7071 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
7072 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
7073
7074 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
7075 network cards working.  For this,
7076 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
7077 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
7078 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
7079
7080 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
7081 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
7082 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
7083
7084 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
7085 try.</p>
7086
7087       </div>
7088       <div class="tags">
7089
7090
7091         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>.
7092
7093
7094       </div>
7095     </div>
7096     <div class="padding"></div>
7097
7098     <div class="entry">
7099       <div class="title">
7100         <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>
7101       </div>
7102       <div class="date">
7103         25th January 2012
7104       </div>
7105       <div class="body">
7106         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
7107 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
7108 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
7109 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
7110 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
7111
7112 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
7113 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
7114 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
7115 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
7116 this is done, log on to the central server and run
7117 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
7118 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
7119 will look similar to this:</p>
7120
7121 <p><blockquote><pre>
7122 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
7123 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
7124 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.
7125
7126 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
7127
7128 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7129 enter password: *******
7130 %
7131 </pre></blockquote></p>
7132
7133 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
7134 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
7135 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
7136 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
7137 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
7138 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
7139 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
7140 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
7141 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
7142 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
7143 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
7144 automatically.</p>
7145
7146 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
7147 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
7148
7149 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
7150 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
7151 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
7152
7153       </div>
7154       <div class="tags">
7155
7156
7157         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
7158
7159
7160       </div>
7161     </div>
7162     <div class="padding"></div>
7163
7164     <div class="entry">
7165       <div class="title">
7166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
7167       </div>
7168       <div class="date">
7169         10th January 2012
7170       </div>
7171       <div class="body">
7172         <p>In the Squeeze version of
7173 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
7174 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
7175 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
7176 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
7177 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
7178 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
7179 first time.</p>
7180
7181 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
7182 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
7183 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
7184 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
7185
7186 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
7187 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
7188 new setting.</p>
7189
7190 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
7191 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
7192 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
7193
7194       </div>
7195       <div class="tags">
7196
7197
7198         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>.
7199
7200
7201       </div>
7202     </div>
7203     <div class="padding"></div>
7204
7205     <div class="entry">
7206       <div class="title">
7207         <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>
7208       </div>
7209       <div class="date">
7210          7th January 2012
7211       </div>
7212       <div class="body">
7213         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
7214 the second beta version of
7215 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
7216 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
7217 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
7218 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
7219 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
7220 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
7221 on the project announcement list.</p>
7222
7223       </div>
7224       <div class="tags">
7225
7226
7227         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>.
7228
7229
7230       </div>
7231     </div>
7232     <div class="padding"></div>
7233
7234     <div class="entry">
7235       <div class="title">
7236         <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>
7237       </div>
7238       <div class="date">
7239          3rd January 2012
7240       </div>
7241       <div class="body">
7242         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
7243 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
7244 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
7245 interesting.</p>
7246
7247 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
7248 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
7249 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
7250 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
7251 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
7252 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
7253 wrap up its tasks.</p>
7254
7255 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
7256 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
7257 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
7258 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
7259 because I was typing.</P>
7260
7261 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
7262 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
7263 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
7264 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
7265 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
7266 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
7267 generate entropy.</p>
7268
7269 <p>The fix is in
7270 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
7271 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
7272 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
7273 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
7274
7275       </div>
7276       <div class="tags">
7277
7278
7279         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>.
7280
7281
7282       </div>
7283     </div>
7284     <div class="padding"></div>
7285
7286     <div class="entry">
7287       <div class="title">
7288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
7289       </div>
7290       <div class="date">
7291         21st November 2011
7292       </div>
7293       <div class="body">
7294         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
7295 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
7296 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
7297 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
7298 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
7299 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
7300 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
7301 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
7302 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
7303 the tools to do so.</p>
7304
7305 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
7306 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
7307 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
7308 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
7309
7310 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
7311 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
7312 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
7313 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
7314 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
7315 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
7316 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
7317 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
7318
7319 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
7320 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
7321 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
7322
7323 <p><pre>
7324 #!/usr/bin/perl
7325 use strict;
7326 use warnings;
7327 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
7328 BEGIN {
7329     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
7330     my %rhelmodules = (
7331         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
7332         );
7333     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
7334         eval "use $module;";
7335         if ($@) {
7336             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
7337             system("yum install -y $pkg");
7338             eval "use $module;";
7339         }
7340     }
7341 }
7342 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
7343
7344 upgrade_dell();
7345
7346 exit 0;
7347
7348 sub run_firmware_script {
7349     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
7350     unless ($script) {
7351         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
7352         exit 1
7353     }
7354     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
7355
7356     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
7357         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
7358     } else {
7359         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
7360     }
7361 }
7362
7363 sub run_firmware_scripts {
7364     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
7365     # Run firmware packages
7366     for my $dir (@dirs) {
7367         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
7368         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
7369         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
7370             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
7371             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
7372         }
7373         closedir $dh;
7374     }
7375 }
7376
7377 sub download {
7378     my $url = shift;
7379     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
7380     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
7381 }
7382
7383 sub upgrade_dell {
7384     my @dirs;
7385     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7386     chomp $product;
7387
7388     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
7389
7390         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
7391         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
7392
7393         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
7394             CLEANUP => 1
7395             );
7396         chdir($tmpdir);
7397         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
7398         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
7399         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
7400         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
7401         my $fwopts = "-q";
7402         if (@paths) {
7403             for my $url (@paths) {
7404                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
7405             }
7406             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
7407         } else {
7408             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7409             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7410         }
7411         chdir('/');
7412     } else {
7413         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7414         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7415     }
7416 }
7417
7418 sub fetch_dell_fw {
7419     my $path = shift;
7420     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
7421     download($url);
7422 }
7423
7424 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
7425 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
7426 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
7427 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
7428     my $filename = shift;
7429
7430     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7431     chomp $product;
7432     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
7433
7434     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
7435
7436     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
7437     my @paths;
7438     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
7439         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
7440         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
7441         my $oscode;
7442         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
7443             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
7444         } else {
7445             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
7446         }
7447         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
7448         {
7449             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
7450         }
7451     }
7452     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
7453         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
7454
7455         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
7456         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
7457
7458         my $cpath = $component->{path};
7459         for my $path (@paths) {
7460             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
7461                 push(@paths, $cpath);
7462             }
7463         }
7464     }
7465     return @paths;
7466 }
7467 </pre>
7468
7469 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
7470 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
7471 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
7472 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
7473 outdated.</p>
7474
7475       </div>
7476       <div class="tags">
7477
7478
7479         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7480
7481
7482       </div>
7483     </div>
7484     <div class="padding"></div>
7485
7486     <div class="entry">
7487       <div class="title">
7488         <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>
7489       </div>
7490       <div class="date">
7491          7th October 2011
7492       </div>
7493       <div class="body">
7494         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
7495 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
7496 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
7497 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
7498 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
7499 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
7500 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
7501 models.</p>
7502
7503 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
7504 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
7505 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
7506 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
7507
7508 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
7509 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
7510 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
7511 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
7512 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
7513 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
7514 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
7515 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
7516 distributed.</p>
7517
7518 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
7519
7520 <ul>
7521
7522 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
7523   other relevant equipment.</li>
7524
7525 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
7526
7527 </ul>
7528
7529 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
7530 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
7531 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
7532 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
7533 books available.</p>
7534
7535 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
7536 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
7537 libraries. :)</p>
7538
7539       </div>
7540       <div class="tags">
7541
7542
7543         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>.
7544
7545
7546       </div>
7547     </div>
7548     <div class="padding"></div>
7549
7550     <div class="entry">
7551       <div class="title">
7552         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
7553       </div>
7554       <div class="date">
7555         17th September 2011
7556       </div>
7557       <div class="body">
7558         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
7559 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
7560 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
7561 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
7562 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
7563 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
7564 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
7565 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
7566
7567 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
7568
7569 <blockquote><pre>
7570 #!/bin/sh
7571 # apt-get install lsdvd
7572 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
7573 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
7574 </pre></blockquote>
7575
7576 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
7577 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
7578 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
7579 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
7580
7581 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
7582 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
7583 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
7584 back as an ISO.
7585
7586 <blockquote><pre>
7587 #!/bin/sh
7588 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
7589 set -e
7590 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
7591 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
7592 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
7593 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
7594 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
7595 </pre></blockquote>
7596
7597 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
7598
7599 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
7600 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
7601 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
7602 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
7603 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
7604
7605 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
7606 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
7607 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
7608 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
7609 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
7610 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
7611
7612       </div>
7613       <div class="tags">
7614
7615
7616         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>.
7617
7618
7619       </div>
7620     </div>
7621     <div class="padding"></div>
7622
7623     <div class="entry">
7624       <div class="title">
7625         <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>
7626       </div>
7627       <div class="date">
7628          4th August 2011
7629       </div>
7630       <div class="body">
7631         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
7632 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
7633 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
7634 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
7635 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
7636 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
7637 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
7638 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
7639 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
7640
7641 <p><blockquote>
7642 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
7643 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
7644 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
7645 </blockquote></p>
7646
7647 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
7648 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
7649 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
7650 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
7651 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
7652 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
7653 hard to explain.</p>
7654
7655 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
7656 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
7657 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
7658 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
7659 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
7660 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
7661 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
7662 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
7663 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
7664 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
7665 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
7666 mode).</p>
7667
7668 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
7669 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
7670 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
7671 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
7672 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
7673 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
7674 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
7675 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
7676 after visiting single user mode.</p>
7677
7678 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
7679 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
7680 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
7681 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
7682 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
7683 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
7684 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
7685 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
7686
7687 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
7688 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
7689 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
7690
7691       </div>
7692       <div class="tags">
7693
7694
7695         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>.
7696
7697
7698       </div>
7699     </div>
7700     <div class="padding"></div>
7701
7702     <div class="entry">
7703       <div class="title">
7704         <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>
7705       </div>
7706       <div class="date">
7707         30th July 2011
7708       </div>
7709       <div class="body">
7710         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
7711 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
7712 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
7713 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
7714 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
7715 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
7716 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
7717 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
7718 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
7719 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
7720 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
7721 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
7722 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
7723
7724 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
7725 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
7726 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
7727 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
7728 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
7729 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
7730 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
7731 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
7732 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
7733
7734 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
7735 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
7736 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
7737 is presented.</p>
7738
7739 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
7740 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
7741 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
7742 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
7743 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
7744 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
7745 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
7746 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
7747 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
7748 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
7749 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
7750 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
7751 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
7752 find time to push this forward.</p>
7753
7754       </div>
7755       <div class="tags">
7756
7757
7758         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>.
7759
7760
7761       </div>
7762     </div>
7763     <div class="padding"></div>
7764
7765     <div class="entry">
7766       <div class="title">
7767         <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>
7768       </div>
7769       <div class="date">
7770         29th July 2011
7771       </div>
7772       <div class="body">
7773         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
7774 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
7775 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
7776 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
7777 issues.</p>
7778
7779 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
7780 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
7781 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
7782
7783 <ol>
7784
7785 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
7786 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
7787 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
7788 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
7789 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
7790 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
7791 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
7792 Debian.</li>
7793
7794 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
7795 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
7796 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
7797 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
7798 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
7799 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
7800 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
7801 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
7802 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
7803 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
7804 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
7805 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
7806 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
7807
7808 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
7809 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
7810 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
7811 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
7812 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
7813 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
7814 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
7815 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
7816 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
7817 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
7818
7819 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
7820 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
7821 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
7822 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
7823 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
7824 latter behaviour.</li>
7825
7826 </ol>
7827
7828 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
7829 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
7830 it do not matter much.</p>
7831
7832 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
7833 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
7834 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
7835
7836       </div>
7837       <div class="tags">
7838
7839
7840         Tags: <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>.
7841
7842
7843       </div>
7844     </div>
7845     <div class="padding"></div>
7846
7847     <div class="entry">
7848       <div class="title">
7849         <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>
7850       </div>
7851       <div class="date">
7852         26th July 2011
7853       </div>
7854       <div class="body">
7855         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
7856 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
7857 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
7858 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
7859 security support for a few years.</p>
7860
7861 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
7862 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
7863 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
7864 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
7865 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
7866 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
7867 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
7868 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
7869 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
7870 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
7871 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
7872 easier in the future.</p>
7873
7874 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
7875 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
7876 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
7877 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
7878 do not have time for.</p>
7879
7880       </div>
7881       <div class="tags">
7882
7883
7884         Tags: <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>.
7885
7886
7887       </div>
7888     </div>
7889     <div class="padding"></div>
7890
7891     <div class="entry">
7892       <div class="title">
7893         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
7894       </div>
7895       <div class="date">
7896         20th June 2011
7897       </div>
7898       <div class="body">
7899         <p>Reading
7900 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
7901 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
7902 parts of the
7903 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
7904 and
7905 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
7906 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
7907 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
7908 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
7909
7910       </div>
7911       <div class="tags">
7912
7913
7914         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>.
7915
7916
7917       </div>
7918     </div>
7919     <div class="padding"></div>
7920
7921     <div class="entry">
7922       <div class="title">
7923         <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>
7924       </div>
7925       <div class="date">
7926         30th April 2011
7927       </div>
7928       <div class="body">
7929         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
7930 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
7931 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
7932 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
7933 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
7934 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
7935 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
7936 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
7937 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
7938 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
7939
7940 <p>Where is it?  Visit
7941 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
7942 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
7943 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
7944 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
7945
7946       </div>
7947       <div class="tags">
7948
7949
7950         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>.
7951
7952
7953       </div>
7954     </div>
7955     <div class="padding"></div>
7956
7957     <div class="entry">
7958       <div class="title">
7959         <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>
7960       </div>
7961       <div class="date">
7962         29th April 2011
7963       </div>
7964       <div class="body">
7965         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
7966 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
7967 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
7968 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
7969 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
7970 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
7971 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
7972 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
7973 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
7974 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
7975 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
7976 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
7977 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
7978
7979 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
7980 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
7981 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
7982 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
7983 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
7984 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
7985 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
7986 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
7987 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
7988 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
7989 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
7990 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
7991 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
7992
7993 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
7994 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
7995 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
7996 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
7997 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
7998 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
7999 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
8000 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
8001 it.</p>
8002
8003 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
8004 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
8005 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
8006 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
8007 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
8008 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
8009 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
8010
8011 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
8012 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
8013 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
8014 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
8015 and range= options.</p>
8016
8017 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
8018 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
8019 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
8020 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
8021 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
8022 to best handle this.  I've noticed
8023 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
8024 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
8025 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
8026 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
8027
8028 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
8029 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
8030 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
8031 discussions instead of only
8032 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
8033 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
8034 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
8035 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
8036 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
8037 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
8038
8039       </div>
8040       <div class="tags">
8041
8042
8043         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>.
8044
8045
8046       </div>
8047     </div>
8048     <div class="padding"></div>
8049
8050     <div class="entry">
8051       <div class="title">
8052         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
8053       </div>
8054       <div class="date">
8055          6th April 2011
8056       </div>
8057       <div class="body">
8058         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
8059 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
8060 A few days ago the project
8061 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
8062 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
8063 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
8064 into Gnash.</p>
8065
8066       </div>
8067       <div class="tags">
8068
8069
8070         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>.
