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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/Nude_body_scanner_now_present_on_Norwegian_airport.html">Nude body scanner now present on Norwegian airport</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         10th February 2015
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Norway, today report
  32 that
  33 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/reise/Slik-skannes-kroppen-din-i-fremtidens-sikkerhetskontroll-490666_1.snd">three
  34 of the nude body scanners now is put to use at Gardermoen</a>, the
  35 main airport in Norway.  This way the travelers can have their body
  36 photographed without cloths when visiting Norway.  Of course this
  37 horrible news is presented with a positive spin, stating that "now
  38 travelers can move past the security check point faster and more
  39 efficiently", but fail to mention that the machines in question take
  40 pictures of their nude bodies and store them internally in the
  41 computer, while only presenting sketch figure of the body to the
  42 public.  The article is written in a way that leave the impression
  43 that the new machines do not take these nude pictures and only create
  44 the sketch figures.  In reality the same nude pictures are still
  45 taken, but not presented to everyone.  They are still available for
  46 the owners of the system and the people doing maintenance of the
  47 scanners, as long as they are taken and stored.</p>
  48
  49 <p>Wikipedia have a more on
  50 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner">Full body
  51 scanners</a>, including example images and a summary of the
  52 controversy about these scanners.</p>
  53
  54 <p>Personally I will decline to use these machines, as I believe strip
  55 searches of my body is a very intrusive attack on my privacy, and not
  56 something everyone should have to accept to travel.</p>
  57
  58       </div>
  59       <div class="tags">
  60
  61
  62         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>.
  63
  64
  65       </div>
  66     </div>
  67     <div class="padding"></div>
  68
  69     <div class="entry">
  70       <div class="title">
  71         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nagios_module_to_check_if_the_Frikanalen_video_stream_is_working.html">Nagios module to check if the Frikanalen video stream is working</a>
  72       </div>
  73       <div class="date">
  74          8th February 2015
  75       </div>
  76       <div class="body">
  77         <p>When running a TV station with both broadcast and web stream
  78 distribution, it is useful to know that the stream is working.  As I
  79 am involved in the Norwegian open channel
  80 <ahref="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> as part of my
  81 activity in the <ahref="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member
  82 organisation</a>, I wrote a script to use mplayer to connect to a
  83 video stream, pick two images 35 seconds apart and compare them.  If
  84 the images are missing or identical, something is probably wrong with
  85 the stream and an alarm should be triggered.  The script is written as
  86 a Nagios plugin, allowing us to use Nagios to run the check regularly
  87 and sound the alarm when something is wrong.  It is able to detect
  88 both a hanging and a broken video stream.</p>
  89
  90 <p>I just uploaded the code for the script into the
  91 <a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen/frikanalen/blob/master/nagios-plugin/check_video_stream_images">Frikanalen
  92 git repository</a> on github.  If you run a TV station with web
  93 streaming, perhaps you can find it useful too.</p>
  94
  95 <p>Last year, the Frikanalen public TV station transformed into using
  96 only Linux based free software to administrate, schedule and
  97 distribute the TV content.  The
  98 <a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen">source code for the entire TV
  99 station</a> is available from the Github project page.  Everyone can
 100 use it to send their content on national TV, and we provide both a web
 101 GUI and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/api/">a web API</a> to
 102 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/login/?next=/members/video/">add</a>
 103 and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/members/plan/">schedule
 104 content</a>.  And thanks to last weeks developer gathering and
 105 following activity, we now have the schedule
 106 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/xmltv/2015/01/01">available as
 107 XMLTV</a> too.  Still a lot of work left to do, especially with the
 108 process to add videos and with the scheduling, so your contribution is
 109 most welcome.  Perhaps you want to set up your own TV station?</p>
 110
 111       </div>
 112       <div class="tags">
 113
 114
 115         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>.
 116
 117
 118       </div>
 119     </div>
 120     <div class="padding"></div>
 121
 122     <div class="entry">
 123       <div class="title">
 124         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_subtitles_for_the_FSF_video_User_Liberation.html">Norwegian Bokmål subtitles for the FSF video User Liberation</a>
 125       </div>
 126       <div class="date">
 127         12th January 2015
 128       </div>
 129       <div class="body">
 130         <p>A few days ago, the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/">Free Software
 131 Foundation</a> announced a new video
 132 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">explaining
 133 Free software</a> in simple terms.  The video named User Liberation is
 134 3 minutes long, and I recommend showing it to everyone you know as a
 135 way to explain what Free Software is all about.  Unfortunately several
 136 of the people I know do not understand English and Spanish, so it did
 137 not make sense to show it to them.</p>
 138
 139 <p>But today I was told that
 140 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video">English
 141 subtitles were available</a> and set out to provide Norwegian Bokmål
 142 subtitles based on these.  The result has been sent to FSF and made
 143 available in
 144 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fsf-video-user-liberation-subtitles">a
 145 git repository</a> provided by Github.  Please let me know if you find
 146 errors or have improvements to the subtitles.</p>
 147
 148 <p>Update 2015-02-03: Since I publised this post, FSF created a
 149 Libreplanet
 150 <a href="http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:FSF/User_Liberation_Video_Translation">project
 151 to track subtitles</A> for the video.</p>
 152
 153       </div>
 154       <div class="tags">
 155
 156
 157         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 158
 159
 160       </div>
 161     </div>
 162     <div class="padding"></div>
 163
 164     <div class="entry">
 165       <div class="title">
 166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Updated_version_of_the_Norwegian_web_service_FiksGataMi.html">Updated version of the Norwegian web service FiksGataMi</a>
 167       </div>
 168       <div class="date">
 169         30th December 2014
 170       </div>
 171       <div class="body">
 172         <p>I am very happy that we in the
 173 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG)</a>,
 174 spearheaded by Marius Halden from NUUG and Matthew Somerville from
 175 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>, finally managed to
 176 upgrade the code base for the Norwegian version of
 177 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org/">FixMyStreet</a>.  This
 178 was the first major update since 2011. The refurbished
 179 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is already live, and
 180 seem to hold up the pressure.  The
 181 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Pressemelding__FiksGataMi_i_oppdatert_og_mobilvennlig_klesdrakt.shtml">press
 182 release and announcement</a> went out this morning.</p>
 183
 184 <p>FixMyStreet is a web platform for allowing the citizens to easily
 185 report problems with public infrastructure to the responsible
 186 authorities.  Think of it as a shared mail client with map support,
 187 allowing everyone to see what already was reported and comment on the
 188 reports in public.</p>
 189
 190       </div>
 191       <div class="tags">
 192
 193
 194         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>.