8071
8072
8073       </div>
8074     </div>
8075     <div class="padding"></div>
8076
8077     <div class="entry">
8078       <div class="title">
8079         <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>
8080       </div>
8081       <div class="date">
8082          3rd April 2011
8083       </div>
8084       <div class="body">
8085         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
8086 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
8087 update in English.</p>
8088
8089 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
8090 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
8091 of the British service
8092 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
8093 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
8094 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
8095 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
8096 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
8097 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
8098 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
8099 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
8100 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
8101 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
8102 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
8103 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
8104 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
8105
8106 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
8107 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
8108 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
8109 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
8110 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
8111 public infrastructure.</p>
8112
8113 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
8114 such service?</p>
8115
8116       </div>
8117       <div class="tags">
8118
8119
8120         Tags: <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>.
8121
8122
8123       </div>
8124     </div>
8125     <div class="padding"></div>
8126
8127     <div class="entry">
8128       <div class="title">
8129         <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>
8130       </div>
8131       <div class="date">
8132         28th January 2011
8133       </div>
8134       <div class="body">
8135         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
8136 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
8137 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
8138 available on the Internet, and check our locally
8139 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
8140 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
8141 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
8142 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
8143 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
8144 out which security holes were present in our free software
8145 collection.</p>
8146
8147 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
8148 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
8149 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
8150 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
8151 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
8152 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
8153 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
8154 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
8155 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
8156 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
8157 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
8158 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
8159 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
8160 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
8161 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
8162 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
8163
8164 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
8165 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
8166 check out, one could look up
8167 <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
8168 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
8169 The most recent one is
8170 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
8171 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
8172 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
8173
8174 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
8175 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
8176 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
8177 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
8178 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
8179 security issues out.</p>
8180
8181 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
8182 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
8183 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
8184 RHEL is providing
8185 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
8186 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
8187 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
8188
8189 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
8190 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
8191 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
8192 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
8193 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
8194 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
8195 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
8196 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
8197 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
8198 established soon.</p>
8199
8200 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
8201 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
8202 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
8203 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
8204 for their packages.</p>
8205
8206       </div>
8207       <div class="tags">
8208
8209
8210         Tags: <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>.
8211
8212
8213       </div>
8214     </div>
8215     <div class="padding"></div>
8216
8217     <div class="entry">
8218       <div class="title">
8219         <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>
8220       </div>
8221       <div class="date">
8222         23rd January 2011
8223       </div>
8224       <div class="body">
8225         <p>In the
8226 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
8227 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
8228 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
8229 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
8230 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
8231 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
8232 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
8233 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
8234 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
8235 one of my machines like this:</p>
8236
8237 <pre>
8238 loaded modules:
8239 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
8240 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
8241 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
8242 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
8243 10de:03ec pata_amd
8244 10de:03f6 sata_nv
8245 1022:1103 k8temp
8246 109e:036e bttv
8247 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
8248 11ab:4364 sky2
8249 </pre>
8250
8251 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
8252 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
8253
8254 <pre>
8255 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
8256     echo loaded pci modules:
8257     (
8258         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
8259         for address in * ; do
8260             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8261                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8262                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8263                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8264                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
8265                     echo "$id $module"
8266                 fi
8267             fi
8268         done
8269     )
8270     echo
8271 fi
8272 </pre>
8273
8274 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
8275 mappings:</p>
8276
8277 <pre>
8278 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
8279     echo loaded usb modules:
8280     (
8281         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
8282         for address in * ; do
8283             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8284                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8285                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8286                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8287                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
8288                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
8289                         echo "$id $module"
8290                     fi
8291                 fi
8292             fi
8293         done
8294     )
8295     echo
8296 fi
8297 </pre>
8298
8299 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
8300 well.</p>
8301
8302       </div>
8303       <div class="tags">
8304
8305
8306         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8307
8308
8309       </div>
8310     </div>
8311     <div class="padding"></div>
8312
8313     <div class="entry">
8314       <div class="title">
8315         <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>
8316       </div>
8317       <div class="date">
8318         16th January 2011
8319       </div>
8320       <div class="body">
8321         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
8322 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
8323 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
8324 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
8325 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
8326 the Wikipedia article on
8327 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
8328 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
8329 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
8330 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
8331 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
8332 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
8333 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
8334 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
8335 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
8336 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
8337 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
8338 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
8339
8340 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
8341 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
8342 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
8343 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
8344 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
8345 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
8346 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
8347 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
8348 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
8349 from last week</a>.</p>
8350
8351 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
8352 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
8353 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
8354 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
8355 was without royalties and license terms, check out
8356 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
8357 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
8358
8359 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
8360 available from
8361 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
8362 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
8363 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
8364
8365 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
8366 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
8367 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
8368 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
8369
8370       </div>
8371       <div class="tags">
8372
8373
8374         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>.
8375
8376
8377       </div>
8378     </div>
8379     <div class="padding"></div>
8380
8381     <div class="entry">
8382       <div class="title">
8383         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html">Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt;</a>
8384       </div>
8385       <div class="date">
8386         12th January 2011
8387       </div>
8388       <div class="body">
8389         <p>Today I discovered
8390 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
8391 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
8392 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
8393 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
8394 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
8395 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
8396 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
8397 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
8398 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
8399 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
8400 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
8401 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
8402 on the Google announcement is available from
8403 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
8404 A good read. :)</p>
8405
8406 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
8407 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
8408 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
8409 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
8410 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
8411 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
8412 browsers support H.264, and others support
8413 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
8414 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
8415 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
8416 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
8417 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
8418 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
8419 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
8420 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
8421
8422 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
8423 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
8424 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
8425 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
8426 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
8427 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
8428 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
8429
8430 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
8431 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
8432 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
8433 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
8434 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
8435 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
8436 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
8437
8438 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
8439 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
8440 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
8441 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
8442 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
8443 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
8444 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
8445
8446 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
8447 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
8448 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
8449 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
8450 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
8451 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
8452 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
8453 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
8454 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
8455 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
8456 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
8457 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
8458 I guess time will tell.</p>
8459
8460 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
8461 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
8462 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
8463
8464       </div>
8465       <div class="tags">
8466
8467
8468         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>.
8469
8470
8471       </div>
8472     </div>
8473     <div class="padding"></div>
8474
8475     <div class="entry">
8476       <div class="title">
8477         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
8478       </div>
8479       <div class="date">
8480         30th December 2010
8481       </div>
8482       <div class="body">
8483         <p>After trying to
8484 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
8485 Ogg Theora</a> to
8486 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
8487 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
8488 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
8489 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
8490 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
8491 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
8492 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
8493
8494 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
8495 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
8496 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
8497 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
8498 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
8499 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
8500 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
8501
8502 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
8503 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
8504
8505       </div>
8506       <div class="tags">
8507
8508
8509         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>.
8510
8511
8512       </div>
8513     </div>
8514     <div class="padding"></div>
8515
8516     <div class="entry">
8517       <div class="title">
8518         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
8519       </div>
8520       <div class="date">
8521         27th December 2010
8522       </div>
8523       <div class="body">
8524         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
8525 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
8526 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
8527 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
8528 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
8529 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
8530 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
8531 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
8532
8533 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
8534 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
8535 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
8536 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
8537 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
8538 page</a>.</p>
8539
8540 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
8541 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
8542 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
8543 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
8544 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
8545 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
8546 specification on equal terms.</p>
8547
8548 <blockquote>
8549
8550 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
8551 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
8552 open standard:</p>
8553
8554 <ul>
8555
8556 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
8557 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
8558 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
8559 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
8560
8561 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
8562 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
8563 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
8564 nominal fee.</li>
8565
8566 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
8567 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
8568 free basis.</li>
8569
8570 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
8571
8572 </ul>
8573 </blockquote>
8574
8575 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
8576 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
8577 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
8578 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
8579 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
8580 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
8581 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
8582
8583 <blockquote>
8584
8585 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
8586
8587 <ol>
8588
8589 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
8590 tilgængelig.</li>
8591
8592 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
8593 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
8594
8595 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
8596 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
8597
8598 </ol>
8599
8600 </blockquote>
8601
8602 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
8603 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
8604
8605 <blockquote>
8606
8607 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
8608
8609 <ol>
8610
8611 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
8612 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
8613
8614 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
8615 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
8616 Standard themselves;</li>
8617
8618 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
8619 any party or in any business model;</li>
8620
8621 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
8622 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
8623 parties;</li>
8624
8625 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
8626 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
8627 parties.</li>
8628
8629 </ol>
8630
8631 </blockquote>
8632
8633 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
8634 its
8635 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
8636 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
8637
8638 <blockquote>
8639 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
8640
8641 <ul>
8642
8643 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
8644   democratic:
8645
8646          <ul>
8647
8648          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
8649             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
8650             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
8651             and managed.</li>
8652
8653          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
8654             method, can be changed through input from all
8655             participants.</li>
8656
8657          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
8658             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
8659
8660          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
8661             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
8662
8663          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
8664             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
8665             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
8666
8667          </ul>
8668
8669 </li>
8670
8671 </ul>
8672
8673 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
8674 <ul>
8675
8676 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
8677   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
8678   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
8679   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
8680   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
8681
8682 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
8683   a technical or economic barriers</li>
8684
8685 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
8686   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
8687   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
8688   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
8689   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
8690   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
8691   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
8692   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
8693   intended to function.</li>
8694
8695 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
8696   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
8697   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
8698
8699 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
8700   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
8701   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
8702   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
8703   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
8704   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
8705   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
8706   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
8707
8708       <ul>
8709
8710       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
8711         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
8712         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
8713
8714       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
8715         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
8716         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
8717         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
8718
8719       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
8720         licensor</li>
8721
8722       </ul>
8723 </li>
8724
8725 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
8726   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
8727   or restricted licensing terms</li>
8728
8729 </ul>
8730
8731 </blockquote>
8732
8733 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
8734 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
8735 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
8736 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
8737 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
8738 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
8739 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
8740 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
8741 Standards.</p>
8742
8743       </div>
8744       <div class="tags">
8745
8746
8747         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>.
8748
8749
8750       </div>
8751     </div>
8752     <div class="padding"></div>
8753
8754     <div class="entry">
8755       <div class="title">
8756         <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>
8757       </div>
8758       <div class="date">
8759         25th December 2010
8760       </div>
8761       <div class="body">
8762         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
8763 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
8764
8765 <blockquote>
8766
8767 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
8768 as follows:</p>
8769
8770 <ol>
8771
8772 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
8773 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
8774 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
8775
8776 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
8777 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
8778 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
8779 parties.</li>
8780
8781 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
8782 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
8783 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
8784
8785 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
8786 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
8787
8788 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
8789
8790 </ol>
8791
8792 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
8793 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
8794 products based on the standard.</p>
8795 </blockquote>
8796
8797 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
8798 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
8799 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
8800 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
8801 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
8802 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
8803 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
8804 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
8805
8806 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
8807
8808 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
8809 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
8810 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
8811 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
8812 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
8813 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
8814 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
8815 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
8816 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
8817 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
8818 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
8819 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
8820 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
8821 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
8822
8823 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
8824
8825 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
8826 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
8827 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
8828 documentation indicating this.</p>
8829
8830 <p>According to
8831 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
8832 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
8833 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
8834 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
8835 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
8836 report is correct.</p>
8837
8838 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
8839
8840 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
8841 container format</a> and both the
8842 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
8843 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
8844 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
8845
8846 <blockquote>
8847
8848 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
8849 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
8850 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
8851 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
8852 specification compliance.
8853
8854 </blockquote>
8855
8856 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
8857 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
8858 this is the term:<p>
8859
8860 <blockquote>
8861
8862 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
8863 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
8864 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
8865 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
8866 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
8867 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
8868 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
8869 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
8870 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
8871 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
8872 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
8873 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
8874
8875 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
8876 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
8877 </blockquote>
8878
8879 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
8880 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
8881 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
8882 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
8883 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
8884
8885 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
8886
8887 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
8888 Theora format.
8889 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
8890 and
8891 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
8892 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
8893 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
8894 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
8895 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
8896 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
8897 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
8898 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
8899
8900 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
8901
8902 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
8903
8904 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
8905
8906 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
8907 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
8908 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
8909 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
8910 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
8911 this.</p>
8912
8913 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
8914 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
8915
8916       </div>
8917       <div class="tags">
8918
8919
8920         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>.
8921
8922
8923       </div>
8924     </div>
8925     <div class="padding"></div>
8926
8927     <div class="entry">
8928       <div class="title">
8929         <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>
8930       </div>
8931       <div class="date">
8932         25th December 2010
8933       </div>
8934       <div class="body">
8935         <p>A few days ago
8936 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
8937 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
8938 2.0 of
8939 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
8940 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
8941 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
8942 Nothing very surprising there, given
8943 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
8944 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
8945 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
8946 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
8947 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
8948 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
8949 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
8950 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
8951 standard definition from its content.</p>
8952
8953 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
8954 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
8955 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
8956 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
8957 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
8958 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
8959 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
8960 background information about that story is available in
8961 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
8962 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
8963
8964 <blockquote>
8965 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
8966 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
8967 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
8968
8969 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
8970
8971 <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>
8972
8973 <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>
8974
8975 <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>
8976
8977 <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>
8978
8979 <p>
8980 <ul>
8981 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
8982 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
8983 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
8984 </ul>
8985 </p>
8986
8987 <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>
8988
8989 <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>
8990
8991 <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>
8992
8993 <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>
8994
8995 <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>
8996
8997
8998 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
8999 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
9000 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
9001 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
9002 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
9003 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
9004
9005 </p>
9006
9007 <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>
9008
9009 <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>
9010
9011 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
9012
9013 <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>
9014
9015 <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>
9016
9017 <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>
9018
9019 <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>
9020
9021 <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>
9022
9023 <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>
9024
9025 <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>
9026
9027 <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>
9028
9029 <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>
9030
9031 <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>
9032
9033 <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>
9034
9035 <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>
9036
9037 <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>
9038
9039 <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>
9040
9041 <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>
9042
9043 <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>
9044
9045 <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>
9046
9047 <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>
9048
9049 <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>
9050
9051 <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>
9052
9053 <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>
9054
9055 <p>On security:</p>
9056
9057 <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>
9058
9059 <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>
9060
9061 <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>
9062
9063 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
9064
9065 <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>
9066
9067 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
9068
9069 <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>
9070
9071 <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>
9072
9073 <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>
9074
9075 <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>
9076
9077 <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>
9078
9079 <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>
9080
9081 <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>
9082
9083 <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>
9084
9085 <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>
9086
9087 <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>
9088
9089 <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>
9090
9091 <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>
9092
9093 <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>
9094
9095 <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>
9096
9097 <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>
9098
9099 <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>
9100
9101 <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>
9102
9103 <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>
9104
9105 <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>
9106
9107 <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>
9108
9109 <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>
9110
9111 <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>
9112
9113 <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>
9114
9115 <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>
9116
9117 <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>
9118
9119 <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>
9120
9121 <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>
9122
9123 <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>
9124
9125 <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>
9126
9127 <p>Cordially,<br>
9128 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
9129 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
9130 </blockquote>
9131
9132       </div>
9133       <div class="tags">
9134
9135
9136         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>.
9137
9138
9139       </div>
9140     </div>
9141     <div class="padding"></div>
9142
9143     <div class="entry">
9144       <div class="title">
9145         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
9146       </div>
9147       <div class="date">
9148         25th December 2010
9149       </div>
9150       <div class="body">
9151         <p>Half a year ago I
9152 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
9153 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
9154 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
9155 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
9156
9157 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
9158 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
9159 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
9160 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
9161 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
9162 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
9163 got such a great test tool available.</p>
9164
9165       </div>
9166       <div class="tags">
9167
9168
9169         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>.
9170
9171
9172       </div>
9173     </div>
9174     <div class="padding"></div>
9175
9176     <div class="entry">
9177       <div class="title">
9178         <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>
9179       </div>
9180       <div class="date">
9181         22nd December 2010
9182       </div>
9183       <div class="body">
9184         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
9185 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
9186 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
9187 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
9188 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
9189 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
9190 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
9191 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
9192 university.</p>
9193
9194 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
9195 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
9196 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
9197 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
9198 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
9199 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
9200 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
9201 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
9202
9203 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
9204 I perform on a new model.</p>
9205
9206 <ul>
9207
9208 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
9209 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
9210 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
9211
9212 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
9213 installation, X.org is working.</li>
9214
9215 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
9216 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
9217 reported by the program.</li>
9218
9219 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
9220 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
9221 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
9222 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
9223 normally test this by playing
9224 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
9225 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
9226
9227 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
9228 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
9229
9230 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
9231 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
9232
9233 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
9234 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
9235
9236 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
9237 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
9238 few.</li>
9239
9240 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
9241 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
9242 notice this.</li>
9243
9244 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
9245 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
9246 resume.</li>
9247
9248 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
9249 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
9250 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
9251 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
9252 not.</li>
9253
9254 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
9255 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
9256 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
9257 existence.</li>
9258
9259 </ul>
9260
9261 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
9262 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
9263 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
9264 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
9265 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
9266 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
9267 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
9268 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
9269
9270       </div>
9271       <div class="tags">
9272
9273
9274         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>.
9275
9276
9277       </div>
9278     </div>
9279     <div class="padding"></div>
9280
9281     <div class="entry">
9282       <div class="title">
9283         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
9284       </div>
9285       <div class="date">
9286         11th December 2010
9287       </div>
9288       <div class="body">
9289         <p>As I continue to explore
9290 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
9291 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
9292 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
9293
9294 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
9295 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
9296 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
9297 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
9298 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
9299 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
9300 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
9301 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
9302 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
9303 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
9304 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
9305 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
9306 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
9307 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
9308 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
9309 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
9310 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
9311 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
9312 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
9313 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
9314
9315 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
9316 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
9317 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
9318 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
9319 If the Skolelinux foundation
9320 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
9321 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
9322 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
9323 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
9324 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
9325 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
9326 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
9327 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
9328
9329 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
9330 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
9331 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
9332 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
9333 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
9334 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
9335 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
9336 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
9337 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
9338 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
9339 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
9340 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
9341 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
9342 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
9343 currencies.</p>
9344
9345 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
9346 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
9347 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
9348 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
9349 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
9350 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
9351 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
9352 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
9353 BitCoins.  Check out
9354 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
9355 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
9356 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
9357 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
9358 yet.</p>
9359
9360 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
9361 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
9362 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
9363 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
9364 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
9365
9366       </div>
9367       <div class="tags">
9368
9369
9370         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>.
9371
9372
9373       </div>
9374     </div>
9375     <div class="padding"></div>
9376
9377     <div class="entry">
9378       <div class="title">
9379         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
9380       </div>
9381       <div class="date">
9382         10th December 2010
9383       </div>
9384       <div class="body">
9385         <p>With this weeks lawless
9386 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
9387 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
9388 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
9389 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
9390 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
9391 A blog post from
9392 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
9393 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
9394 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
9395 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
9396 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
9397 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
9398 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
9399
9400 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
9401 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
9402 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
9403 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
9404 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
9405 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
9406 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
9407 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
9408 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
9409 Debian</a> soon.</p>
9410
9411 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
9412 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
9413 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
9414 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
9415 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
9416 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
9417 you can even get
9418 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
9419 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
9420 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
9421 on the current exchange rates.</p>
9422
9423 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
9424 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
9425 donations to the address
9426 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
9427
9428       </div>
9429       <div class="tags">
9430
9431
9432         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>.
9433
9434
9435       </div>
9436     </div>
9437     <div class="padding"></div>
9438
9439     <div class="entry">
9440       <div class="title">
9441         <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>
9442       </div>
9443       <div class="date">
9444          9th December 2010
9445       </div>
9446       <div class="body">
9447         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
9448 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
9449 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
9450 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
9451 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
9452 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
9453 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
9454 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
9455 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
9456 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
9457 operational.</p>
9458
9459 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
9460 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
9461 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
9462 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
9463 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
9464 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
9465 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
9466
9467       </div>
9468       <div class="tags">
9469
9470
9471         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>.
9472
9473
9474       </div>
9475     </div>
9476     <div class="padding"></div>
9477
9478     <div class="entry">
9479       <div class="title">
9480         <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>
9481       </div>
9482       <div class="date">
9483         29th November 2010
9484       </div>
9485       <div class="body">
9486         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
9487 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
9488 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
9489 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
9490 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
9491 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
9492
9493 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
9494 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
9495 will hold its
9496 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
9497 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
9498 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
9499 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
9500 vote this year.</p>
9501
9502       </div>
9503       <div class="tags">
9504
9505
9506         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>.
9507
9508
9509       </div>
9510     </div>
9511     <div class="padding"></div>
9512
9513     <div class="entry">
9514       <div class="title">
9515         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
9516       </div>
9517       <div class="date">
9518         27th November 2010
9519       </div>
9520       <div class="body">
9521         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
9522 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
9523 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
9524 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
9525 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
9526 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
9527 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
9528 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
9529
9530 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
9531 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9532 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
9533 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
9534 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
9535 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
9536 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
9537 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
9538 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
9539 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
9540 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
9541
9542 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
9543 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
9544 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
9545 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
9546 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
9547 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
9548 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
9549 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
9550 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
9551 what is going on.</p>
9552
9553       </div>
9554       <div class="tags">
9555
9556
9557         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>.
9558
9559
9560       </div>
9561     </div>
9562     <div class="padding"></div>
9563
9564     <div class="entry">
9565       <div class="title">
9566         <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>
9567       </div>
9568       <div class="date">
9569         22nd November 2010
9570       </div>
9571       <div class="body">
9572         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
9573 upgrade testing of the
9574 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9575 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
9576 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
9577 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
9578
9579 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9580
9581 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9582
9583 <blockquote><p>
9584   apache2.2-bin
9585   aptdaemon
9586   baobab
9587   binfmt-support
9588   browser-plugin-gnash
9589   cheese-common
9590   cli-common
9591   cups-pk-helper
9592   dmz-cursor-theme
9593   empathy
9594   empathy-common
9595   freedesktop-sound-theme
9596   freeglut3
9597   gconf-defaults-service
9598   gdm-themes
9599   gedit-plugins
9600   geoclue
9601   geoclue-hostip
9602   geoclue-localnet
9603   geoclue-manual
9604   geoclue-yahoo
9605   gnash
9606   gnash-common
9607   gnome
9608   gnome-backgrounds
9609   gnome-cards-data
9610   gnome-codec-install
9611   gnome-core
9612   gnome-desktop-environment
9613   gnome-disk-utility
9614   gnome-screenshot
9615   gnome-search-tool
9616   gnome-session-canberra
9617   gnome-system-log
9618   gnome-themes-extras
9619   gnome-themes-more
9620   gnome-user-share
9621   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9622   gstreamer0.10-tools
9623   gtk2-engines
9624   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9625   gtk2-engines-smooth
9626   hamster-applet
9627   libapache2-mod-dnssd
9628   libapr1
9629   libaprutil1
9630   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
9631   libaprutil1-ldap
9632   libart2.0-cil
9633   libboost-date-time1.42.0
9634   libboost-python1.42.0
9635   libboost-thread1.42.0
9636   libchamplain-0.4-0
9637   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
9638   libcheese-gtk18
9639   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9640   libcryptui0
9641   libdiscid0
9642   libelf1
9643   libepc-1.0-2
9644   libepc-common
9645   libepc-ui-1.0-2
9646   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9647   libfreerdp0
9648   libgconf2.0-cil
9649   libgdata-common
9650   libgdata7
9651   libgdu-gtk0
9652   libgee2
9653   libgeoclue0
9654   libgexiv2-0
9655   libgif4
9656   libglade2.0-cil
9657   libglib2.0-cil
9658   libgmime2.4-cil
9659   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9660   libgnome2.24-cil
9661   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
9662   libgpod-common
9663   libgpod4
9664   libgtk2.0-cil
9665   libgtkglext1
9666   libgtksourceview2.0-common
9667   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9668   libmono-addins0.2-cil
9669   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
9670   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9671   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
9672   libmono-posix2.0-cil
9673   libmono-security2.0-cil
9674   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9675   libmono-system2.0-cil
9676   libmtp8
9677   libmusicbrainz3-6
9678   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
9679   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
9680   libopal3.6.8
9681   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
9682   libpt2.6.7
9683   libpython2.6
9684   librpm1
9685   librpmio1
9686   libsdl1.2debian
9687   libsrtp0
9688   libssh-4
9689   libtelepathy-farsight0
9690   libtelepathy-glib0
9691   libtidy-0.99-0
9692   media-player-info
9693   mesa-utils
9694   mono-2.0-gac
9695   mono-gac
9696   mono-runtime
9697   nautilus-sendto
9698   nautilus-sendto-empathy
9699   p7zip-full
9700   pkg-config
9701   python-aptdaemon
9702   python-aptdaemon-gtk
9703   python-axiom
9704   python-beautifulsoup
9705   python-bugbuddy
9706   python-clientform
9707   python-coherence
9708   python-configobj
9709   python-crypto
9710   python-cupshelpers
9711   python-elementtree
9712   python-epsilon
9713   python-evolution
9714   python-feedparser
9715   python-gdata
9716   python-gdbm
9717   python-gst0.10
9718   python-gtkglext1
9719   python-gtksourceview2
9720   python-httplib2
9721   python-louie
9722   python-mako
9723   python-markupsafe
9724   python-mechanize
9725   python-nevow
9726   python-notify
9727   python-opengl
9728   python-openssl
9729   python-pam
9730   python-pkg-resources
9731   python-pyasn1
9732   python-pysqlite2
9733   python-rdflib
9734   python-serial
9735   python-tagpy
9736   python-twisted-bin
9737   python-twisted-conch
9738   python-twisted-core
9739   python-twisted-web
9740   python-utidylib
9741   python-webkit
9742   python-xdg
9743   python-zope.interface
9744   remmina
9745   remmina-plugin-data
9746   remmina-plugin-rdp
9747   remmina-plugin-vnc
9748   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9749   rhythmbox-plugins
9750   rpm-common
9751   rpm2cpio
9752   seahorse-plugins
9753   shotwell
9754   software-center
9755   system-config-printer-udev
9756   telepathy-gabble
9757   telepathy-mission-control-5
9758   telepathy-salut
9759   tomboy
9760   totem
9761   totem-coherence
9762   totem-mozilla
9763   totem-plugins
9764   transmission-common
9765   xdg-user-dirs
9766   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
9767   xserver-xephyr
9768 </p></blockquote>
9769
9770 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9771
9772 <blockquote><p>
9773   cheese
9774   ekiga
9775   eog
9776   epiphany-extensions
9777   evolution-exchange
9778   fast-user-switch-applet
9779   file-roller
9780   gcalctool
9781   gconf-editor
9782   gdm
9783   gedit
9784   gedit-common
9785   gnome-games
9786   gnome-games-data
9787   gnome-nettool
9788   gnome-system-tools
9789   gnome-themes
9790   gnuchess
9791   gucharmap
9792   guile-1.8-libs
9793   libavahi-ui0
9794   libdmx1
9795   libgalago3
9796   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9797   libgtksourceview2.0-0
9798   liblircclient0
9799   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
9800   libspeexdsp1
9801   libsvga1
9802   rhythmbox
9803   seahorse
9804   sound-juicer
9805   system-config-printer
9806   totem-common
9807   transmission-gtk
9808   vinagre
9809   vino
9810 </p></blockquote>
9811
9812 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9813
9814 <blockquote><p>
9815   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9816 </p></blockquote>
9817
9818 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9819
9820 <blockquote><p>
9821 [nothing]
9822 </p></blockquote>
9823
9824 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9825
9826 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9827
9828 <blockquote><p>
9829   ksmserver
9830 </p></blockquote>
9831
9832 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9833
9834 <blockquote><p>
9835   kwin
9836   network-manager-kde
9837 </p></blockquote>
9838
9839 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9840
9841 <blockquote><p>
9842   arts
9843   dolphin
9844   freespacenotifier
9845   google-gadgets-gst
9846   google-gadgets-xul
9847   kappfinder
9848   kcalc
9849   kcharselect
9850   kde-core
9851   kde-plasma-desktop
9852   kde-standard
9853   kde-window-manager
9854   kdeartwork
9855   kdeartwork-emoticons
9856   kdeartwork-style
9857   kdeartwork-theme-icon
9858   kdebase
9859   kdebase-apps
9860   kdebase-workspace
9861   kdebase-workspace-bin
9862   kdebase-workspace-data
9863   kdeeject
9864   kdelibs
9865   kdeplasma-addons
9866   kdeutils
9867   kdewallpapers
9868   kdf
9869   kfloppy
9870   kgpg
9871   khelpcenter4
9872   kinfocenter
9873   konq-plugins-l10n
9874   konqueror-nsplugins
9875   kscreensaver
9876   kscreensaver-xsavers
9877   ktimer
9878   kwrite
9879   libgle3
9880   libkde4-ruby1.8
9881   libkonq5
9882   libkonq5-templates
9883   libnetpbm10
9884   libplasma-ruby
9885   libplasma-ruby1.8
9886   libqt4-ruby1.8
9887   marble-data
9888   marble-plugins
9889   netpbm
9890   nuvola-icon-theme
9891   plasma-dataengines-workspace
9892   plasma-desktop
9893   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
9894   plasma-runners-addons
9895   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
9896   plasma-scriptengine-python
9897   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
9898   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
9899   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
9900   plasma-scriptengines
9901   plasma-wallpapers-addons
9902   plasma-widget-folderview
9903   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9904   ruby
9905   sweeper
9906   update-notifier-kde
9907   xscreensaver-data-extra
9908   xscreensaver-gl
9909   xscreensaver-gl-extra
9910   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9911 </p></blockquote>
9912
9913 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9914
9915 <blockquote><p>
9916   ark
9917   google-gadgets-common
9918   google-gadgets-qt
9919   htdig
9920   kate
9921   kdebase-bin
9922   kdebase-data
9923   kdepasswd
9924   kfind
9925   klipper
9926   konq-plugins
9927   konqueror
9928   ksysguard
9929   ksysguardd
9930   libarchive1
9931   libcln6
9932   libeet1
9933   libeina-svn-06
9934   libggadget-1.0-0b
9935   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
9936   libgps19
9937   libkdecorations4
9938   libkephal4
9939   libkonq4
9940   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
9941   libkscreensaver5
9942   libksgrd4
9943   libksignalplotter4
9944   libkunitconversion4
9945   libkwineffects1a
9946   libmarblewidget4
9947   libntrack-qt4-1
9948   libntrack0
9949   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
9950   libplasmaclock4a
9951   libplasmagenericshell4
9952   libprocesscore4a
9953   libprocessui4a
9954   libqalculate5
9955   libqedje0a
9956   libqtruby4shared2
9957   libqzion0a
9958   libruby1.8
9959   libscim8c2a
9960   libsmokekdecore4-3
9961   libsmokekdeui4-3
9962   libsmokekfile3
9963   libsmokekhtml3
9964   libsmokekio3
9965   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
9966   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
9967   libsmokekparts3
9968   libsmokektexteditor3
9969   libsmokekutils3
9970   libsmokenepomuk3
9971   libsmokephonon3
9972   libsmokeplasma3
9973   libsmokeqtcore4-3
9974   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
9975   libsmokeqtgui4-3
9976   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
9977   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
9978   libsmokeqtscript4-3
9979   libsmokeqtsql4-3
9980   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
9981   libsmokeqttest4-3
9982   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
9983   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
9984   libsmokeqtxml4-3
9985   libsmokesolid3
9986   libsmokesoprano3
9987   libtaskmanager4a
9988   libtidy-0.99-0
9989   libweather-ion4a
9990   libxklavier16
9991   libxxf86misc1
9992   okteta
9993   oxygencursors
9994   plasma-dataengines-addons
9995   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
9996   plasma-widget-lancelot
9997   plasma-widgets-addons
9998   plasma-widgets-workspace
9999   polkit-kde-1
10000   ruby1.8
10001   systemsettings
10002   update-notifier-common
10003 </p></blockquote>
10004
10005 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
10006 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
10007 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
10008 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
10009
10010       </div>
10011       <div class="tags">
10012
10013
10014         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>.
10015
10016
10017       </div>
10018     </div>
10019     <div class="padding"></div>
10020
10021     <div class="entry">
10022       <div class="title">
10023         <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>
10024       </div>
10025       <div class="date">
10026         22nd November 2010
10027       </div>
10028       <div class="body">
10029         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
10030 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
10031 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
10032 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
10033 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
10034 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
10035 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
10036 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
10037 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
10038
10039 <p>I found
10040 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
10041 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
10042 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
10043 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
10044 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
10045 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
10046
10047 <pre>
10048 #!/bin/sh
10049
10050 # Based on
10051 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
10052
10053 set -e
10054 set -x
10055
10056 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
10057     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
10058     exit 1
10059 else
10060     host="$1"
10061 fi
10062
10063 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
10064     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
10065     exit 1
10066 fi
10067
10068 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
10069 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
10070 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
10071 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
10072
10073 img=$host.img
10074 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
10075 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
10076
10077 parted $img mklabel msdos
10078 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
10079 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
10080 parted $img set 1 boot on
10081
10082 modprobe dm-mod
10083 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
10084 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
10085
10086 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
10087 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
10088 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
10089
10090 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
10091 losetup -d /dev/loop0
10092 </pre>
10093
10094 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
10095 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
10096
10097 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
10098 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
10099 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
10100 seem to work just fine.</p>
10101
10102       </div>
10103       <div class="tags">
10104
10105
10106         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>.