 195
 196
 197       </div>
 198     </div>
 199     <div class="padding"></div>
 200
 201     <div class="entry">
 202       <div class="title">
 203         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Of_course_USA_loses_in_cyber_war___NSA_and_friends_made_sure_it_would_happen.html">Of course USA loses in cyber war - NSA and friends made sure it would happen</a>
 204       </div>
 205       <div class="date">
 206         19th December 2014
 207       </div>
 208       <div class="body">
 209         <p>So, Sony caved in
 210 (<a href="https://twitter.com/RobLowe/status/545338568512917504">according
 211 to Rob Lowe</a>) and demonstrated that America lost its first cyberwar
 212 (<a href="https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/545339074975109122">according
 213 to Newt Gingrich</a>).  It should not surprise anyone, after the
 214 whistle blower Edward Snowden documented that the government of USA
 215 and their allies for many years have done their best to make sure the
 216 technology used by its citizens is filled with security holes allowing
 217 the secret services to spy on its own population.  No one in their
 218 right minds could believe that the ability to snoop on the people all
 219 over the globe could only be used by the personnel authorized to do so
 220 by the president of the United States of America.  If the capabilities
 221 are there, they will be used by friend and foe alike, and now they are
 222 being used to bring Sony on its knees.</p>
 223
 224 <p>I doubt it will a lesson learned, and expect USA to lose its next
 225 cyber war too, given how eager the western intelligence communities
 226 (and probably the non-western too, but it is less in the news) seem to
 227 be to continue its current dragnet surveillance practice.</p>
 228
 229 <p>There is a reason why China and others are trying to move away from
 230 Windows to Linux and other alternatives, and it is not to avoid
 231 sending its hard earned dollars to Cayman Islands (or whatever
 232 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven">tax haven</a>
 233 Microsoft is using these days to collect the majority of its
 234 income. :)</p>
 235
 236       </div>
 237       <div class="tags">
 238
 239
 240         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/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 241
 242
 243       </div>
 244     </div>
 245     <div class="padding"></div>
 246
 247     <div class="entry">
 248       <div class="title">
 249         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
 250       </div>
 251       <div class="date">
 252         22nd November 2014
 253       </div>
 254       <div class="body">
 255         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
 256 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
 257 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
 258 courtesy of
 259 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
 260 Schubert</a> and
 261 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
 262 McVittie</a>.
 263
 264 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
 265 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
 266 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
 267 you upgrade:</p>
 268
 269 <p><blockquote><pre>
 270 Package: systemd-sysv
 271 Pin: release o=Debian
 272 Pin-Priority: -1
 273 </pre></blockquote><p>
 274
 275 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
 276 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
 277 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
 278 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
 279 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
 280
 281 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
 282 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
 283 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
 284 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
 285 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
 286 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
 287
 288 <p><blockquote><pre>
 289 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
 290 </pre></blockquote><p>
 291
 292 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
 293
 294 <p><blockquote><pre>
 295 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
 296 </pre></blockquote><p>
 297
 298 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
 299 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
 300
 301 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
 302 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
 303 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
 304 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
 305 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
 306 Jessie is released.</p>
 307
 308 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
 309 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
 310 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
 311 line.</p>
 312
 313       </div>
 314       <div class="tags">
 315
 316
 317         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>.
 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/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
 327       </div>
 328       <div class="date">
 329         10th November 2014
 330       </div>
 331       <div class="body">
 332         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
 333 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
 334 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
 335
 336 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
 337 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
 338 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
 339 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
 340 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
 341 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
 342 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
 343 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
 344 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
 345 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
 346 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
 347 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
 348 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
 349 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
 350 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
 351
 352 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
 353 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
 354 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
 355 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
 356 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
 357 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
 358 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
 359 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
 360 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
 361 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
 362 were fairly easy, and
 363 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
 364 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
 365 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
 366 useful approach.</p>
 367
 368 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
 369 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
 370 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
 371 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
 372 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
 373 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
 374 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
 375 this:</p>
 376
 377 <p><blockquote><pre>
 378 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
 379   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
 380 </pre></blockquote></p>
 381
 382 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
 383 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
 384
 385 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
 386 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
 387 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
 388 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
 389 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
 390 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
 391 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
 392 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
 393 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
 394 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
 395 system.</p>
 396
 397 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
 398 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
 399 SMTorP. :)</p>
 400
 401       </div>
 402       <div class="tags">
 403
 404
 405         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 406
 407
 408       </div>
 409     </div>
 410     <div class="padding"></div>
 411
 412     <div class="entry">
 413       <div class="title">
 414         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html">First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)</a>
 415       </div>
 416       <div class="date">
 417         27th October 2014
 418       </div>
 419       <div class="body">
 420         <p>I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just
 421 sent out
 422 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2014/10/msg00000.html">this
 423 announcement</a>:</p>
 424
 425 <pre>
 426 The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
 427 Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
 428
 429 Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
 430 various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
 431 and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
 432 Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
 433 roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
 434 hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
 435 pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
 436
 437 For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
 438 installation instructions are available, including detailed
 439 instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
 440 setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
 441 for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
 442 of at least 5 characters!
 443
 444  [1] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie</a> &gt;
 445
 446 Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
 447 tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
 448 reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
 449 the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
 450 Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
 451
 452 Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
 453 mostly in Germany and Norway.
 454
 455 About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
 456 ===============================
 457
 458 Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
 459 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
 460 configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
 461 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
 462 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
 463 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
 464 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
 465 machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
 466 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
 467 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
 468 services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
 469 packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
 470 schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
 471 environment.
 472
 473  [2] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">http://www.skolelinux.org/</a> &gt;
 474  [3] &lt;URL: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</a> &gt;
 475
 476 Full release notes and manual
 477 =============================
 478
 479 Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
 480 and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
 481 list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
 482 the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
 483 available, see the manual translation overview[5].
 484
 485  [4] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features</a> &gt;
 486  [5] &lt;URL: <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/</a> &gt;
 487
 488 Where to get it
 489 ---------------
 490
 491 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
 492
 493  * <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso</a>
 494  * <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso</a>
 495  * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
 496
 497 The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
 498
 499 New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
 500 ===============================================================================
 501
 502
 503 Installation changes
 504 --------------------
 505
 506  * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
 507
 508 Software updates
 509 ----------------
 510
 511 Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
 512
 513  * Linux kernel 3.16.x
 514  * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
 515    LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
 516    choose one of the others see manual.)
 517  * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38
 518  * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
 519  * GOsa 2.7.4
 520  * LTSP 5.5.4
 521  * CUPS print system 1.7.5
 522  * new boot framework: systemd
 523  * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07
 524  * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
 525  * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
 526  * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
 527  * golearn 0.9
 528  * tuxpaint 0.9.22
 529  * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
 530  * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
 531    installation.
 532  * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
 533    notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
 534
 535  [6] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes</a> &gt;
 536  [7] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual</a> &gt;
 537
 538 Fixed bugs
 539 ----------
 540
 541  * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
 542    DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
 543    information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
 544  * and many others.
 545
 546 Documentation and translation updates
 547 -------------------------------------
 548
 549  * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
 550    Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
 551    Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
 552
 553 Other changes
 554 -------------
 555
 556  * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
 557    server takes more time.
 558  * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
 559    doesn't work.
 560
 561 Regressions / known problems
 562 ----------------------------
 563
 564  * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
 565    exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
 566    and Debian bug #762103).
 567  * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
 568    #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
 569  * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
 570    work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
 571    Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
 572
 573 See the status page[8] for the complete list.
 574
 575  [8] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie</a> &gt;
 576
 577 How to report bugs
 578 ------------------
 579
 580 &lt;URL: <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a> &gt;
 581
 582 About Debian
 583 ============
 584
 585 The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
 586 free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
 587 the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
 588 volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
 589 maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
 590 huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
 591 operating system.
 592
 593 Contact Information
 594 For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
 595 mail to press@debian.org.
 596
 597  [9] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a> &gt;
 598 </pre>
 599
 600       </div>
 601       <div class="tags">
 602
 603
 604         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>.