10107
10108
10109       </div>
10110     </div>
10111     <div class="padding"></div>
10112
10113     <div class="entry">
10114       <div class="title">
10115         <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>
10116       </div>
10117       <div class="date">
10118         20th November 2010
10119       </div>
10120       <div class="body">
10121         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
10122 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
10123 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
10124 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
10125
10126 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
10127 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
10128 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
10129
10130 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
10131
10132 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10133
10134 <blockquote><p>
10135   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
10136   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
10137   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
10138   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
10139   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
10140   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
10141   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
10142   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
10143   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
10144   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
10145   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
10146   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
10147   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
10148   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
10149   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
10150   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
10151   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
10152   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
10153   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
10154   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
10155   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
10156   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
10157   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
10158   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
10159   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
10160   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
10161   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
10162   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
10163   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
10164   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
10165   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
10166   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10167   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
10168   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
10169   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
10170   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
10171   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
10172   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
10173   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
10174   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
10175   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
10176   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
10177   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
10178   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
10179   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
10180   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
10181   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
10182   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
10183   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
10184   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
10185   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
10186   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
10187   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
10188   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
10189   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
10190   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
10191   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
10192   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
10193   zip
10194 </p></blockquote>
10195
10196 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
10197
10198 <blockquote><p>
10199   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
10200   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
10201   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
10202   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
10203   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
10204   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
10205   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
10206   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
10207   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
10208   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
10209   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
10210   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10211   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10212   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10213   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
10214   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
10215   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
10216   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
10217   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
10218   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
10219   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
10220   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
10221   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10222   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
10223   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
10224   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
10225   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
10226   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
10227   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
10228 </p></blockquote>
10229
10230 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10231
10232 <blockquote><p>
10233   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10234 </p></blockquote>
10235
10236 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10237
10238 <blockquote><p>
10239 [nothing]
10240 </p></blockquote>
10241
10242 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
10243
10244 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10245
10246 <blockquote><p>
10247   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
10248   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10249   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
10250   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
10251   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
10252   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
10253   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10254   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
10255   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
10256   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10257   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
10258   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
10259   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
10260   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
10261   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
10262   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
10263   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
10264   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
10265   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
10266   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
10267   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
10268   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
10269   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
10270   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
10271   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
10272   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
10273   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
10274   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
10275   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
10276   ttf-sazanami-gothic
10277 </p></blockquote>
10278
10279 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10280
10281 <blockquote><p>
10282   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
10283   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
10284   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
10285   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
10286   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
10287   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
10288   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
10289   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
10290   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
10291   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
10292   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
10293   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
10294   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
10295   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
10296   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10297   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10298   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
10299   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
10300   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10301   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
10302   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
10303   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
10304   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10305   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10306   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
10307   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
10308   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
10309   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
10310   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
10311   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
10312   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
10313   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
10314   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
10315 </p></blockquote>
10316
10317 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10318
10319 <blockquote><p>
10320   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
10321   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
10322   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
10323   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
10324   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
10325   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
10326   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
10327 </p></blockquote>
10328
10329 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10330
10331 <blockquote><p>
10332   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
10333 </p></blockquote>
10334
10335       </div>
10336       <div class="tags">
10337
10338
10339         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>.
10340
10341
10342       </div>
10343     </div>
10344     <div class="padding"></div>
10345
10346     <div class="entry">
10347       <div class="title">
10348         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
10349       </div>
10350       <div class="date">
10351         20th November 2010
10352       </div>
10353       <div class="body">
10354         <p>Answering
10355 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
10356 call from the Gnash project</a> for
10357 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
10358 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
10359 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
10360 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
10361 releases out more often.</p>
10362
10363 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
10364 I have considered setting up a <a
10365 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
10366 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
10367 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
10368 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
10369 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
10370 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
10371 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
10372 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
10373 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
10374 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
10375 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
10376 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
10377
10378       </div>
10379       <div class="tags">
10380
10381
10382         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>.
10383
10384
10385       </div>
10386     </div>
10387     <div class="padding"></div>
10388
10389     <div class="entry">
10390       <div class="title">
10391         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
10392       </div>
10393       <div class="date">
10394          9th November 2010
10395       </div>
10396       <div class="body">
10397         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
10398
10399 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
10400 3D linked in from
10401 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
10402 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
10403
10404       </div>
10405       <div class="tags">
10406
10407
10408         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>.
10409
10410
10411       </div>
10412     </div>
10413     <div class="padding"></div>
10414
10415     <div class="entry">
10416       <div class="title">
10417         <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>
10418       </div>
10419       <div class="date">
10420          7th November 2010
10421       </div>
10422       <div class="body">
10423         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
10424 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
10425 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
10426 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
10427 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
10428 working using this DVD.</p>
10429
10430 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
10431 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
10432 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
10433 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
10434 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
10435 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
10436 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
10437
10438 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
10439 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
10440 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
10441 Debian archive.</p>
10442
10443 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
10444 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
10445 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
10446 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
10447 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
10448 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
10449 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
10450 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
10451 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
10452 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
10453 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
10454 free X driver should work.</p>
10455
10456 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
10457 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
10458 DVD more useful again.</p>
10459
10460       </div>
10461       <div class="tags">
10462
10463
10464         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>.
10465
10466
10467       </div>
10468     </div>
10469     <div class="padding"></div>
10470
10471     <div class="entry">
10472       <div class="title">
10473         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
10474       </div>
10475       <div class="date">
10476         24th October 2010
10477       </div>
10478       <div class="body">
10479         <p>Some updates.</p>
10480
10481 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
10482 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
10483 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
10484 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
10485 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
10486 :)</p>
10487
10488 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
10489 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
10490 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
10491 It is called
10492 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
10493 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
10494 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
10495 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
10496 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
10497 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
10498
10499 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
10500 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
10501 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
10502 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
10503 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
10504 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
10505 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
10506 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
10507 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
10508 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
10509
10510       </div>
10511       <div class="tags">
10512
10513
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/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
10515
10516
10517       </div>
10518     </div>
10519     <div class="padding"></div>
10520
10521     <div class="entry">
10522       <div class="title">
10523         <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>
10524       </div>
10525       <div class="date">
10526         19th October 2010
10527       </div>
10528       <div class="body">
10529         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
10530 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
10531 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
10532 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
10533 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
10534 AVM2 flash files.</p>
10535
10536 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
10537 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
10538 following text:</P>
10539
10540 <p><blockquote>
10541
10542   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
10543   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
10544
10545   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
10546
10547   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
10548
10549   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
10550   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
10551   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
10552   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
10553   days. The project web page is available from
10554   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
10555   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
10556   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
10557
10558   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
10559   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
10560   to get this to happen.</p>
10561
10562   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
10563   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
10564
10565 </blockquote></p>
10566
10567 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
10568 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
10569 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
10570 :)</p>
10571
10572       </div>
10573       <div class="tags">
10574
10575
10576         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>.
10577
10578
10579       </div>
10580     </div>
10581     <div class="padding"></div>
10582
10583     <div class="entry">
10584       <div class="title">
10585         <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>
10586       </div>
10587       <div class="date">
10588          9th October 2010
10589       </div>
10590       <div class="body">
10591         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
10592 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
10593 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
10594 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
10595 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
10596 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
10597 robots.</p>
10598
10599 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
10600 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
10601 a few less important features too.</p>
10602
10603 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
10604 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
10605 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
10606 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
10607
10608 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
10609 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
10610 source or binary package:</p>
10611
10612 <p><ul>
10613 <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>
10614 <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>
10615 <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>
10616 </ul></p>
10617
10618 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
10619 please let me know.</p>
10620
10621       </div>
10622       <div class="tags">
10623
10624
10625         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>.
10626
10627
10628       </div>
10629     </div>
10630     <div class="padding"></div>
10631
10632     <div class="entry">
10633       <div class="title">
10634         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
10635       </div>
10636       <div class="date">
10637          3rd October 2010
10638       </div>
10639       <div class="body">
10640         <p><ul>
10641
10642 <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
10643 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
10644
10645 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
10646 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
10647 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
10648
10649 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
10650 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
10651 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
10652 simple setup.
10653
10654 </ul></p>
10655
10656       </div>
10657       <div class="tags">
10658
10659
10660         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>.
10661
10662
10663       </div>
10664     </div>
10665     <div class="padding"></div>
10666
10667     <div class="entry">
10668       <div class="title">
10669         <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>
10670       </div>
10671       <div class="date">
10672          9th September 2010
10673       </div>
10674       <div class="body">
10675         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
10676 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
10677 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
10678 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
10679 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
10680 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
10681 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
10682 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
10683 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
10684
10685 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
10686 written:</p>
10687
10688 <blockquote>
10689 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
10690 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
10691 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
10692 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
10693 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
10694
10695 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
10696 standard.</p>
10697 </blockquote>
10698
10699 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
10700 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
10701 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
10702 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
10703
10704 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
10705 read
10706 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
10707 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
10708 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
10709 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
10710 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
10711 the issue.  The solution is to support the
10712 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
10713 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
10714 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
10715
10716       </div>
10717       <div class="tags">
10718
10719
10720         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>.
10721
10722
10723       </div>
10724     </div>
10725     <div class="padding"></div>
10726
10727     <div class="entry">
10728       <div class="title">
10729         <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>
10730       </div>
10731       <div class="date">
10732          4th September 2010
10733       </div>
10734       <div class="body">
10735         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
10736 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
10737 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
10738 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
10739 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
10740 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
10741 installed.</p>
10742
10743 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
10744 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
10745 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
10746 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
10747 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
10748 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
10749 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
10750 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
10751 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
10752
10753 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
10754 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
10755 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
10756 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
10757 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
10758 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
10759 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
10760 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
10761 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
10762 pages they want to visit.</p>
10763
10764 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
10765 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
10766 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
10767 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
10768 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
10769 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
10770 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
10771 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
10772 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
10773 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
10774 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
10775
10776       </div>
10777       <div class="tags">
10778
10779
10780         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>.
10781
10782
10783       </div>
10784     </div>
10785     <div class="padding"></div>
10786
10787     <div class="entry">
10788       <div class="title">
10789         <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>
10790       </div>
10791       <div class="date">
10792          1st September 2010
10793       </div>
10794       <div class="body">
10795         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
10796 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
10797 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
10798 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
10799 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
10800 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
10801 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
10802 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
10803 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
10804 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
10805 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
10806 drive around.</p>
10807
10808 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
10809 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
10810
10811 <p><pre>
10812 use Spykee;
10813 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
10814 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
10815 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
10816 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
10817 $spykee->left();
10818 sleep 2;
10819 $spykee->right();
10820 sleep 2;
10821 $spykee->forward();
10822 sleep 2;
10823 $spykee->back();
10824 sleep 2;
10825 $spykee->stop();
10826 </pre></p>
10827
10828 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
10829 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
10830 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
10831 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
10832 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
10833 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
10834 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
10835 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
10836 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
10837 going. :).</p>
10838
10839 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
10840 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
10841 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
10842 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
10843
10844       </div>
10845       <div class="tags">
10846
10847
10848         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>.
10849
10850
10851       </div>
10852     </div>
10853     <div class="padding"></div>
10854
10855     <div class="entry">
10856       <div class="title">
10857         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
10858       </div>
10859       <div class="date">
10860         30th August 2010
10861       </div>
10862       <div class="body">
10863         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
10864 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
10865 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
10866 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
10867 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
10868 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
10869 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
10870
10871 <pre>
10872 % ln foo bar
10873 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
10874 %
10875 </pre>
10876
10877 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
10878 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
10879 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
10880 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
10881 nevertheless. :)</p>
10882
10883 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
10884 git from
10885 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
10886
10887       </div>
10888       <div class="tags">
10889
10890
10891         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>.
10892
10893
10894       </div>
10895     </div>
10896     <div class="padding"></div>
10897
10898     <div class="entry">
10899       <div class="title">
10900         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
10901       </div>
10902       <div class="date">
10903         26th August 2010
10904       </div>
10905       <div class="body">
10906         <p>My file system sematics program
10907 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
10908 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
10909 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
10910 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
10911 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
10912 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
10913 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
10914 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
10915 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
10916 script:</p>
10917
10918 <pre>
10919 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
10920   mode_t retval = 0;
10921   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
10922   if (-1 != fd) {
10923     unlink(name);
10924     struct stat statbuf;
10925     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
10926       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
10927     }
10928     close(fd);
10929   }
10930   return retval;
10931 }
10932
10933 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
10934 int test_umask(void) {
10935   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
10936
10937   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
10938   mode_t newmode;
10939   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
10940     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
10941            newmode);
10942   }
10943   umask(007);
10944   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
10945     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
10946            newmode);
10947   }
10948
10949   umask (orig_umask);
10950   return 0;
10951 }
10952
10953 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
10954   [...]
10955   test_umask();
10956   return 0;
10957 }
10958 </pre>
10959
10960 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
10961
10962 <pre>
10963 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
10964 info: testing symlink creation
10965 info: testing subdirectory creation
10966 info: testing fcntl locking
10967   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
10968   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
10969   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
10970   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
10971   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
10972   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
10973 info: testing umask effect on file creation
10974 </pre>
10975
10976 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
10977 result:</p>
10978
10979 <pre>
10980 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
10981 info: testing symlink creation
10982 info: testing subdirectory creation
10983 info: testing fcntl locking
10984   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
10985   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
10986   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
10987   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
10988   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
10989   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
10990 info: testing umask effect on file creation
10991   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
10992   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
10993 </pre>
10994
10995 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
10996 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
10997 directory.</p>
10998
10999 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
11000 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
11001
11002 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
11003 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
11004 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
11005
11006       </div>
11007       <div class="tags">
11008
11009
11010         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>.
11011
11012
11013       </div>
11014     </div>
11015     <div class="padding"></div>
11016
11017     <div class="entry">
11018       <div class="title">
11019         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
11020       </div>
11021       <div class="date">
11022         15th August 2010
11023       </div>
11024       <div class="body">
11025         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
11026 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
11027 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
11028 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
11029 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
11030 long time.</p>
11031
11032       </div>
11033       <div class="tags">
11034
11035
11036         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>.
11037
11038
11039       </div>
11040     </div>
11041     <div class="padding"></div>
11042
11043     <div class="entry">
11044       <div class="title">
11045         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
11046       </div>
11047       <div class="date">
11048          9th August 2010
11049       </div>
11050       <div class="body">
11051         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
11052 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
11053 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
11054 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
11055 generated configuration.</p>
11056
11057 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
11058 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
11059 without any manual configuration.</p>
11060
11061 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
11062 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
11063 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
11064 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
11065 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
11066 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
11067 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
11068 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
11069 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
11070 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
11071 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
11072 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
11073 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
11074 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
11075 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
11076 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
11077 use.</p>
11078
11079 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
11080 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
11081 working properly out of the box:</p>
11082
11083 <ul>
11084 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
11085 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
11086 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
11087 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
11088 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
11089 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
11090 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
11091 </ul>
11092
11093 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
11094
11095 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
11096 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
11097 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
11098 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
11099 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
11100
11101 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
11102 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
11103 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
11104 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
11105 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
11106 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
11107 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
11108 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
11109
11110 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
11111 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
11112 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
11113 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
11114 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
11115 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
11116 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
11117 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
11118 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
11119 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
11120 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
11121 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
11122 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
11123 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
11124 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
11125 current DNS domain is used.</p>
11126
11127 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
11128 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
11129 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
11130 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
11131 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
11132 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
11133 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
11134 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
11135 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
11136 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
11137 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
11138 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
11139 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
11140
11141 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
11142 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
11143 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
11144 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
11145 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
11146 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
11147 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
11148 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
11149 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
11150 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
11151 do for now. :)</p>
11152
11153 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
11154 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
11155 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
11156 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
11157 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
11158 yet.</p>
11159
11160 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
11161 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11162
11163 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
11164 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
11165 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
11166 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
11167
11168       </div>
11169       <div class="tags">
11170
11171
11172         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>.