 605
 606
 607       </div>
 608     </div>
 609     <div class="padding"></div>
 610
 611     <div class="entry">
 612       <div class="title">
 613         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html">I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic</a>
 614       </div>
 615       <div class="date">
 616         23rd October 2014
 617       </div>
 618       <div class="body">
 619         <p>I spent last weekend at <a href="http://www.makercon.no/">Makercon
 620 Nordic</a>, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and
 621 the surrounding countries.  I had volunteered on behalf of the
 622 Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we
 623 had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in
 624 a row.  There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the
 625 regular video equipment for NUUG, with a
 626 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">dvswitch</a>, a
 627 camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides
 628 live.</p>
 629
 630 <p>Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the
 631 around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is
 632 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">now becoming
 633 public</a> on the MakerConNordic account.  The videos have the license
 634 NUUG always use on our recordings, which is
 635 <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/no/">Creative
 636 Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge</a>.  Many great
 637 talks available.  Check it out! :)</p>
 638
 639       </div>
 640       <div class="tags">
 641
 642
 643         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>.
 644
 645
 646       </div>
 647     </div>
 648     <div class="padding"></div>
 649
 650     <div class="entry">
 651       <div class="title">
 652         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
 653       </div>
 654       <div class="date">
 655         22nd October 2014
 656       </div>
 657       <div class="body">
 658         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
 659 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
 660 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
 661 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
 662 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
 663 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
 664 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
 665 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
 666 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
 667 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
 668 lists I recently took over:</p>
 669
 670 <p><blockquote><pre>
 671 % time listadmin xiph
 672 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 673 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 674
 675 real    0m1.709s
 676 user    0m0.232s
 677 sys     0m0.012s
 678 %
 679 </pre></blockquote></p>
 680
 681 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
 682 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
 683 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
 684 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
 685 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
 686 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
 687 program.</p>
 688
 689 <p>If you install
 690 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
 691 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
 692 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
 693
 694 <p><blockquote><pre>
 695 username username@example.org
 696 spamlevel 23
 697 default discard
 698 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
 699
 700 password secret
 701 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
 702 mailman-list@lists.example.com
 703
 704 password hidden
 705 other-list@otherserver.example.org
 706 </pre></blockquote></p>
 707
 708 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
 709 learn the details.</p>
 710
 711 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
 712 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
 713 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
 714 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
 715
 716 <p><blockquote><pre>
 717 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
 718 </pre></blockquote></p>
 719
 720 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
 721 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
 722 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
 723 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
 724 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
 725 email.</p>
 726
 727 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
 728 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
 729 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
 730 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
 731 software.</p>
 732
 733 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 734 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 735 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 736
 737 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
 738 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
 739 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
 740 sure why.</p>
 741
 742       </div>
 743       <div class="tags">
 744
 745
 746         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>.
 747
 748
 749       </div>
 750     </div>
 751     <div class="padding"></div>
 752
 753     <div class="entry">
 754       <div class="title">
 755         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
 756       </div>
 757       <div class="date">
 758         17th October 2014
 759       </div>
 760       <div class="body">
 761         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
 762 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
 763 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
 764 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
 765 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
 766 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
 767 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
 768
 769 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
 770 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
 771 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
 772 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
 773 of this story.)</p>
 774
 775 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
 776 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
 777 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
 778 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
 779 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
 780 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
 781 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
 782 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
 783 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
 784 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
 785
 786 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
 787 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
 788 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
 789 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
 790
 791 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
 792 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
 793
 794 <p><blockquote><pre>
 795 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
 796 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
 797 </pre></blockquote></p>
 798
 799 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
 800 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
 801 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
 802 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
 803 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
 804 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
 805 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
 806 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
 807
 808 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
 809 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
 810
 811 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
 812 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
 813 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
 814 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
 815 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
 816
 817 <p><blockquote><pre>
 818 Task: isenkram-packages
 819 Section: hardware
 820 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 821  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 822  proposed.
 823 Test-new-install: show show
 824 Relevance: 8
 825 Packages: for-current-hardware
 826
 827 Task: isenkram-firmware
 828 Section: hardware
 829 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 830  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
 831  packages are proposed.
 832 Test-new-install: mark show
 833 Relevance: 8
 834 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
 835 </pre></blockquote></p>
 836
 837 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
 838 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
 839 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
 840 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
 841 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
 842
 843 <p><blockquote><pre>
 844 #!/bin/sh
 845 #
 846 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
 847 export PATH
 848 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 849 </pre></blockquote></p>
 850
 851 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
 852 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
 853
 854 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
 855 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
 856 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
 857 install.</p>
 858
 859 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
 860 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
 861 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
 862
 863       </div>
 864       <div class="tags">
 865
 866
 867         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
 868
 869
 870       </div>
 871     </div>
 872     <div class="padding"></div>
 873
 874     <div class="entry">
 875       <div class="title">
 876         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
 877       </div>
 878       <div class="date">
 879          4th October 2014
 880       </div>
 881       <div class="body">
 882         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
 883 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
 884 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
 885 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
 886
 887 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
 888
 889 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
 890 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
 891 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
 892
 893       </div>
 894       <div class="tags">
 895
 896
 897         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>.
 898
 899
 900       </div>
 901     </div>
 902     <div class="padding"></div>
 903
 904     <div class="entry">
 905       <div class="title">
 906         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
 907       </div>
 908       <div class="date">
 909          4th October 2014
 910       </div>
 911       <div class="body">
 912         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
 913 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
 914 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
 915 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
 916 Dibb.</p>
 917
 918 <p>I just wrapped up
 919 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
 920 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
 921 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
 922 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
 923 0.17.</p>
 924
 925 <ul>
 926
 927  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
 928  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
 929    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
 930  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
 931  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
 932  <li>Fix include orders</li>
 933  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
 934  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
 935  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
 936    the palette size is the same.</li>
 937  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
 938  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
 939  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
 940  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
 941    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
 942
 943 </ul>
 944
 945 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
 946 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
 947 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
 948
 949       </div>
 950       <div class="tags">
 951
 952
 953         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
 954
 955
 956       </div>
 957     </div>
 958     <div class="padding"></div>
 959
 960     <div class="entry">
 961       <div class="title">
 962         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
 963       </div>
 964       <div class="date">
 965         26th September 2014
 966       </div>
 967       <div class="body">
 968         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 969 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
 970 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
 971 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
 972 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
 973 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
 974 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
 975 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
 976 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
 977 future.  The
 978 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
 979 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
 980 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
 981 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
 982 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
 983
 984 <p>First, download the test ISO via
 985 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
 986 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
 987 or rsync (use
 988 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
 989 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
 990 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
 991 install with some tweaking.</p>
 992
 993 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
 994 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
 995
 996 <p><blockquote><pre>
 997 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
 998 </pre></blockquote></p>
 999
1000 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
1001 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
1002 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
1003 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
1004
1005 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
1006 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
1007 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
1008 your need.</p>
1009
1010 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
1011 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
1012 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
1013 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
1014 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
1015 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
1016 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
1017 days.</p>
1018
1019 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
1020 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
1021 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
1022 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
1023 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
1024 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
1025 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
1026 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
1027 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
1028
1029 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
1030 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
1031 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
1032
1033       </div>
1034       <div class="tags">
1035
1036
1037         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>.
1038
1039
1040       </div>
1041     </div>
1042     <div class="padding"></div>
1043
1044     <div class="entry">
1045       <div class="title">
1046         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
1047       </div>
1048       <div class="date">
1049         25th September 2014
1050       </div>
1051       <div class="body">
1052         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
1053 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
1054 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
1055 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
1056 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
1057 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
1058 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
1059 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
1060 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
1061 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
1062 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
1063 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
1064 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
1065
1066 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
1067 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
1068 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
1069 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
1070 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
1071 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
1072 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
1073 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
1074 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
1075 list</a>. :)</p>
1076
1077       </div>
1078       <div class="tags">
1079
1080
1081         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
1082
1083
1084       </div>
1085     </div>
1086     <div class="padding"></div>
1087
1088     <div class="entry">
1089       <div class="title">
1090         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
1091       </div>
1092       <div class="date">
1093         16th September 2014
1094       </div>
1095       <div class="body">
1096         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
1097 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
1098 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
1099 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
1100 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
1101 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
1102 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
1103 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
1104 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
1105 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
1106 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
1107 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
1108 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
1109 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
1110
1111 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
1112 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
1113 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
1114 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
1115 depend on the small and clever package
1116 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
1117 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
1118 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
1119 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
1120 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
1121 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
1122 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
1123 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
1124 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
1125 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
1126 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
1127
1128 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
1129 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
1130 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
1131 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
1132 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
1133 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
1134 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
1135 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
1136 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
1137 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
1138 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
1139 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
1140 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
1141 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
1142 dialog.</p>
1143
1144 <p><table>
1145
1146 <tr>
1147 <th>Machine/setup</th>
1148 <th>Original tasksel</th>
1149 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
1150 <th>Reduction</th>
1151 </tr>
1152
1153 <tr>
1154 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
1155 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
1156 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
1157 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
1158 </tr>
1159
1160 <tr>
1161 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
1162 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
1163 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
1164 <td>23 min 40%</td>
1165 </tr>
1166
1167 <tr>
1168 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
1169 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
1170 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
1171 <td>11 min 50%</td>
1172 </tr>
1173
1174 <tr>
1175 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
1176 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
1177 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
1178 <td>2 min 33%</td>
1179 </tr>
1180
1181 <tr>
1182 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
1183 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
1184 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
1185 <td>4 min 21%</td>
1186 </tr>
1187
1188 </table></p>
1189
1190 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
1191 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
1192 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
1193 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
1194 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
1195 installed.</p>
1196
1197 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
1198 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
1199 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
1200 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
1201 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
1202 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
1203 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
1204 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
1205 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
1206 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
1207 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
1208 for the entire installation.</p>
1209
1210 <p>I've implemented this in the
1211 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
1212 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
1213 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
1214 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
1215 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
1216
1217 <p><blockquote><pre>
1218 #!/bin/sh
1219 set -e
1220 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1221 info() {
1222     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
1223 }
1224 error() {
1225     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
1226 }
1227 override_install() {
1228     apt-install eatmydata || true
1229     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
1230         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1231             file=/usr/bin/$bin
1232             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
1233             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
1234                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
1235                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
1236                     > /target$file.edu
1237                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
1238                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1239                     --rename --quiet --add $file
1240                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
1241             else
1242                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
1243             fi
1244         done
1245     else
1246         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
1247     fi
1248 }
1249
1250 override_install
1251 </pre></blockquote></p>
1252
1253 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
1254 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
1255
1256 <p><blockquote><pre>
1257 #! /bin/sh -e
1258 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1259 error() {
1260     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
1261 }
1262 remove_install_override() {
1263     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1264         file=/usr/bin/$bin
1265         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
1266             rm /target$file
1267             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1268                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
1269             rm /target$file.edu
1270         else
1271             error "Missing divert for $file."
1272         fi
1273     done
1274     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
1275 }
1276
1277 remove_install_override
1278 </pre></blockquote></p>
1279
1280 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
1281 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
1282 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
1283
1284 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
1285 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
1286 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
1287 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
1288 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
1289 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
1290 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
1291 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
1292 everyone.</p>
1293
1294 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
1295 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
1296 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
1297 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
1298
1299 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
1300 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
1301 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
1302 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
1303 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
1304
1305 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
1306 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
1307 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
1308 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
1309 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
1310
1311       </div>
1312       <div class="tags">
1313
1314
1315         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>.
1316
1317
1318       </div>
1319     </div>
1320     <div class="padding"></div>
1321
1322     <div class="entry">
1323       <div class="title">
1324         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
1325       </div>
1326       <div class="date">
1327         10th September 2014
1328       </div>
1329       <div class="body">
1330         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
1331 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
1332 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
1333 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
1334 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
1335 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
1336 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
1337 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
1338 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
1339 those problems are gone now.</p>
1340
1341 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
1342 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
1343 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
1344 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
1345 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
1346
1347 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
1348 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
1349 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
1350
1351 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
1352 line:</p>
1353
1354 <p><blockquote><pre>
1355 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
1356 </pre></blockquote></p>
1357
1358 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
1359 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
1360 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
1361 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
1362
1363 <p><blockquote><pre>
1364 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
1365 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1366 %
1367 </pre></blockquote></p>
1368
1369 <p>Now if only
1370 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
1371 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
1372 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
1373 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
1374 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
1375 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
1376 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
1377 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
1378 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
1379
1380       </div>
1381       <div class="tags">
1382
1383
1384         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1385
1386
1387       </div>
1388     </div>
1389     <div class="padding"></div>
1390
1391     <div class="entry">
1392       <div class="title">
1393         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Do_you_need_an_agreement_with_MPEG_LA_to_publish_and_broadcast_H_264_video_in_Norway_.html">Do you need an agreement with MPEG-LA to publish and broadcast H.264 video in Norway?</a>
1394       </div>
1395       <div class="date">
1396         25th August 2014
1397       </div>
1398       <div class="body">
1399         <p>Two years later, I am still not sure if it is legal here in Norway
1400 to use or publish a video in H.264 or MPEG4 format edited by the
1401 commercially licensed video editors, without limiting the use to
1402 create "personal" or "non-commercial" videos or get a license
1403 agreement with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com">MPEG LA</a>.  If one
1404 want to publish and broadcast video in a non-personal or commercial
1405 setting, it might be that those tools can not be used, or that video
1406 format can not be used, without breaking their copyright license.  I
1407 am not sure.