11173
11174
11175       </div>
11176     </div>
11177     <div class="padding"></div>
11178
11179     <div class="entry">
11180       <div class="title">
11181         <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>
11182       </div>
11183       <div class="date">
11184          8th August 2010
11185       </div>
11186       <div class="body">
11187         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
11188 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
11189 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
11190 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
11191 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
11192 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
11193 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
11194
11195 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
11196 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
11197 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
11198 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
11199 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
11200 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
11201 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
11202
11203 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
11204 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
11205 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
11206 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
11207 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
11208
11209 <pre>
11210 /*
11211  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
11212  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
11213  * directory.
11214  * License: GPL v2 or later
11215  *
11216  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
11217  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
11218 */
11219
11220 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
11221 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
11222 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
11223
11224 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
11225
11226 #include &lt;errno.h>
11227 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
11228 #include &lt;stdio.h>
11229 #include &lt;string.h>
11230 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
11231 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
11232 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
11233 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
11234 #include &lt;unistd.h>
11235
11236 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
11237 /*
11238  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
11239  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
11240  * below.
11241  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
11242  */
11243 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
11244 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
11245   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
11246 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
11247   char *zErrMsg;
11248   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
11249   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
11250   unlink(name);
11251   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
11252   if( rc ){
11253     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
11254     sqlite3_close(db);
11255     return -1;
11256   }
11257
11258   /* create tables */
11259   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
11260   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
11261     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
11262     sqlite3_close(db);
11263     return -1;
11264   }
11265   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
11266   sqlite3_close(db);
11267   return 0;
11268 }
11269 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
11270
11271 /*
11272  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
11273  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
11274  * done in the sqlite3 library.
11275  * See also
11276  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
11277  * POSIX specification
11278  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
11279  */
11280 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
11281   struct flock fl;
11282   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
11283   unlink(name);
11284   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
11285   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
11286
11287   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
11288   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
11289   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
11290   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
11291   fl.l_len    = 1;
11292   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
11293   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11294
11295   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
11296   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
11297   fl.l_len    = 510;
11298   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
11299   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11300
11301   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
11302   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
11303   fl.l_len    = 1;
11304   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
11305   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11306
11307   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
11308   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
11309   fl.l_len    = 1;
11310   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
11311   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11312
11313   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
11314   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
11315   fl.l_len    = 510;
11316   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11317
11318   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
11319   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
11320   fl.l_len    = 2;
11321   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
11322   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
11323
11324   close(fd);
11325   return 0;
11326 }
11327
11328 /*
11329  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
11330  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
11331  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
11332  * slowing down file operations.
11333  */
11334 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
11335 #define LEVELS 5
11336   char *path = strdup("test");
11337   char *dirs[LEVELS];
11338   int level;
11339   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
11340   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
11341     char *newpath = NULL;
11342     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
11343       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
11344              path, strerror(errno));
11345       break;
11346     }
11347     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
11348     free(path);
11349     path = newpath;
11350   }
11351   return 0;
11352 }
11353
11354 /*
11355  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
11356  * KDE.
11357  */
11358 int test_symlinks(void) {
11359   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
11360   unlink("symlink");
11361   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
11362     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
11363   return 0;
11364 }
11365
11366 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
11367   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
11368   test_symlinks();
11369   test_subdirectory_creation();
11370 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
11371   test_sqlite_open();
11372 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
11373   test_gcompris_locking();
11374   return 0;
11375 }
11376 </pre>
11377
11378 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
11379 this:</p>
11380
11381 <pre>
11382 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
11383 info: testing symlink creation
11384 info: testing subdirectory creation
11385 info: sqlite worked
11386 info: testing fcntl locking
11387   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
11388   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
11389   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
11390   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
11391   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
11392   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
11393 </pre>
11394
11395 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
11396 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
11397 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
11398 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
11399 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
11400 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
11401 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
11402 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
11403
11404 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
11405 it. :)</p>
11406
11407 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
11408 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
11409 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
11410
11411       </div>
11412       <div class="tags">
11413
11414
11415         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>.
11416
11417
11418       </div>
11419     </div>
11420     <div class="padding"></div>
11421
11422     <div class="entry">
11423       <div class="title">
11424         <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>
11425       </div>
11426       <div class="date">
11427          7th August 2010
11428       </div>
11429       <div class="body">
11430         <p>A few days ago, I
11431 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
11432 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
11433 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
11434 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
11435 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
11436 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
11437 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
11438 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
11439 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
11440
11441 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
11442 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
11443 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
11444 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
11445 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
11446 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
11447 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
11448 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
11449 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
11450 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
11451 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
11452 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
11453 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
11454 gave it a IP address.</p>
11455
11456 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
11457 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
11458 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
11459 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
11460 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
11461 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
11462 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
11463 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
11464
11465 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
11466 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
11467 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
11468 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
11469 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
11470 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
11471
11472 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
11473 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
11474 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
11475 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
11476 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
11477 with UID and GID values.</p>
11478
11479 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
11480 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11481
11482       </div>
11483       <div class="tags">
11484
11485
11486         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>.
11487
11488
11489       </div>
11490     </div>
11491     <div class="padding"></div>
11492
11493     <div class="entry">
11494       <div class="title">
11495         <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>
11496       </div>
11497       <div class="date">
11498          3rd August 2010
11499       </div>
11500       <div class="body">
11501         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
11502 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
11503 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
11504 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
11505 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
11506 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
11507 servers.</p>
11508
11509 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
11510 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
11511 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
11512 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
11513 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
11514 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
11515 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
11516 .uio.no.</p>
11517
11518 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
11519 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
11520 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
11521 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
11522 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
11523 university servers.</p>
11524
11525 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
11526 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
11527 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
11528 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
11529 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
11530 uses.</p>
11531
11532       </div>
11533       <div class="tags">
11534
11535
11536         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>.
11537
11538
11539       </div>
11540     </div>
11541     <div class="padding"></div>
11542
11543     <div class="entry">
11544       <div class="title">
11545         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
11546       </div>
11547       <div class="date">
11548         27th July 2010
11549       </div>
11550       <div class="body">
11551         <p>I discovered this while doing
11552 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
11553 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
11554 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
11555 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
11556 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
11557
11558 <p>An example is from todays
11559 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
11560 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
11561 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
11562 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
11563 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
11564 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
11565 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
11566
11567 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
11568
11569 <blockquote><pre>
11570 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
11571  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
11572   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
11573 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
11574  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
11575 </pre></blockquote>
11576
11577 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
11578 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
11579 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
11580 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
11581 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
11582 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
11583 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
11584 of dependency loops.</p>
11585
11586 <p>Thanks to
11587 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
11588 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
11589 dependencies
11590 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
11591 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
11592
11593 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
11594 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
11595 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
11596 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
11597 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
11598 it.</p>
11599
11600       </div>
11601       <div class="tags">
11602
11603
11604         Tags: <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>.
11605
11606
11607       </div>
11608     </div>
11609     <div class="padding"></div>
11610
11611     <div class="entry">
11612       <div class="title">
11613         <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>
11614       </div>
11615       <div class="date">
11616         27th July 2010
11617       </div>
11618       <div class="body">
11619         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
11620 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
11621 completed.</p>
11622
11623 <blockquote>
11624 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
11625 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
11626 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
11627 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
11628 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
11629 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
11630 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
11631 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
11632
11633 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
11634 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
11635 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
11636
11637 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
11638 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
11639 much.</p>
11640
11641 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
11642
11643 <ul>
11644 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
11645 <ul>
11646   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
11647          combination with some new artwork
11648   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
11649   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
11650   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
11651   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
11652   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
11653   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
11654   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
11655   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
11656   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
11657 </ul></li>
11658 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
11659     Enabled for:
11660 <ul>
11661   <li>PAM
11662   <li>LDAP
11663   <li>IMAP
11664   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
11665 </ul>
11666 </li>
11667 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
11668 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
11669     fetched from LDAP.</li>
11670 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
11671 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
11672 </ul>
11673 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
11674
11675 <ul>
11676 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
11677     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
11678     for testing.</li>
11679 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
11680     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
11681     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
11682 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
11683 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
11684 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
11685 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
11686     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
11687 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
11688     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
11689     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
11690 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
11691     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
11692     and help out with translations.</li>
11693 </ul>
11694
11695 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
11696
11697 <ul>
11698 <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>
11699 <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>
11700 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
11701 </ul>
11702 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
11703
11704 <ul>
11705 <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>
11706 <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>
11707 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
11708 </ul>
11709
11710 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
11711 get closer to the final release.</p>
11712
11713 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
11714
11715 <ul>
11716 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
11717 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
11718 </ul>
11719
11720 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
11721 <ul>
11722 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
11723 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
11724 </ul>
11725 <p>How to report bugs:
11726 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
11727
11728 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
11729 </blockquote>
11730
11731       </div>
11732       <div class="tags">
11733
11734
11735         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>.
11736
11737
11738       </div>
11739     </div>
11740     <div class="padding"></div>
11741
11742     <div class="entry">
11743       <div class="title">
11744         <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>
11745       </div>
11746       <div class="date">
11747         25th July 2010
11748       </div>
11749       <div class="body">
11750         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
11751 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
11752 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
11753 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
11754 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
11755
11756 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
11757 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
11758 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
11759 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
11760 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
11761 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
11762 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
11763
11764 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
11765 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
11766 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
11767 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
11768 up. :)</p>
11769
11770 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
11771 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
11772 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
11773
11774 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
11775 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
11776 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
11777 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
11778 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
11779 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
11780 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
11781 release another day.</p>
11782
11783 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
11784 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11785
11786       </div>
11787       <div class="tags">
11788
11789
11790         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>.
11791
11792
11793       </div>
11794     </div>
11795     <div class="padding"></div>
11796
11797     <div class="entry">
11798       <div class="title">
11799         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html">OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page</a>
11800       </div>
11801       <div class="date">
11802         18th July 2010
11803       </div>
11804       <div class="body">
11805         <p>Thanks to
11806 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
11807 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
11808 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
11809 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
11810 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
11811 only available from the development server, until more experience is
11812 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
11813
11814 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
11815 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
11816 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
11817 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
11818 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
11819 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
11820 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
11821
11822       </div>
11823       <div class="tags">
11824
11825
11826         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>.
11827
11828
11829       </div>
11830     </div>
11831     <div class="padding"></div>
11832
11833     <div class="entry">
11834       <div class="title">
11835         <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>
11836       </div>
11837       <div class="date">
11838         17th July 2010
11839       </div>
11840       <div class="body">
11841         <p>This is a
11842 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
11843 on my
11844 <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
11845 work</a> on
11846 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
11847 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
11848
11849 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
11850 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
11851 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
11852 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
11853
11854 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
11855 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
11856 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
11857
11858 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
11859
11860 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
11861 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
11862 the web.
11863
11864 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
11865 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
11866 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
11867 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
11868 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
11869 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
11870
11871 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
11872 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
11873 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
11874 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
11875 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
11876 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
11877 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
11878 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
11879 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
11880 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
11881 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
11882 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
11883 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
11884 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
11885 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
11886 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
11887
11888 <blockquote><pre>
11889 ldapsearch -h ldap \
11890   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
11891   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
11892   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
11893   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
11894   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
11895   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
11896
11897 ldapsearch -h ldap \
11898   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
11899   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
11900   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
11901   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
11902   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
11903 </pre></blockquote>
11904
11905 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
11906 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
11907 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
11908 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11909 also exist.</p>
11910
11911 <blockquote><pre>
11912 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11913 objectclass: top
11914 objectclass: dnsdomain
11915 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11916 dc: tjener
11917 arecord: 10.0.2.2
11918 associateddomain: tjener.intern
11919
11920 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11921 objectclass: top
11922 objectclass: dnsdomain2
11923 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11924 dc: 2
11925 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
11926 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
11927 </pre></blockquote>
11928
11929 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
11930 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
11931 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
11932 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
11933 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
11934 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
11935 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
11936 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
11937 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
11938 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
11939 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
11940 instead.</p>
11941
11942 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
11943 like this:</p>
11944
11945 <blockquote><pre>
11946 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
11947   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
11948   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
11949   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
11950   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
11951   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
11952
11953 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
11954   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
11955 </pre></blockquote>
11956
11957 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
11958 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
11959 reverse lookups.</p>
11960
11961 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
11962 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
11963 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
11964 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
11965
11966 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
11967 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
11968 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
11969
11970 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
11971 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
11972 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
11973 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
11974 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
11975
11976 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
11977 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
11978 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
11979 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
11980 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
11981
11982 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
11983 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
11984 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
11985 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
11986 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
11987 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
11988
11989 <blockquote><pre>
11990 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
11991     SUP top
11992     AUXILIARY
11993     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
11994           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
11995           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
11996           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
11997           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
11998     ))
11999 </pre></blockquote>
12000
12001 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
12002 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
12003 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
12004 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
12005 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
12006 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
12007
12008 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
12009
12010 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
12011 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
12012 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
12013 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
12014 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
12015
12016 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
12017 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
12018 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
12019 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
12020
12021 <blockquote><pre>
12022 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
12023 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
12024 </pre></blockquote>
12025
12026 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
12027 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
12028 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
12029 search result is this entry:</p>
12030
12031 <blockquote><pre>
12032 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12033 cn: dhcp
12034 objectClass: top
12035 objectClass: dhcpServer
12036 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12037 </pre></blockquote>
12038
12039 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
12040 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
12041 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
12042 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
12043 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
12044 The search result is this entry:</p>
12045
12046 <blockquote><pre>
12047 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12048 cn: DHCP Config
12049 objectClass: top
12050 objectClass: dhcpService
12051 objectClass: dhcpOptions
12052 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12053 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
12054 dhcpStatements: authoritative
12055 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
12056 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
12057 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
12058 </pre></blockquote>
12059
12060 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
12061 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
12062 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
12063 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
12064 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
12065 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
12066 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
12067 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
12068 related computer objects.</p>
12069
12070 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
12071 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
12072 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
12073 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
12074 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
12075 like:</p>
12076
12077 <blockquote><pre>
12078 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12079 cn: hostname
12080 objectClass: top
12081 objectClass: dhcpHost
12082 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12083 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
12084 </pre></blockquote>
12085
12086 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
12087 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
12088 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
12089 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
12090 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
12091 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
12092 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
12093 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
12094 structural object class.
12095
12096 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
12097
12098 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
12099 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
12100 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
12101 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
12102 in the configuration.</p>
12103
12104 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
12105 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
12106 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
12107 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
12108 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
12109 structure.</p>
12110
12111 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
12112 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
12113
12114 <blockquote><pre>
12115 ou=services
12116   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
12117     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
12118     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12119       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12120         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12121     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12122       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12123         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12124     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
12125       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
12126 </pre></blockquote>
12127
12128 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
12129 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
12130 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
12131 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
12132
12133 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
12134 like this:</p>
12135
12136 <blockquote><pre>
12137 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12138 dc: hostname
12139 objectClass: top
12140 objectClass: dhcpHost
12141 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12142 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
12143 associateddomain: hostname.intern
12144 arecord: 10.11.12.13
12145 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12146 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
12147 </pre></blockquote>
12148
12149 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
12150 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
12151 auxiliary object class.</p>
12152
12153       </div>
12154       <div class="tags">
12155
12156
12157         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>.
12158
12159
12160       </div>
12161     </div>
12162     <div class="padding"></div>
12163
12164     <div class="entry">
12165       <div class="title">
12166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
12167       </div>
12168       <div class="date">
12169         14th July 2010
12170       </div>
12171       <div class="body">
12172         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
12173 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
12174 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
12175 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
12176 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
12177
12178 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
12179 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
12180
12181 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
12182 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
12183 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
12184 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
12185 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
12186 to a slave DNS server.</p>
12187
12188 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
12189 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
12190 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
12191 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
12192 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
12193 seem to work.</p>
12194
12195 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
12196 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
12197 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
12198 this:</p>
12199
12200 <blockquote><pre>
12201   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12202   cn: hostname
12203   objectClass: dhcphost
12204   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12205   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
12206   associateddomain: hostname.intern
12207   arecord: 10.11.12.13
12208   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12209   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
12210   ldapconfigsound: Y
12211 </pre></blockquote>
12212
12213 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
12214 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
12215 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
12216 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
12217
12218 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
12219 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
12220 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
12221 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
12222 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
12223 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
12224 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
12225 might be a good place to put it.</p>
12226
12227 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12228 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12229
12230       </div>
12231       <div class="tags">
12232
12233
12234         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>.
12235
12236
12237       </div>
12238     </div>
12239     <div class="padding"></div>
12240
12241     <div class="entry">
12242       <div class="title">
12243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
12244       </div>
12245       <div class="date">
12246         11th July 2010
12247       </div>
12248       <div class="body">
12249         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
12250 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
12251 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
12252 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
12253
12254 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
12255 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
12256 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
12257 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
12258 LTSP clients.</p>
12259
12260 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
12261 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
12262 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
12263
12264 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
12265 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
12266 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
12267
12268 <blockquote><pre>
12269 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
12270 #
12271 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
12272 #
12273 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
12274 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
12275 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
12276 #
12277 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
12278 # existence of attribute names.
12279 #
12280 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
12281 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
12282 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
12283 #
12284 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
12285 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
12286 #
12287 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
12288 #     SUP top
12289 #     AUXILIARY
12290 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
12291
12292 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
12293 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
12294     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
12295     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
12296         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
12297         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
12298             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
12299             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
12300             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
12301             # bass value on to clients
12302             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
12303         done
12304     done
12305 fi
12306 </pre></blockquote>
12307
12308 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
12309 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
12310 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
12311 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
12312 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
12313
12314 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12315 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12316
12317 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
12318 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
12319 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
12320 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
12321 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
12322 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
12323
12324       </div>
12325       <div class="tags">
12326
12327
12328         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>.
12329
12330
12331       </div>
12332     </div>
12333     <div class="padding"></div>
12334
12335     <div class="entry">
12336       <div class="title">
12337         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12338       </div>
12339       <div class="date">
12340          9th July 2010
12341       </div>
12342       <div class="body">
12343         <p>Since
12344 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
12345 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
12346 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
12347 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
12348 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
12349 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
12350 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
12351 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
12352 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
12353 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
12354 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
12355 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
12356 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
12357
12358       </div>
12359       <div class="tags">
12360
12361
12362         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>.
12363
12364
12365       </div>
12366     </div>
12367     <div class="padding"></div>
12368
12369     <div class="entry">
12370       <div class="title">
12371         <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>
12372       </div>
12373       <div class="date">
12374          3rd July 2010
12375       </div>
12376       <div class="body">
12377         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
12378 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
12379 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
12380 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
12381 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
12382 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
12383 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
12384 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
12385
12386 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
12387 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
12388 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
12389 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
12390 publish the difference.</p>
12391
12392 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12393
12394 <blockquote><p>
12395   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
12396   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
12397   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
12398   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
12399   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
12400   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
12401   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
12402   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
12403 </p></blockquote>
12404
12405 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12406
12407 <blockquote><p>
12408   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
12409   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
12410   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
12411   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
12412   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
12413   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
12414   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
12415   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
12416   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12417   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
12418   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
12419   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
12420   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
12421   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
12422   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
12423   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
12424   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
12425   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
12426   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
12427   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
12428 </p></blockquote>
12429
12430 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12431
12432 <blockquote><p>
12433   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
12434   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
12435   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12436   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12437   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
12438   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
12439   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
12440   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12441   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12442   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12443   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12444   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
12445   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
12446   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
12447   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
12448   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
12449   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
12450   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
12451   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
12452   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
12453   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
12454 </p></blockquote>
12455
12456 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12457
12458 <blockquote><p>
12459   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
12460   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
12461   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
12462 </p></blockquote>
12463
12464 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
12465 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
12466 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
12467 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
12468 the difference somewhat.
12469
12470       </div>
12471       <div class="tags">
12472
12473
12474         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>.
12475
12476
12477       </div>
12478     </div>
12479     <div class="padding"></div>
12480
12481     <div class="entry">
12482       <div class="title">
12483         <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>
12484       </div>
12485       <div class="date">
12486          1st July 2010
12487       </div>
12488       <div class="body">
12489         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
12490 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
12491 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
12492 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
12493 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
12494 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
12495 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
12496 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
12497 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
12498
12499 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
12500
12501 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
12502 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
12503 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
12504 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
12505 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
12506 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
12507 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
12508 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
12509 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
12510 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
12511 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
12512 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
12513 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
12514 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
12515 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
12516
12517 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
12518
12519 <blockquote><pre>
12520 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
12521 </pre></blockquote>
12522
12523 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
12524 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
12525 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
12526 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
12527 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
12528 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
12529 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
12530 on how to get this working.</p>
12531
12532 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
12533 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
12534 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
12535 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
12536 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
12537 instructions I found in the
12538 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
12539 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
12540
12541 <blockquote><pre>
12542         debug-level             0
12543         reload-count            unlimited
12544         paranoia                no
12545
12546         enable-cache            passwd          yes
12547         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
12548         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
12549         suggested-size          passwd          211
12550         check-files             passwd          yes
12551         persistent              passwd          yes
12552         shared                  passwd          yes
12553         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
12554         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
12555
12556         enable-cache            group           yes
12557         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
12558         negative-time-to-live   group           20
12559         suggested-size          group           211
12560         check-files             group           yes
12561         persistent              group           yes
12562         shared                  group           yes
12563         max-db-size             group           33554432
12564         auto-propagate          group           yes
12565
12566         enable-cache            hosts           no
12567         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
12568         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
12569         suggested-size          hosts           211
12570         check-files             hosts           yes
12571         persistent              hosts           yes
12572         shared                  hosts           yes
12573         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
12574
12575         enable-cache            services        yes
12576         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
12577         negative-time-to-live   services        20
12578         suggested-size          services        211
12579         check-files             services        yes
12580         persistent              services        yes
12581         shared                  services        yes
12582         max-db-size             services        33554432
12583 </pre></blockquote>
12584
12585 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
12586 automatically like the one provided in
12587 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
12588 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
12589 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
12590 look like this:</p>
12591
12592 <blockquote><pre>
12593 passwd:         files ldap
12594 group:          files ldap
12595 shadow:         files ldap
12596 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
12597 networks:       files
12598 protocols:      files
12599 services:       files
12600 ethers:         files
12601 rpc:            files
12602 netgroup:       files ldap
12603 </pre></blockquote>
12604
12605 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
12606 shadow and netgroup.</p>
12607
12608 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
12609 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
12610 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
12611 attributes cached.
12612
12613 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
12614   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
12615
12616 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
12617 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
12618 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
12619 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
12620 discovered sssd.</p>
12621
12622 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
12623
12624 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
12625 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
12626 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
12627 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
12628 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
12629 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
12630 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
12631 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
12632 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
12633 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
12634 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
12635 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
12636 version 1.2 is now in testing.
12637
12638 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
12639 roaming setup I want</p>
12640
12641 <blockquote><pre>
12642 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
12643 </pre></blockquote>
12644
12645 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
12646 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
12647
12648 <blockquote><pre>
12649 [sssd]
12650 config_file_version = 2
12651 reconnection_retries = 3
12652 sbus_timeout = 30
12653 services = nss, pam
12654 domains = INTERN
12655
12656 [nss]
12657 filter_groups = root
12658 filter_users = root
12659 reconnection_retries = 3
12660
12661 [pam]
12662 reconnection_retries = 3
12663
12664 [domain/INTERN]
12665 enumerate = false
12666 cache_credentials = true
12667
12668 id_provider = ldap
12669 auth_provider = ldap
12670 chpass_provider = ldap
12671
12672 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
12673 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12674 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
12675 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
12676 </pre></blockquote>
12677
12678 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
12679 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
12680
12681 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
12682 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
12683 modify it manually.</p>
12684
12685 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12686 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12687
12688       </div>
12689       <div class="tags">
12690
12691
12692         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>.
12693
12694
12695       </div>
12696     </div>
12697     <div class="padding"></div>
12698
12699     <div class="entry">
12700       <div class="title">
12701         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12702       </div>
12703       <div class="date">
12704         28th June 2010
12705       </div>
12706       <div class="body">
12707         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
12708 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
12709 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
12710 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
12711 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
12712 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
12713 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
12714 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
12715 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
12716 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
12717
12718 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
12719 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
12720 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
12721 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
12722 released.</p>
12723
12724 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
12725 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
12726 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
12727 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
12728
12729 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
12730 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12731
12732 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
12733 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
12734 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
12735 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
12736 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
12737
12738       </div>
12739       <div class="tags">
12740
12741
12742         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>.
12743
12744
12745       </div>
12746     </div>
12747     <div class="padding"></div>
12748
12749     <div class="entry">
12750       <div class="title">
12751         <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>
12752       </div>
12753       <div class="date">
12754         24th June 2010
12755       </div>
12756       <div class="body">
12757         <p>A while back, I
12758 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
12759 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
12760 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
12761 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
12762
12763 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
12764 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
12765 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
12766 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
12767
12768 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
12769 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
12770 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
12771 Debian Edu.</p>
12772
12773 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
12774 the
12775 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
12776 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
12777 available today from IETF.</p>
12778
12779 <pre>
12780 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
12781 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
12782 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
12783  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
12784         NAME 'dhcpHost'
12785         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
12786 -       SUP top
12787 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
12788         MUST cn
12789         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
12790         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
12791 </pre>
12792
12793 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
12794 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
12795 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
12796
12797 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12798 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12799
12800       </div>
12801       <div class="tags">
12802
12803
12804         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>.
12805
12806
12807       </div>
12808     </div>
12809     <div class="padding"></div>
12810
12811     <div class="entry">
12812       <div class="title">
12813         <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>
12814       </div>
12815       <div class="date">
12816         16th June 2010
12817       </div>
12818       <div class="body">
12819         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
12820 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
12821 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
12822 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
12823 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
12824 this:
12825
12826 <blockquote><pre>
12827 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12828 tasksel --new-install
12829 </pre></blockquote>
12830
12831 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
12832 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
12833 any output what so ever.
12834
12835 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
12836 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
12837 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
12838 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
12839 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
12840 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
12841 code like this:
12842
12843 <blockquote><pre>
12844 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12845 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
12846 $cmd
12847 </pre></blockquote>
12848
12849 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
12850 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
12851 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
12852 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
12853 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
12854 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
12855 installation.</p>
12856
12857 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
12858 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
12859 like this.</p>
12860
12861       </div>
12862       <div class="tags">
12863
12864
12865         Tags: <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>.
12866
12867
12868       </div>
12869     </div>
12870     <div class="padding"></div>
12871
12872     <div class="entry">
12873       <div class="title">
12874         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
12875       </div>
12876       <div class="date">
12877         13th June 2010
12878       </div>
12879       <div class="body">
12880         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
12881 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
12882 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
12883 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
12884 pages.</p>
12885
12886 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
12887 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
12888 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
12889 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
12890 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
12891 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
12892 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
12893 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
12894 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
12895 see how the project is doing.</p>
12896
12897 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
12898 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
12899 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
12900 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
12901 Windows.  This is great.</p>
12902
12903       </div>
12904       <div class="tags">
12905
12906
12907         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>.
12908
12909
12910       </div>
12911     </div>
12912     <div class="padding"></div>
12913
12914     <div class="entry">
12915       <div class="title">
12916         <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>
12917       </div>
12918       <div class="date">
12919         13th June 2010
12920       </div>
12921       <div class="body">
12922         <p>My
12923 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
12924 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
12925 finally made the upgrade logs available from
12926 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
12927 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
12928 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
12929 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
12930
12931 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
12932 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
12933 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
12934 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
12935 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
12936 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
12937 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
12938 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
12939
12940 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
12941 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
12942 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
12943 too surprising.</p>
12944
12945 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
12946 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
12947 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
12948 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
12949 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
12950 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
12951 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
12952 continue.</p>
12953
12954 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
12955 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
12956   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
12957   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
12958   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
12959   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
12960   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
12961   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12962   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12963   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
12964   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
12965   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
12966   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
12967   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12968   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12969   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
12970   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12971   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12972   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
12973   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
12974   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
12975   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
12976   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
12977   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
12978   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
12979   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
12980   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
12981   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
12982   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
12983   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
12984
12985 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
12986
12987 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
12988   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
12989   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
12990   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
12991   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
12992   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
12993   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
12994   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
12995   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
12996   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
12997   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12998   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
12999   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
13000   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
13001   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
13002   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
13003   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
13004   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
13005   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
13006   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
13007   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
13008   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
13009   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
13010   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
13011   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
13012   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
13013   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
13014   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
13015   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
13016   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13017   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13018   zip</p>
13019
13020 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
13021
13022 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
13023   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
13024   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
13025   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
13026   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
13027   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
13028   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13029   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13030   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
13031   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
13032   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
13033   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
13034   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13035   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13036   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13037   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13038   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13039   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
13040   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
13041   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
13042   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
13043   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
13044   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
13045   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
13046   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
13047   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
13048   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
13049   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
13050
13051 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
13052 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
13053   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
13054   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
13055   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
13056   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
13057   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
13058   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
13059   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
13060   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
13061   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
13062   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
13063   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
13064   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
13065   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
13066   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
13067   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
13068   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
13069   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
13070   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
13071   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
13072   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
13073   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
13074   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
13075   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
13076   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
13077   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
13078   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
13079   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
13080   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
13081   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
13082   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
13083   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
13084   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
13085   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
13086   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13087   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13088   xulrunner-1.9</p>
13089
13090
13091       </div>
13092       <div class="tags">
13093
13094
13095         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>.
13096
13097
13098       </div>
13099     </div>
13100     <div class="padding"></div>
13101
13102     <div class="entry">
13103       <div class="title">
13104         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
13105       </div>
13106       <div class="date">
13107         11th June 2010
13108       </div>
13109       <div class="body">
13110         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
13111 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
13112 have been discovered and reported in the process
13113 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
13114 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
13115 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
13116 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
13117 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
13118
13119 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
13120 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
13121 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
13122 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
13123 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
13124 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
13125
13126 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
13127 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
13128 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13129 is created.  The bug report
13130 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
13131 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
13132 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
13133 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
13134 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
13135 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
13136 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
13137 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
13138 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
13139 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
13140 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
13141 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
13142 Debian Squeeze.</p>
13143
13144 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
13145 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
13146 trick:</p>
13147
13148 <blockquote><pre>
13149 #!/bin/sh
13150 set -ex
13151
13152 if [ "$1" ] ; then
13153     desktop=$1
13154 else
13155     desktop=gnome
13156 fi
13157
13158 from=lenny
13159 to=squeeze
13160
13161 exec &lt; /dev/null
13162 unset LANG
13163 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
13164 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
13165 fuser -mv .
13166 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
13167 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13168 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
13169 #!/bin/sh
13170 exit 101
13171 EOF
13172 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
13173 exit_cleanup() {
13174     umount $tmpdir/proc
13175 }
13176 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
13177 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
13178 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
13179
13180 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
13181
13182 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
13183 # to return the correct answers.
13184 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
13185     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
13186
13187 # Include the desktop and laptop task
13188 for test in desktop laptop ; do
13189     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
13190 #!/bin/sh
13191 exit 2
13192 EOF
13193     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
13194 done
13195
13196 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13197 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
13198 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
13199 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
13200
13201 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
13202 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13203 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13204 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
13205 fuser -mv
13206 </pre></blockquote>
13207
13208 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
13209 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
13210 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
13211 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
13212 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
13213 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
13214
13215 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
13216 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
13217 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
13218 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
13219 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
13220 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
13221 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
13222
13223 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
13224 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
13225 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
13226 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
13227 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
13228 packages.</p>
13229
13230       </div>
13231       <div class="tags">
13232
13233
13234         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>.