1408 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trenger_en_avtale_med_MPEG_LA_for___publisere_og_kringkaste_H_264_video_.html">Back
1409 then</a>, I found that the copyright license terms for Adobe Premiere
1410 and Apple Final Cut Pro both specified that one could not use the
1411 program to produce anything else without a patent license from MPEG
1412 LA.  The issue is not limited to those two products, though.  Other
1413 much used products like those from Avid and Sorenson Media have terms
1414 of use are similar to those from Adobe and Apple.  The complicating
1415 factor making me unsure if those terms have effect in Norway or not is
1416 that the patents in question are not valid in Norway, but copyright
1417 licenses are.</p>
1418
1419 <p>These are the terms for Avid Artist Suite, according to their
1420 <a href="http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/legal-notices/legal-enduserlicense2">published
1421 end user</a>
1422 <a href="http://www.avid.com/static/resources/common/documents/corporate/LICENSE.pdf">license
1423 text</a> (converted to lower case text for easier reading):</p>
1424
1425 <p><blockquote>
1426 <p>18.2. MPEG-4. MPEG-4 technology may be included with the
1427 software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice: </p>
1428
1429 <p>This product is licensed under the MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio
1430 license for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer for (i)
1431 encoding video in compliance with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4
1432 video”) and/or (ii) decoding MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a
1433 consumer engaged in a personal and non-commercial activity and/or was
1434 obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4
1435 video.  No license is granted or shall be implied for any other
1436 use. Additional information including that relating to promotional,
1437 internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG
1438 LA, LLC.  See http://www.mpegla.com. This product is licensed under
1439 the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license for encoding in compliance
1440 with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except that an additional license
1441 and payment of royalties are necessary for encoding in connection with
1442 (i) data stored or replicated in physical media which is paid for on a
1443 title by title basis and/or (ii) data which is paid for on a title by
1444 title basis and is transmitted to an end user for permanent storage
1445 and/or use, such additional license may be obtained from MPEG LA,
1446 LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for additional details.</p>
1447
1448 <p>18.3. H.264/AVC. H.264/AVC technology may be included with the
1449 software.  MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:</p>
1450
1451 <p>This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for
1452 the personal use of a consumer or other uses in which it does not
1453 receive remuneration to (i) encode video in compliance with the AVC
1454 standard (“AVC video”) and/or (ii) decode AVC video that was encoded
1455 by a consumer engaged in a personal activity and/or was obtained from
1456 a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No license is granted
1457 or shall be implied for any other use. Additional information may be
1458 obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.</p>
1459 </blockquote></p>
1460
1461 <p>Note the requirement that the videos created can only be used for
1462 personal or non-commercial purposes.</p>
1463
1464 <p>The Sorenson Media software have
1465 <a href="http://www.sorensonmedia.com/terms/">similar terms</a>:</p>
1466
1467 <p><blockquote>
1468
1469 <p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 Video
1470 Decoders and/or Encoders: Any such product is licensed under the
1471 MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and
1472 non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) encoding video in compliance
1473 with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 video”) and/or (ii) decoding
1474 MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and
1475 non-commercial activity and/or was obtained from a video provider
1476 licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 video. No license is granted or
1477 shall be implied for any other use. Additional information including
1478 that relating to promotional, internal and commercial uses and
1479 licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See
1480 http://www.mpegla.com.</p>
1481
1482 <p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4
1483 Consumer Recorded Data Encoder, MPEG-4 Systems Internet Data Encoder,
1484 MPEG-4 Mobile Data Encoder, and/or MPEG-4 Unique Use Encoder: Any such
1485 product is licensed under the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license
1486 for encoding in compliance with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except
1487 that an additional license and payment of royalties are necessary for
1488 encoding in connection with (i) data stored or replicated in physical
1489 media which is paid for on a title by title basis and/or (ii) data
1490 which is paid for on a title by title basis and is transmitted to an
1491 end user for permanent storage and/or use. Such additional license may
1492 be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for
1493 additional details.</p>
1494
1495 </blockquote></p>
1496
1497 <p>Some free software like
1498 <a href="https://handbrake.fr/">Handbrake</A> and
1499 <a href="http://ffmpeg.org/">FFMPEG</a> uses GPL/LGPL licenses and do
1500 not have any such terms included, so for those, there is no
1501 requirement to limit the use to personal and non-commercial.</p>
1502
1503       </div>
1504       <div class="tags">
1505
1506
1507         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</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>.
1508
1509
1510       </div>
1511     </div>
1512     <div class="padding"></div>
1513
1514     <div class="entry">
1515       <div class="title">
1516         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html">Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen</a>
1517       </div>
1518       <div class="date">
1519         31st July 2014
1520       </div>
1521       <div class="body">
1522         <p>The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for
1523 schools, <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
1524 Skolelinux</a>, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people
1525 involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists
1526 from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust
1527 the setup.  I managed to interview him this summer.</p>
1528
1529 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1530
1531 <p>My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self
1532 employed physiotherapist.  My former profession is tool maker, but I
1533 haven't worked for 30 years in this job.  30 years ago I started to
1534 support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the
1535 administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu
1536 Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows
1537 Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only
1538 works with Windows . :-(</p>
1539
1540 <p>In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use
1541 Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX.  Today we are running a
1542 Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of
1543 children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist,
1544 psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to
1545 work with the documentations of our patients.</p>
1546
1547 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
1548 project?</strong></p>
1549
1550 <p>Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in
1551 his school (<a href="http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/">Gymnasium
1552 Harsewinkel</a>).  They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they
1553 were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the
1554 software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their
1555 computer skills in optional lessons.  I'm spending 4-6 hours a week
1556 with this job.</p>
1557
1558 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1559 Edu?</strong></p>
1560
1561 <p>The independence.</p>
1562
1563 <p>First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the
1564 software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software
1565 included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.</p>
1566
1567 <p>Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the
1568 possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices.  The
1569 servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are
1570 working reliable. </p>
1571
1572 <p>We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45
1573 workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile
1574 solution for all classrooms.  These machines are all booting from the
1575 terminal server.  In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile
1576 workstations.  Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these
1577 machines in their classrooms.  Internet access is realized by a WLAN
1578 router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a
1579 dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.</p>
1580
1581 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1582 Edu?</strong></p>
1583
1584 <p>Teachers and pupils are Windows users.  &lt;Irony on&gt; And Linux
1585 isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. &lt;Irony
1586 off&gt; They don't realize the stability of the system. </p>
1587
1588 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1589
1590 <p>Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba,
1591 Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)</p>
1592
1593 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1594 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1595
1596 <p>In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide
1597 which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by
1598 teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with
1599 Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS
1600 Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software
1601 instead.  Another problem are the publisher of school books.  They
1602 develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.</p>
1603
1604       </div>
1605       <div class="tags">
1606
1607
1608         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>.
1609
1610
1611       </div>
1612     </div>
1613     <div class="padding"></div>
1614
1615     <div class="entry">
1616       <div class="title">
1617         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/98_6_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html">98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture</a>
1618       </div>
1619       <div class="date">
1620         23rd July 2014
1621       </div>
1622       <div class="body">
1623         <p>This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian
1624 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
1625 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
1626 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright
1627 law.  Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text.  There
1628 are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page
1629 need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be
1630 translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof
1631 reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations
1632 need to be cleaned up.  The work stopped up because I had to give
1633 priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of
1634 the translation show this very well:</p>
1635
1636 <p><img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png"></p>
1637
1638 <p>If you want to read the result, check out the
1639 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>
1640 project pages and the
1641 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>,
1642 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
1643 and HTML version available in the
1644 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/tree/master/archive">archive
1645 directory</a>.</p>
1646
1647 <p>Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if
1648 you find any.</p>
1649
1650       </div>
1651       <div class="tags">
1652
1653
1654         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>.