13235
13236
13237       </div>
13238     </div>
13239     <div class="padding"></div>
13240
13241     <div class="entry">
13242       <div class="title">
13243         <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>
13244       </div>
13245       <div class="date">
13246          6th June 2010
13247       </div>
13248       <div class="body">
13249         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
13250 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
13251 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
13252 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
13253 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
13254 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
13255 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
13256
13257 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
13258 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
13259 COLUMNS):</p>
13260
13261 <blockquote><pre>
13262 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
13263 previous=N
13264 PREVLEVEL=
13265 RUNLEVEL=
13266 runlevel=S
13267 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
13268 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
13269 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
13270 </pre></blockquote>
13271
13272 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
13273 script.</p>
13274
13275 <blockquote><pre>
13276 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
13277 previous=N
13278 PREVLEVEL=N
13279 RUNLEVEL=S
13280 runlevel=S
13281 </pre></blockquote>
13282
13283 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
13284 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
13285 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
13286
13287 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
13288 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
13289 choice.</p>
13290
13291       </div>
13292       <div class="tags">
13293
13294
13295         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>.
13296
13297
13298       </div>
13299     </div>
13300     <div class="padding"></div>
13301
13302     <div class="entry">
13303       <div class="title">
13304         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
13305       </div>
13306       <div class="date">
13307          6th June 2010
13308       </div>
13309       <div class="body">
13310         <p>Via the
13311 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
13312 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
13313 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
13314 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
13315 following the standards wars of today.</p>
13316
13317       </div>
13318       <div class="tags">
13319
13320
13321         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>.
13322
13323
13324       </div>
13325     </div>
13326     <div class="padding"></div>
13327
13328     <div class="entry">
13329       <div class="title">
13330         <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>
13331       </div>
13332       <div class="date">
13333          3rd June 2010
13334       </div>
13335       <div class="body">
13336         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
13337 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
13338 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
13339 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
13340 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
13341
13342 <blockquote><pre>
13343 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
13344   vendor                    count
13345   Dell Computer Corporation     1
13346     PowerEdge 1750              1
13347   IBM                           1
13348     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
13349   Intel                         2
13350   [no-dmi-info]                 3
13351 maintainer:~#
13352 </pre></blockquote>
13353
13354 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
13355 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
13356 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
13357 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
13358 option to list the individual machines.</p>
13359
13360 <p>A larger list is
13361 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
13362 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
13363 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
13364 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
13365 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
13366 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
13367 collector.</p>
13368
13369       </div>
13370       <div class="tags">
13371
13372
13373         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>.
13374
13375
13376       </div>
13377     </div>
13378     <div class="padding"></div>
13379
13380     <div class="entry">
13381       <div class="title">
13382         <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>
13383       </div>
13384       <div class="date">
13385          1st June 2010
13386       </div>
13387       <div class="body">
13388         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
13389 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
13390 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
13391 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
13392 wait.</p>
13393
13394 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
13395 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
13396 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
13397 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
13398 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
13399 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
13400
13401 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
13402 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
13403 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
13404 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
13405 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
13406 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
13407 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
13408 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
13409
13410 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
13411
13412       </div>
13413       <div class="tags">
13414
13415
13416         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>.
13417
13418
13419       </div>
13420     </div>
13421     <div class="padding"></div>
13422
13423     <div class="entry">
13424       <div class="title">
13425         <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>
13426       </div>
13427       <div class="date">
13428         27th May 2010
13429       </div>
13430       <div class="body">
13431         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
13432 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
13433 issues are known and should be solved:
13434
13435 <p><ul>
13436
13437 <li>The wicd package seen to
13438 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
13439 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
13440 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
13441 seem to be on the case.</li>
13442
13443 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
13444 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
13445 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
13446 maintainer is on the case.</li>
13447
13448 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
13449 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
13450 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
13451 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
13452 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
13453 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
13454 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
13455 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
13456
13457 </ul></p>
13458
13459 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
13460 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
13461 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
13462 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
13463
13464 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13465 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13466 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13467 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13468
13469 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
13470
13471       </div>
13472       <div class="tags">
13473
13474
13475         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>.
13476
13477
13478       </div>
13479     </div>
13480     <div class="padding"></div>
13481
13482     <div class="entry">
13483       <div class="title">
13484         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
13485       </div>
13486       <div class="date">
13487         22nd May 2010
13488       </div>
13489       <div class="body">
13490         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
13491 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
13492 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
13493 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
13494
13495 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
13496 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
13497 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
13498 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
13499 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
13500 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
13501 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
13502 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
13503 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
13504 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
13505 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
13506 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
13507 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
13508 going to work.</p>
13509
13510 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
13511 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
13512 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
13513 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
13514 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
13515 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
13516 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
13517 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
13518 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
13519 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
13520 Edu.</p>
13521
13522 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
13523 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
13524 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
13525 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
13526 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
13527 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
13528
13529 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
13530 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
13531
13532       </div>
13533       <div class="tags">
13534
13535
13536         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>.
13537
13538
13539       </div>
13540     </div>
13541     <div class="padding"></div>
13542
13543     <div class="entry">
13544       <div class="title">
13545         <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>
13546       </div>
13547       <div class="date">
13548         19th May 2010
13549       </div>
13550       <div class="body">
13551         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
13552 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
13553 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
13554 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
13555 into unstable.  The
13556 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
13557 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
13558 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
13559 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
13560 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
13561 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
13562 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
13563
13564 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
13565 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
13566 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
13567 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
13568 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
13569 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
13570 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
13571 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
13572
13573 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
13574 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
13575 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
13576 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
13577 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
13578 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
13579 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
13580
13581 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
13582 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
13583 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
13584 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
13585 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
13586 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
13587 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
13588 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
13589 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
13590 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
13591 on the home directory servers.</p>
13592
13593 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
13594 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
13595 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
13596 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
13597 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
13598 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
13599
13600 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13601 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13602
13603       </div>
13604       <div class="tags">
13605
13606
13607         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>.
13608
13609
13610       </div>
13611     </div>
13612     <div class="padding"></div>
13613
13614     <div class="entry">
13615       <div class="title">
13616         <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>
13617       </div>
13618       <div class="date">
13619         14th May 2010
13620       </div>
13621       <div class="body">
13622         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
13623 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
13624 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
13625 expected, if I am to believe the
13626 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13627 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
13628 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
13629 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
13630 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
13631 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
13632 version.</p>
13633
13634 More information about
13635 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13636 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
13637 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
13638 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13639
13640 <blockquote><pre>
13641 CONCURRENCY=none
13642 </pre></blockquote>
13643
13644 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13645 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13646 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13647 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13648
13649       </div>
13650       <div class="tags">
13651
13652
13653         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>.
13654
13655
13656       </div>
13657     </div>
13658     <div class="padding"></div>
13659
13660     <div class="entry">
13661       <div class="title">
13662         <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>
13663       </div>
13664       <div class="date">
13665         14th May 2010
13666       </div>
13667       <div class="body">
13668         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
13669 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
13670 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
13671 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
13672 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
13673 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
13674 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
13675 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
13676
13677 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
13678 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
13679 this on the collector host:</p>
13680
13681 <blockquote><pre>
13682 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
13683 </pre></blockquote>
13684
13685 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
13686 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
13687
13688 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
13689 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
13690 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
13691 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
13692 written yet.</p>
13693
13694       </div>
13695       <div class="tags">
13696
13697
13698         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>.
13699
13700
13701       </div>
13702     </div>
13703     <div class="padding"></div>
13704
13705     <div class="entry">
13706       <div class="title">
13707         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
13708       </div>
13709       <div class="date">
13710         13th May 2010
13711       </div>
13712       <div class="body">
13713         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
13714 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
13715 has been
13716 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
13717
13718 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
13719 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
13720 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
13721 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
13722 based boot system.  Tollef is
13723 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
13724 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
13725 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
13726 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
13727 at the moment do not.</p>
13728
13729 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
13730 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
13731 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
13732 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
13733 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
13734 way forward.</p>
13735
13736 <p>In the mean time, based on the
13737 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13738 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
13739 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
13740 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
13741 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
13742 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
13743 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
13744 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
13745
13746       </div>
13747       <div class="tags">
13748
13749
13750         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>.
13751
13752
13753       </div>
13754     </div>
13755     <div class="padding"></div>
13756
13757     <div class="entry">
13758       <div class="title">
13759         <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>
13760       </div>
13761       <div class="date">
13762          6th May 2010
13763       </div>
13764       <div class="body">
13765         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
13766 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
13767 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
13768 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
13769 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13770 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
13771 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13772
13773 <blockquote><pre>
13774 CONCURRENCY=makefile
13775 </pre></blockquote>
13776
13777 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
13778 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
13779 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
13780 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
13781 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
13782 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
13783 make this happen.</p>
13784
13785 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
13786 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
13787 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
13788 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
13789 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
13790
13791 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
13792 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
13793 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
13794 fix the remaining issues.</p>
13795
13796 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13797 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13798 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13799 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13800
13801       </div>
13802       <div class="tags">
13803
13804
13805         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>.
13806
13807
13808       </div>
13809     </div>
13810     <div class="padding"></div>
13811
13812     <div class="entry">
13813       <div class="title">
13814         <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>
13815       </div>
13816       <div class="date">
13817          2nd May 2010
13818       </div>
13819       <div class="body">
13820         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
13821 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
13822 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
13823
13824 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
13825 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
13826 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
13827 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
13828 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
13829
13830 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
13831 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
13832
13833 <blockquote><pre>
13834 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
13835 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
13836 Password expires                                        : never
13837 Password inactive                                       : never
13838 Account expires                                         : never
13839 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
13840 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
13841 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
13842 root@tjener:~#
13843 </pre></blockquote>
13844
13845 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
13846 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
13847 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
13848 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
13849 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
13850 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
13851
13852 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
13853 intended:</p>
13854
13855 <blockquote><pre>
13856 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
13857 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
13858 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
13859 Password expires                                        : never
13860 Password inactive                                       : never
13861 Account expires                                         : never
13862 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
13863 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
13864 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
13865 root@tjener:~#
13866 </pre></blockquote>
13867
13868 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
13869 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
13870 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
13871
13872 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
13873 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
13874
13875 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
13876 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13877
13878 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
13879 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
13880 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
13881 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
13882 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
13883 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
13884 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
13885
13886 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
13887 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
13888 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
13889 change.</p>
13890
13891       </div>
13892       <div class="tags">
13893
13894
13895         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>.
13896
13897
13898       </div>
13899     </div>
13900     <div class="padding"></div>
13901
13902     <div class="entry">
13903       <div class="title">
13904         <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>
13905       </div>
13906       <div class="date">
13907         28th April 2010
13908       </div>
13909       <div class="body">
13910         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
13911 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
13912 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
13913 and go.</p>
13914
13915 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
13916 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
13917 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
13918 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
13919
13920 <ul>
13921
13922  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
13923    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
13924    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
13925    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
13926    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
13927    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
13928    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
13929    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
13930    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
13931    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
13932    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
13933    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
13934
13935  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
13936    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
13937    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
13938    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
13939    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
13940    or the Fedora developed
13941    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
13942    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
13943
13944  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
13945    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
13946    directory, using unison.</li>
13947
13948  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
13949    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
13950    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
13951    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
13952    implemented.</li>
13953
13954  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
13955    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
13956
13957  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
13958    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
13959    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
13960
13961 </ul>
13962
13963 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
13964 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
13965 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
13966 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
13967 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
13968 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
13969 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
13970 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
13971 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
13972
13973 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13974 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13975
13976       </div>
13977       <div class="tags">
13978
13979
13980         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>.
13981
13982
13983       </div>
13984     </div>
13985     <div class="padding"></div>
13986
13987     <div class="entry">
13988       <div class="title">
13989         <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>
13990       </div>
13991       <div class="date">
13992         19th April 2010
13993       </div>
13994       <div class="body">
13995         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
13996 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
13997 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
13998 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
13999 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
14000 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
14001 restrictions on the web, for example from
14002 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
14003 epub-version from
14004 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
14005 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
14006 strongly recommend this book.</p>
14007
14008       </div>
14009       <div class="tags">
14010
14011
14012         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>.
14013
14014
14015       </div>
14016     </div>
14017     <div class="padding"></div>
14018
14019     <div class="entry">
14020       <div class="title">
14021         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
14022       </div>
14023       <div class="date">
14024         14th April 2010
14025       </div>
14026       <div class="body">
14027         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
14028 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
14029 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
14030 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
14031 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
14032 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
14033 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
14034 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
14035 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
14036
14037 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
14038 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
14039 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
14040 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
14041 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
14042
14043 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
14044 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
14045
14046 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
14047 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
14048 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
14049 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
14050 to work properly.</p>
14051
14052 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
14053 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
14054 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
14055 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
14056 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
14057 time.</p>
14058
14059 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
14060 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
14061 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
14062 up in a few days.</p>
14063
14064       </div>
14065       <div class="tags">
14066
14067
14068         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>.
14069
14070
14071       </div>
14072     </div>
14073     <div class="padding"></div>
14074
14075     <div class="entry">
14076       <div class="title">
14077         <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>
14078       </div>
14079       <div class="date">
14080          6th March 2010
14081       </div>
14082       <div class="body">
14083         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
14084 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
14085 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
14086 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
14087 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
14088 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
14089
14090 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
14091 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
14092 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
14093 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
14094
14095 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
14096 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
14097 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
14098 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
14099 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
14100 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
14101
14102       </div>
14103       <div class="tags">
14104
14105
14106         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>.
14107
14108
14109       </div>
14110     </div>
14111     <div class="padding"></div>
14112
14113     <div class="entry">
14114       <div class="title">
14115         <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>
14116       </div>
14117       <div class="date">
14118         11th February 2010
14119       </div>
14120       <div class="body">
14121         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
14122 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
14123 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
14124 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
14125 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
14126 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
14127 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
14128
14129 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
14130
14131 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
14132 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
14133 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
14134 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
14135
14136       </div>
14137       <div class="tags">
14138
14139
14140         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>.
14141
14142
14143       </div>
14144     </div>
14145     <div class="padding"></div>
14146
14147     <div class="entry">
14148       <div class="title">
14149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
14150       </div>
14151       <div class="date">
14152         27th January 2010
14153       </div>
14154       <div class="body">
14155         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
14156 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
14157 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
14158 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
14159 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
14160 further.</p>
14161
14162 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
14163 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
14164 configured to be a server for the
14165 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
14166 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
14167 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
14168 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
14169 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
14170 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
14171 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
14172 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
14173 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
14174 and Nagios configuration.</p>
14175
14176 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
14177 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
14178 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
14179 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
14180
14181 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
14182 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
14183 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
14184 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
14185 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
14186 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
14187 the machine.</p>
14188
14189 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
14190 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
14191 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
14192 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
14193
14194 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
14195 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
14196 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
14197 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
14198 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
14199 everything is taken care of.</p>
14200
14201       </div>
14202       <div class="tags">
14203
14204
14205         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>.
14206
14207
14208       </div>
14209     </div>
14210     <div class="padding"></div>
14211
14212     <div class="entry">
14213       <div class="title">
14214         <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>
14215       </div>
14216       <div class="date">
14217         12th August 2009
14218       </div>
14219       <div class="body">
14220         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
14221 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
14222 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
14223 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
14224
14225 <table>
14226 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
14227 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
14228 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
14229 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
14230 </table>
14231
14232 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
14233 got these numbers:</p>
14234
14235 <table>
14236 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
14237 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
14238 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
14239 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
14240 </table>
14241
14242 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
14243
14244 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
14245 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
14246 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
14247 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
14248 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
14249
14250
14251 <table>
14252 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
14253 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
14254 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
14255 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
14256 </table>
14257
14258 <p>And with 'site:no':
14259
14260 <table>
14261 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
14262 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
14263 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
14264 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
14265 </table>
14266
14267 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
14268 numbers.</p>
14269
14270       </div>
14271       <div class="tags">
14272
14273
14274         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>.