1655
1656
1657       </div>
1658     </div>
1659     <div class="padding"></div>
1660
1661     <div class="entry">
1662       <div class="title">
1663         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
1664       </div>
1665       <div class="date">
1666         17th June 2014
1667       </div>
1668       <div class="body">
1669         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1670 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
1671 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
1672 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
1673 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
1674
1675 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
1676 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
1677 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
1678 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
1679 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
1680 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
1681 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
1682 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
1683 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
1684 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
1685 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
1686 goals.</p>
1687
1688 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
1689 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
1690 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
1691 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
1692 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
1693 chapters together into one large web page (aka
1694 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
1695 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
1696 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
1697 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
1698 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
1699 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
1700 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
1701 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
1702 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
1703 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
1704 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
1705 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
1706 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
1707 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
1708 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
1709 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
1710 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
1711 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
1712
1713 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
1714 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
1715 track the English original.  For this we use the
1716 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
1717 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
1718 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
1719 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
1720 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
1721 files), which the translations update with the native language
1722 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
1723 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
1724 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
1725 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
1726 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
1727 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
1728 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
1729 of the documentation.</p>
1730
1731 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
1732 recommend using
1733 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
1734 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
1735 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
1736 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
1737 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
1738 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
1739 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
1740 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
1741
1742 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
1743 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
1744 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
1745 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
1746 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
1747 translated images by storing translated versions in
1748 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
1749 package maintainers know more.</p>
1750
1751 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
1752 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
1753 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
1754 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
1755 PDF version</a> or the
1756 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
1757 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
1758 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
1759
1760 <p>To learn more, check out
1761 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
1762 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
1763 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
1764 manual on the wiki</a> and
1765 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
1766 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
1767
1768       </div>
1769       <div class="tags">
1770
1771
1772         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1773
1774
1775       </div>
1776     </div>
1777     <div class="padding"></div>
1778
1779     <div class="entry">
1780       <div class="title">
1781         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_car_computer_solution_.html">Free software car computer solution?</a>
1782       </div>
1783       <div class="date">
1784         29th May 2014
1785       </div>
1786       <div class="body">
1787         <p>Dear lazyweb.  I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer
1788 in my car, connected to
1789 <a href="http://www.dx.com/p/400a-4-0-tft-lcd-digital-monitor-for-vehicle-parking-reverse-camera-1440x272-12v-dc-57776">a
1790 small screen</a> next to the rear mirror.  I plan to hook it up with a
1791 GPS and a USB wifi card too.  The idea is to get my own
1792 "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carputer">Carputer</a>".  But I
1793 wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for
1794 such car computer.</p>
1795
1796 <p>This is my current wish list for such system:</p>
1797
1798 <ul>
1799
1800  <li>Work on Raspberry Pi.</li>
1801
1802  <li>Show current speed limit based on location, and warn if going too
1803    fast (for example using color codes yellow and red on the screen,
1804    or make a sound).  This could be done either using either data from
1805    <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">Openstreetmap</a> or OCR
1806    info gathered from a dashboard camera.</li>
1807
1808  <li>Track automatic toll road passes and their cost, show total spent
1809    and make it possible to calculate toll costs for planned
1810    route.</li>
1811
1812  <li>Collect GPX tracks for use with OpenStreetMap.</li>
1813
1814  <li>Automatically detect and use any wireless connection to connect
1815    to home server.  Try IP over DNS
1816    (<a href="http://dev.kryo.se/iodine/">iodine</a>) or ICMP
1817    (<a href="http://code.gerade.org/hans/">Hans</a>) if direct
1818    connection do not work.</li>
1819
1820  <li>Set up mesh network to talk to other cars with the same system,
1821    or some standard car mesh protocol.</li>
1822
1823  <li>Warn when approaching speed cameras and speed camera ranges
1824    (speed calculated between two cameras).</li>
1825
1826  <li>Suport dashboard/front facing camera to discover speed limits and
1827    run OCR to track registration number of passing cars.</li>
1828
1829 </ul>
1830
1831 <p>If you know of any free software car computer system supporting
1832 some or all of these features, please let me know.</p>
1833
1834       </div>
1835       <div class="tags">
1836
1837
1838         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1839
1840
1841       </div>
1842     </div>
1843     <div class="padding"></div>
1844
1845     <div class="entry">
1846       <div class="title">
1847         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_the_Coverity_issues_in_Gnash_fixed_in_the_next_release.html">Half the Coverity issues in Gnash fixed in the next release</a>
1848       </div>
1849       <div class="date">
1850         29th April 2014
1851       </div>
1852       <div class="body">
1853         <p>I've been following <a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">the Gnash
1854 project</a> for quite a while now.  It is a free software
1855 implementation of Adobe Flash, both a standalone player and a browser
1856 plugin.  Gnash implement support for the AVM1 format (and not the
1857 newer AVM2 format - see
1858 <a href="http://lightspark.github.io/">Lightspark</a> for that one),
1859 allowing several flash based sites to work.  Thanks to the friendly
1860 developers at Youtube, it also work with Youtube videos, because the
1861 Javascript code at Youtube detect Gnash and serve a AVM1 player to
1862 those users. :) Would be great if someone found time to implement AVM2
1863 support, but it has not happened yet.  If you install both Lightspark
1864 and Gnash, Lightspark will invoke Gnash if it find a AVM1 flash file,
1865 so you can get both handled as free software.  Unfortunately,
1866 Lightspark so far only implement a small subset of AVM2, and many
1867 sites do not work yet.</p>
1868
1869 <p>A few months ago, I started looking at
1870 <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/">Coverity</a>, the static source
1871 checker used to find heaps and heaps of bugs in free software (thanks
1872 to the donation of a scanning service to free software projects by the
1873 company developing this non-free code checker), and Gnash was one of
1874 the projects I decided to check out.  Coverity is able to find lock
1875 errors, memory errors, dead code and more.  A few days ago they even
1876 extended it to also be able to find the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL.
1877 There are heaps of checks being done on the instrumented code, and the
1878 amount of bogus warnings is quite low compared to the other static
1879 code checkers I have tested over the years.</p>
1880
1881 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I've been working with the other Gnash
1882 developers squashing bugs discovered by Coverity.  I was quite happy
1883 today when I checked the current status and saw that of the 777 issues
1884 detected so far, 374 are marked as fixed.  This make me confident that
1885 the next Gnash release will be more stable and more dependable than
1886 the previous one.  Most of the reported issues were and are in the
1887 test suite, but it also found a few in the rest of the code.</p>
1888
1889 <p>If you want to help out, you find us on
1890 <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash-dev">the
1891 gnash-dev mailing list</a> and on
1892 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#gnash">the #gnash channel on
1893 irc.freenode.net IRC server</a>.</p>
1894
1895       </div>
1896       <div class="tags">
1897
1898
1899         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>.
1900
1901
1902       </div>
1903     </div>
1904     <div class="padding"></div>
1905
1906     <div class="entry">
1907       <div class="title">
1908         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
1909       </div>
1910       <div class="date">
1911         23rd April 2014
1912       </div>
1913       <div class="body">
1914         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
1915 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
1916 So I implemented one, using
1917 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
1918 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
1919 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
1920 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
1921 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
1922 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
1923
1924 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
1925 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
1926 packages to install.  The first part is in
1927 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
1928 this:</p>
1929
1930 <p><blockquote><pre>
1931 Task: isenkram
1932 Section: hardware
1933 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1934  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1935  proposed.
1936 Test-new-install: mark show
1937 Relevance: 8
1938 Packages: for-current-hardware
1939 </pre></blockquote></p>
1940
1941 <p>The second part is in
1942 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
1943 this:</p>
1944
1945 <p><blockquote><pre>
1946 #!/bin/sh
1947 #
1948 (
1949     isenkram-lookup
1950     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1951 ) | sort -u
1952 </pre></blockquote></p>
1953
1954 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
1955 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
1956 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
1957 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
1958 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
1959 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
1960
1961 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
1962 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
1963 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
1964 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
1965 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
1966 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
1967 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
1968 the python-apt code (bug
1969 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
1970 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
1971 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
1972 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
1973 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
1974 unstable today.</p>
1975
1976 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
1977 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
1978 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
1979 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
1980 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
1981 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
1982 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
1983 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
1984 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
1985
1986 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
1987 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
1988 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
1989 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
1990 package.  See also
1991 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
1992 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
1993 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
1994 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
1995
1996       </div>
1997       <div class="tags">
1998
1999
2000         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>.
2001
2002
2003       </div>
2004     </div>
2005     <div class="padding"></div>
2006
2007     <div class="entry">
2008       <div class="title">
2009         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
2010       </div>
2011       <div class="date">
2012         15th April 2014
2013       </div>
2014       <div class="body">
2015         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2016 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
2017 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
2018 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
2019 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
2020 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
2021
2022 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
2023 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
2024 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
2025 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
2026 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
2027 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
2028 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
2029
2030 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
2031 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
2032 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
2033 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
2034 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
2035 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
2036 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
2037 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
2038 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
2039 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
2040 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
2041 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
2042
2043 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
2044 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
2045 become root:</p>
2046
2047 <p><pre>
2048 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2049   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2050   u-boot-tools
2051 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2052   freedom-maker
2053 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2054 </pre></p>
2055
2056 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2057 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
2058 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
2059 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
2060 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
2061 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
2062 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
2063 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
2064
2065 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2066 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2067 the preseed values:</p>
2068
2069 <p><pre>
2070 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2071 </pre></p>
2072
2073 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
2074 it still work.</p>
2075
2076 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
2077 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
2078 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
2079 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
2080 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
2081 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
2082 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
2083
2084 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2085 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2086 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2087 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2088 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2089 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2090
2091       </div>
2092       <div class="tags">
2093
2094
2095         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2096
2097
2098       </div>
2099     </div>
2100     <div class="padding"></div>
2101
2102     <div class="entry">
2103       <div class="title">
2104         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
2105       </div>
2106       <div class="date">
2107          9th April 2014
2108       </div>
2109       <div class="body">
2110         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
2111 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
2112 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
2113 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
2114 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
2115 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
2116 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
2117 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
2118 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
2119 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
2120 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
2121 have looked at a system called
2122 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
2123 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
2124
2125 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
2126 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
2127 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
2128 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
2129 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
2130 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
2131 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
2132 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
2133 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
2134 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
2135 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
2136 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
2137 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
2138
2139 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
2140 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
2141 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
2142 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
2143 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
2144 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
2145 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
2146 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
2147 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
2148 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
2149 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
2150 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
2151 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
2152 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
2153 account.</p>
2154
2155 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
2156 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
2157 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
2158 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
2159 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
2160 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
2161 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
2162
2163 <p><blockquote><pre>
2164 [s3c]
2165 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2166 backend-login: API-login
2167 backend-password: API-password
2168 fs-passphrase: local-password
2169 </pre></blockquote></p>
2170
2171 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
2172 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
2173 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
2174 details and password to create it:</p>
2175
2176 <p><blockquote><pre>
2177 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
2178 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2179   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2180 Enter backend login:
2181 Enter backend password:
2182 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
2183 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
2184 Enter encryption password:
2185 Confirm encryption password:
2186 Generating random encryption key...
2187 Creating metadata tables...
2188 Dumping metadata...
2189 ..objects..
2190 ..blocks..
2191 ..inodes..
2192 ..inode_blocks..
2193 ..symlink_targets..
2194 ..names..
2195 ..contents..
2196 ..ext_attributes..
2197 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2198 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
2199 # </pre></blockquote></p>
2200
2201 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
2202
2203 <p><blockquote><pre>
2204 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2205   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2206 Using 4 upload threads.
2207 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
2208 Reading metadata...
2209 ..objects..
2210 ..blocks..
2211 ..inodes..
2212 ..inode_blocks..
2213 ..symlink_targets..
2214 ..names..
2215 ..contents..
2216 ..ext_attributes..
2217 Mounting filesystem...
2218 # df -h /s3ql
2219 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
2220 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
2221 #
2222 </pre></blockquote></p>
2223
2224 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
2225 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
2226 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
2227 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
2228 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
2229 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
2230
2231 <p><blockquote><pre>
2232 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
2233 #
2234 </pre></blockquote></p>
2235
2236 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
2237 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
2238 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
2239 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
2240 file system:</p>
2241
2242 <p><blockquote><pre>
2243 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2244 Using cached metadata.
2245 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
2246 Checking DB integrity...
2247 Creating temporary extra indices...
2248 Checking lost+found...
2249 Checking cached objects...
2250 Checking names (refcounts)...
2251 Checking contents (names)...
2252 Checking contents (inodes)...
2253 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
2254 Checking objects (reference counts)...
2255 Checking objects (backend)...
2256 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
2257 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
2258 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
2259 Checking objects (sizes)...
2260 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
2261 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
2262 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
2263 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
2264 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
2265 Checking inodes (sizes)...
2266 Checking extended attributes (names)...
2267 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
2268 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
2269 Checking directory reachability...
2270 Checking unix conventions...
2271 Checking referential integrity...
2272 Dropping temporary indices...
2273 Backing up old metadata...
2274 Dumping metadata...
2275 ..objects..
2276 ..blocks..
2277 ..inodes..
2278 ..inode_blocks..
2279 ..symlink_targets..
2280 ..names..
2281 ..contents..
2282 ..ext_attributes..
2283 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2284 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
2285 #
2286 </pre></blockquote></p>
2287
2288 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
2289 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
2290 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
2291 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
2292 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
2293 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
2294 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
2295 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
2296 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
2297 working set.</p>
2298
2299 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
2300 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
2301 busy:</p>
2302
2303 <p><blockquote><pre>
2304 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2305   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2306 Using 8 upload threads.
2307 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
2308 #
2309 </pre></blockquote></p>
2310
2311 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
2312 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
2313 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
2314 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
2315 s3qlctrl:
2316
2317 <p><blockquote><pre>
2318 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
2319 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
2320 #
2321 </pre></blockquote></p>
2322
2323 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
2324 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
2325 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
2326 a report:</p>
2327
2328 <p><blockquote><pre>
2329 # s3qlstat /s3ql
2330 Directory entries:    9141
2331 Inodes:               9143
2332 Data blocks:          8851
2333 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
2334 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
2335 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
2336 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
2337 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
2338 #
2339 </pre></blockquote></p>
2340
2341 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
2342 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
2343 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
2344 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
2345 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
2346 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
2347 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
2348 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
2349 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
2350 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
2351 best.</p>
2352
2353 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
2354 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
2355 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
2356 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
2357 poster is titled
2358 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
2359 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
2360 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
2361 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
2362 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
2363
2364 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
2365 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
2366 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
2367 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
2368 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
2369 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
2370 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
2371 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
2372
2373 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
2374 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
2375 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
2376 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
2377 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
2378 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
2379 only read from it.</p>
2380
2381 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2382 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2383 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2384
2385       </div>
2386       <div class="tags">
2387
2388
2389         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2390
2391
2392       </div>
2393     </div>
2394     <div class="padding"></div>
2395
2396     <div class="entry">
2397       <div class="title">
2398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ReactOS_Windows_clone___nice_free_software.html">ReactOS Windows clone - nice free software</a>
2399       </div>
2400       <div class="date">
2401          1st April 2014
2402       </div>
2403       <div class="body">
2404         <p>Microsoft have announced that Windows XP reaches its end of life
2405 2014-04-08, in 7 days.  But there are heaps of machines still running
2406 Windows XP, and depending on Windows XP to run their applications, and
2407 upgrading will be expensive, both when it comes to money and when it
2408 comes to the amount of effort needed to migrate from Windows XP to a
2409 new operating system.  Some obvious options (buy new a Windows
2410 machine, buy a MacOSX machine, install Linux on the existing machine)
2411 are already well known and covered elsewhere.  Most of them involve
2412 leaving the user applications installed on Windows XP behind and
2413 trying out replacements or updated versions. In this blog post I want
2414 to mention one strange bird that allow people to keep the hardware and
2415 the existing Windows XP applications and run them on a free software
2416 operating system that is Windows XP compatible.</p>
2417
2418 <p><a href="http://www.reactos.org/">ReactOS</a> is a free software
2419 operating system (GNU GPL licensed) working on providing a operating
2420 system that is binary compatible with Windows, able to run windows
2421 programs directly and to use Windows drivers for hardware directly.