14275
14276
14277       </div>
14278     </div>
14279     <div class="padding"></div>
14280
14281     <div class="entry">
14282       <div class="title">
14283         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
14284       </div>
14285       <div class="date">
14286          8th August 2009
14287       </div>
14288       <div class="body">
14289         <p>According to <a
14290 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
14291 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
14292 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
14293 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
14294 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
14295 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
14296 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
14297 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
14298 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
14299 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
14300
14301 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
14302 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
14303 seminar this autumn.</p>
14304
14305       </div>
14306       <div class="tags">
14307
14308
14309         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>.
14310
14311
14312       </div>
14313     </div>
14314     <div class="padding"></div>
14315
14316     <div class="entry">
14317       <div class="title">
14318         <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>
14319       </div>
14320       <div class="date">
14321         27th July 2009
14322       </div>
14323       <div class="body">
14324         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
14325 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
14326 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
14327 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
14328 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
14329 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
14330 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
14331
14332 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
14333 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
14334 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
14335
14336       </div>
14337       <div class="tags">
14338
14339
14340         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>.
14341
14342
14343       </div>
14344     </div>
14345     <div class="padding"></div>
14346
14347     <div class="entry">
14348       <div class="title">
14349         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
14350       </div>
14351       <div class="date">
14352         22nd July 2009
14353       </div>
14354       <div class="body">
14355         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
14356 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
14357 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
14358 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
14359 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
14360 the package up to date.</p>
14361
14362 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
14363 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
14364 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
14365 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
14366 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
14367 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
14368 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
14369 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
14370 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
14371 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
14372 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
14373 working on the future release.</p>
14374
14375 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
14376 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
14377
14378       </div>
14379       <div class="tags">
14380
14381
14382         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>.
14383
14384
14385       </div>
14386     </div>
14387     <div class="padding"></div>
14388
14389     <div class="entry">
14390       <div class="title">
14391         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
14392       </div>
14393       <div class="date">
14394         24th June 2009
14395       </div>
14396       <div class="body">
14397         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
14398 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
14399 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
14400 funded
14401 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
14402 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
14403 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
14404 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
14405 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
14406 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
14407
14408 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
14409 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
14410 boot:</p>
14411
14412 <ul>
14413
14414 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
14415
14416 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
14417    clock is in UTC.</li>
14418
14419 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
14420    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14421    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
14422
14423 </ul>
14424
14425 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
14426 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
14427 Villegas</a>.
14428
14429 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
14430 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
14431 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
14432 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
14433 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
14434 using this.</p>
14435
14436 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
14437 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
14438 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
14439 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
14440 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
14441 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
14442 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
14443
14444       </div>
14445       <div class="tags">
14446
14447
14448         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>.
14449
14450
14451       </div>
14452     </div>
14453     <div class="padding"></div>
14454
14455     <div class="entry">
14456       <div class="title">
14457         <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>
14458       </div>
14459       <div class="date">
14460          2nd May 2009
14461       </div>
14462       <div class="body">
14463         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
14464 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
14465 do not yet know them.</p>
14466
14467 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
14468 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
14469 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
14470 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
14471 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
14472 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
14473 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
14474 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
14475 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
14476 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
14477 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
14478
14479 <p>The second one is
14480 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
14481 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
14482 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
14483 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
14484 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
14485 and the company behind it is running
14486 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
14487 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
14488 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
14489 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
14490 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
14491 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
14492 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
14493 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
14494
14495 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
14496 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
14497 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
14498 surrounded by today.</p>
14499
14500       </div>
14501       <div class="tags">
14502
14503
14504         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14505
14506
14507       </div>
14508     </div>
14509     <div class="padding"></div>
14510
14511     <div class="entry">
14512       <div class="title">
14513         <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>
14514       </div>
14515       <div class="date">
14516         28th April 2009
14517       </div>
14518       <div class="body">
14519         <p>Julien Blache
14520 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
14521 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
14522 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
14523 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
14524 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
14525 properties.</p>
14526
14527       </div>
14528       <div class="tags">
14529
14530
14531         Tags: <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>.
14532
14533
14534       </div>
14535     </div>
14536     <div class="padding"></div>
14537
14538     <div class="entry">
14539       <div class="title">
14540         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
14541       </div>
14542       <div class="date">
14543          5th April 2009
14544       </div>
14545       <div class="body">
14546         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
14547 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
14548 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
14549 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
14550 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
14551 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
14552 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
14553 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
14554
14555 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
14556 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
14557 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
14558   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
14559   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
14560
14561 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
14562 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
14563 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
14564 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
14565
14566 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
14567 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
14568 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
14569 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
14570
14571 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
14572 set -e
14573 URL="$1"
14574 SAVEFILE="$2"
14575 DURATION="$3"
14576 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
14577   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
14578   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
14579 pid=$!
14580 sleep $DURATION
14581 kill $pid
14582 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
14583
14584       </div>
14585       <div class="tags">
14586
14587
14588         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>.
14589
14590
14591       </div>
14592     </div>
14593     <div class="padding"></div>
14594
14595     <div class="entry">
14596       <div class="title">
14597         <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>
14598       </div>
14599       <div class="date">
14600         30th March 2009
14601       </div>
14602       <div class="body">
14603         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
14604 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
14605 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
14606 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
14607 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
14608 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
14609 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
14610 application.</p>
14611
14612 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
14613 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
14614 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
14615 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
14616 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
14617 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
14618 blocked from doing so.</p>
14619
14620 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
14621 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
14622 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
14623 requirements change.</p>
14624
14625 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
14626 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
14627 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
14628
14629       </div>
14630       <div class="tags">
14631
14632
14633         Tags: <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>.
14634
14635
14636       </div>
14637     </div>
14638     <div class="padding"></div>
14639
14640     <div class="entry">
14641       <div class="title">
14642         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
14643       </div>
14644       <div class="date">
14645         29th March 2009
14646       </div>
14647       <div class="body">
14648         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
14649 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
14650 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
14651 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
14652 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
14653 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
14654 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
14655 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
14656 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
14657 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
14658 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
14659 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
14660 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
14661 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
14662 now. :)</p>
14663
14664       </div>
14665       <div class="tags">
14666
14667
14668         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>.
14669
14670
14671       </div>
14672     </div>
14673     <div class="padding"></div>
14674
14675     <div class="entry">
14676       <div class="title">
14677         <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>
14678       </div>
14679       <div class="date">
14680         29th March 2009
14681       </div>
14682       <div class="body">
14683         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
14684 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
14685 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
14686 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
14687 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
14688 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
14689
14690 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
14691 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
14692 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
14693 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
14694 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
14695 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
14696 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
14697 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
14698 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
14699 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
14700 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
14701 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
14702 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
14703
14704 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
14705 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
14706 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
14707 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
14708
14709 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
14710 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
14711
14712 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
14713 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
14714 new IETF work group?</p>
14715
14716       </div>
14717       <div class="tags">
14718
14719
14720         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>.
14721
14722
14723       </div>
14724     </div>
14725     <div class="padding"></div>
14726
14727     <div class="entry">
14728       <div class="title">
14729         <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>
14730       </div>
14731       <div class="date">
14732         28th February 2009
14733       </div>
14734       <div class="body">
14735         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
14736 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
14737 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
14738 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
14739 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
14740 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
14741 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
14742 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
14743 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
14744 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
14745 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
14746 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
14747 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
14748 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
14749 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
14750 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
14751 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
14752 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
14753 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
14754 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
14755 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
14756 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
14757 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
14758 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
14759 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
14760 machine.</p>
14761
14762 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
14763 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
14764 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
14765 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
14766 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
14767 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
14768 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
14769
14770 <pre>
14771 use LWP::Simple;
14772 use POSIX;
14773 use WWW::Mechanize;
14774 use Date::Parse;
14775 [...]
14776 sub get_support_info {
14777     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
14778     my $str;
14779
14780     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
14781         # fetch website from Dell support
14782         my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;l=no&amp;s=dhs&amp;ServiceTag=$serial";
14783         my $webpage = get($url);
14784         return undef unless ($webpage);
14785
14786         my $daysleft = -1;
14787         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
14788         foreach my $line (@lines) {
14789             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
14790             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
14791             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
14792
14793             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
14794             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
14795             my $lastend = "";
14796             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
14797                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
14798
14799                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
14800                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
14801                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
14802                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
14803                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
14804                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
14805                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
14806             }
14807             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
14808             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
14809                 if ($lastend lt $today);
14810         }
14811     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
14812         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
14813         my $url =
14814             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
14815         $mech->get($url);
14816         my $fields = {
14817             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
14818             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
14819             'country' => 'NO',
14820             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
14821             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
14822         };
14823         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
14824                             fields      => $fields );
14825         # Next step is screen scraping
14826         my $content = $mech->content();
14827
14828         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
14829         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
14830         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
14831         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
14832
14833         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
14834
14835         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
14836             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
14837                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
14838             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
14839             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
14840                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
14841             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
14842                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
14843
14844             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
14845
14846             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
14847                 if ($end lt $today);
14848         }
14849     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
14850         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
14851         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
14852         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
14853             my $content =
14854                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
14855             if ($content) {
14856                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
14857                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
14858                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
14859                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
14860
14861                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
14862                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
14863
14864                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
14865
14866                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
14867                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
14868                     if ($end lt $today);
14869             }
14870         }
14871     }
14872     return $str;
14873 }
14874 </pre>
14875
14876 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
14877 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
14878 from dmidecode.</p>
14879
14880 <pre>
14881 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
14882                        "447707-B21");
14883 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
14884 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
14885                        "1234567");
14886 </pre>
14887
14888 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
14889 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
14890
14891 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
14892 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
14893 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
14894 do so.</p>
14895
14896       </div>
14897       <div class="tags">
14898
14899
14900         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>.
14901
14902
14903       </div>
14904     </div>
14905     <div class="padding"></div>
14906
14907     <div class="entry">
14908       <div class="title">
14909         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
14910       </div>
14911       <div class="date">
14912         20th February 2009
14913       </div>
14914       <div class="body">
14915         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
14916 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
14917 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
14918 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
14919 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
14920 the "missing" computer.</p>
14921
14922 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
14923 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
14924 code blocks as defined in the
14925 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
14926 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
14927 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
14928 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
14929 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
14930 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
14931 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
14932 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
14933 codes.</p>
14934
14935 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
14936 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
14937 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
14938 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
14939 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
14940 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
14941
14942 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
14943 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
14944 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
14945 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
14946 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
14947 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
14948 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
14949 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
14950 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
14951 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
14952
14953 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
14954 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
14955 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
14956
14957       </div>
14958       <div class="tags">
14959
14960
14961         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>.
14962
14963
14964       </div>
14965     </div>
14966     <div class="padding"></div>
14967
14968     <div class="entry">
14969       <div class="title">
14970         <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>
14971       </div>
14972       <div class="date">
14973         17th January 2009
14974       </div>
14975       <div class="body">
14976         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
14977 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
14978 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
14979 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
14980 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
14981 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
14982 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
14983 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
14984 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
14985 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
14986 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
14987 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
14988 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
14989 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
14990
14991 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
14992 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
14993 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
14994 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
14995 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
14996 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
14997 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
14998 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
14999 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
15000 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
15001 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
15002 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
15003 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
15004 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
15005 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
15006 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
15007 playing when the download is done.</p>
15008
15009 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
15010 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
15011 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
15012 too.</p>
15013
15014 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
15015 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
15016 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
15017 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
15018
15019       </div>
15020       <div class="tags">
15021
15022
15023         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>.
15024
15025
15026       </div>
15027     </div>
15028     <div class="padding"></div>
15029
15030     <div class="entry">
15031       <div class="title">
15032         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
15033       </div>
15034       <div class="date">
15035         28th December 2008
15036       </div>
15037       <div class="body">
15038         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
15039 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
15040 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
15041 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
15042 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
15043 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
15044 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
15045 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
15046 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
15047 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
15048 source, sink and mixer applications and
15049 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
15050 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
15051 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
15052 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
15053 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
15054 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
15055 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
15056 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
15057 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
15058
15059 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
15060 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
15061 larger stick as well.</p>
15062
15063       </div>
15064       <div class="tags">
15065
15066
15067         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>.
15068
15069
15070       </div>
15071     </div>
15072     <div class="padding"></div>
15073
15074     <div class="entry">
15075       <div class="title">
15076         <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>
15077       </div>
15078       <div class="date">
15079          7th December 2008
15080       </div>
15081       <div class="body">
15082         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
15083 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
15084 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
15085 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
15086 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
15087 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
15088 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
15089 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
15090
15091 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
15092 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
15093 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
15094 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
15095 of these cards.</p>
15096
15097       </div>
15098       <div class="tags">
15099
15100
15101         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>.
15102
15103
15104       </div>
15105     </div>
15106     <div class="padding"></div>
15107
15108     <div class="entry">
15109       <div class="title">
15110         <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>
15111       </div>
15112       <div class="date">
15113         25th November 2008
15114       </div>
15115       <div class="body">
15116         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
15117 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
15118 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
15119 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
15120 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
15121 notes are available on
15122 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
15123 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
15124 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
15125 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
15126 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
15127 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
15128 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
15129 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
15130 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
15131
15132 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
15133 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
15134
15135       </div>
15136       <div class="tags">
15137
15138
15139         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>.
15140
15141
15142       </div>
15143     </div>
15144     <div class="padding"></div>
15145
15146     <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>
15147     <div id="sidebar">
15148
15149
15150
15151 <h2>Archive</h2>
15152 <ul>
15153
15154 <li>2013
15155 <ul>
15156
15157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
15158
15159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
15160
15161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
15162
15163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
15164
15165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15166
15167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (3)</a></li>
15168
15169 </ul></li>
15170
15171 <li>2012
15172 <ul>
15173
15174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
15175
15176 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
15177
15178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
15179
15180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
15181
15182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
15183
15184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
15185
15186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
15187
15188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
15189
15190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
15191
15192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
15193
15194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
15195
15196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
15197
15198 </ul></li>
15199
15200 <li>2011
15201 <ul>
15202
15203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
15204
15205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
15206
15207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
15208
15209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
15210
15211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
15212
15213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
15214
15215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
15216
15217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
15218
15219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
15220
15221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
15222
15223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15224
15225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
15226
15227 </ul></li>
15228
15229 <li>2010
15230 <ul>
15231
15232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
15233
15234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
15235
15236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
15237
15238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
15239
15240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15241
15242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
15243
15244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
15245
15246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
15247
15248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
15249
15250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
15251
15252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
15253
15254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
15255
15256 </ul></li>
15257
15258 <li>2009
15259 <ul>
15260
15261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
15262
15263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
15264
15265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
15266
15267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
15268
15269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
15270
15271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
15272
15273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
15274
15275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
15276
15277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
15278
15279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
15280
15281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
15282
15283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
15284
15285 </ul></li>
15286
15287 <li>2008
15288 <ul>
15289
15290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
15291
15292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
15293
15294 </ul></li>
15295
15296 </ul>
15297
15298
15299
15300 <h2>Tags</h2>
15301 <ul>
15302
15303  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
15304
15305  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
15306
15307  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
15308
15309  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
15310
15311  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
15312
15313  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
15314
15315  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
15316
15317  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (76)</a></li>
15318
15319  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (130)</a></li>
15320
15321  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
15322
15323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
15324
15325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
15326
15327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (196)</a></li>
15328
15329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
15330
15331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
15332
15333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
15334
15335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
15336
15337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (35)</a></li>
15338
15339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (6)</a></li>
15340
15341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
15342
15343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
15344
15345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
15346
15347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
15348
15349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
15350
15351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (234)</a></li>
15352
15353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (152)</a></li>
15354
15355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
15356
15357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
15358
15359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
15360
15361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
15362
15363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
15364
15365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
15366
15367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
15368
15369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
15370
15371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
15372
15373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
15374
15375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
15376
15377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
15378
15379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
15380
15381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
15382
15383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
15384
15385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
15386
15387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
15388
15389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
15390
15391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
15392
15393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
15394
15395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
15396
15397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
15398
15399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
15400
15401 </ul>
15402
15403
15404     </div>
15405     <p style="text-align: right">
15406  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
15407 </p>
15408
15409   </body>
15410 </html>