2422 The project goal is for Windows user to keep their existing machines,
2423 drivers and software, and gain the advantages from user a operating
2424 system without usage limitations caused by non-free licensing.  It is
2425 a Windows clone running directly on the hardware, so quite different
2426 from the approach taken by <a href="http://www.winehq.org/">the Wine
2427 project</a>, which make it possible to run Windows binaries on
2428 Linux.</p>
2429
2430 <p>The ReactOS project share code with the Wine project, so most
2431 shared libraries available on Windows are already implemented already.
2432 There is also a software manager like the one we are used to on Linux,
2433 allowing the user to install free software applications with a simple
2434 click directly from the Internet.  Check out the
2435 <a href="http://www.reactos.org/screenshots">screen shots on the
2436 project web site</a> for an idea what it look like (it looks just like
2437 Windows before metro).</p>
2438
2439 <p>I do not use ReactOS myself, preferring Linux and Unix like
2440 operating systems.  I've tested it, and it work fine in a virt-manager
2441 virtual machine.  The browser, minesweeper, notepad etc is working
2442 fine as far as I can tell.  Unfortunately, my main test application
2443 is the software included on a CD with the Lego Mindstorms NXT, which
2444 seem to install just fine from CD but fail to leave any binaries on
2445 the disk after the installation.  So no luck with that test software.
2446 No idea why, but hope someone else figure out and fix the problem.
2447 I've tried the ReactOS Live ISO on a physical machine, and it seemed
2448 to work just fine.  If you like Windows and want to keep running your
2449 old Windows binaries, check it out by
2450 <a href="http://www.reactos.org/download">downloading</a> the
2451 installation CD, the live CD or the preinstalled virtual machine
2452 image.</p>
2453
2454       </div>
2455       <div class="tags">
2456
2457
2458         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos</a>.
2459
2460
2461       </div>
2462     </div>
2463     <div class="padding"></div>
2464
2465     <div class="entry">
2466       <div class="title">
2467         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html">Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal</a>
2468       </div>
2469       <div class="date">
2470         30th March 2014
2471       </div>
2472       <div class="body">
2473         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
2474 keep gaining new users.  Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC,
2475 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>, with a
2476 wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great
2477 contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.</p>
2478
2479 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2480
2481 <p>My name is Roger Marsal, I'm 27 years old (1986 generation) and I
2482 live in Barcelona, Spain. I've got a strong business background and I
2483 work as a patrimony manager and as a real estate agent.  Additionally,
2484 I've co-founded a British based tech company that is nowadays on the
2485 last development phase of a new social networking concept.</p>
2486
2487 <p>I'm a Linux enthusiast that started its journey with Ubuntu four years
2488 ago and have recently switched to Debian seeking rock solid stability
2489 and as a necessary step to gain expertise.</p>
2490
2491 <p>In a nutshell, I spend my days working and learning as much as I
2492 can to face both my job, entrepreneur project and feed my Linux
2493 hunger.</p>
2494
2495 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
2496 project?</strong></p>
2497
2498 <p>I discovered the <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP</a> advantages
2499 with "Ubuntu 12.04 alternate install" and after a year of use I
2500 started looking for an alternative.  Even though I highly value and
2501 respect the Ubuntu project, I thought it was necessary for me to
2502 change to a more robust and stable alternative.  As far as I was using
2503 Debian on my personal laptop I thought it would be fine to install
2504 Debian and configure an LTSP server myself.  Surprised, I discovered
2505 that the Debian project also supported a kind of Edubuntu equivalent,
2506 and after having some pain I obtained a Debian Edu network up and
2507 running.  I just loved it.</p>
2508
2509 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
2510 Edu?</strong></p>
2511
2512 <p>I found a main advantage in that, once you know "the tips and
2513 tricks", a new installation just works out of the box. It's the most
2514 complete alternative I've found to create an LTSP network. All the
2515 other distributions seems to be made of plastic, Debian Edu seems to
2516 be made of steel.</p>
2517
2518 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
2519 Edu?</strong></p>
2520
2521 <p>I found two main disadvantages.</p>
2522
2523 <p>I'm not an expert but I've got notions and I had to spent a considerable
2524 amount of time trying to bring up a standard network topology. I'm quite
2525 stubborn and I just worked until I did but I'm sure many people with few
2526 resources (not big schools, but academies for example) would have switched
2527 or dropped.</p>
2528
2529 <p>It's amazing how such a complex system like Debian Edu has achieved
2530 this out-of-the-box state. Even though tweaking without breaking gets
2531 more difficult, as more factors have to be considered. This can
2532 discourage many people too.</p>
2533
2534 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2535
2536 <p>I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and
2537 Virtualbox.</p>
2538
2539
2540 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2541 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2542
2543 <p>I don't think there is a need for a particular strategy. The free
2544 attribute in both "freedom" and "no price" meanings is what will
2545 really bring free software to schools. In my experience I can think of
2546 the <a href="http://www.r-project.org/">"R" statistical language</a>; a
2547 few years a ago was an extremely nerd tool for university people.
2548 Today it's being increasingly used to teach statistics at many
2549 different level of studies.  I believe free and open software will
2550 increasingly gain popularity, but I'm sure schools will be one of the
2551 first scenarios where this will happen.</p>
2552
2553       </div>
2554       <div class="tags">
2555
2556
2557         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>.
2558
2559
2560       </div>
2561     </div>
2562     <div class="padding"></div>
2563
2564     <div class="entry">
2565       <div class="title">
2566         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Public_Trusted_Timestamping_services_for_everyone.html">Public Trusted Timestamping services for everyone</a>
2567       </div>
2568       <div class="date">
2569         25th March 2014
2570       </div>
2571       <div class="body">
2572         <p>Did you ever need to store logs or other files in a way that would
2573 allow it to be used as evidence in court, and needed a way to
2574 demonstrate without reasonable doubt that the file had not been
2575 changed since it was created?  Or, did you ever need to document that
2576 a given document was received at some point in time, like some
2577 archived document or the answer to an exam, and not changed after it
2578 was received?  The problem in these settings is to remove the need to
2579 trust yourself and your computers, while still being able to prove
2580 that a file is the same as it was at some given time in the past.</p>
2581
2582 <p>A solution to these problems is to have a trusted third party
2583 "stamp" the document and verify that at some given time the document
2584 looked a given way.  Such
2585 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notarius">notarius</a> service
2586 have been around for thousands of years, and its digital equivalent is
2587 called a
2588 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping">trusted
2589 timestamping service</a>.  <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">The Internet
2590 Engineering Task Force</a> standardised how such service could work a
2591 few years ago as <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3161">RFC
2592 3161</a>.  The mechanism is simple.  Create a hash of the file in
2593 question, send it to a trusted third party which add a time stamp to
2594 the hash and sign the result with its private key, and send back the
2595 signed hash + timestamp.  Both email, FTP and HTTP can be used to
2596 request such signature, depending on what is provided by the service
2597 used. Anyone with the document and the signature can then verify that
2598 the document matches the signature by creating their own hash and
2599 checking the signature using the trusted third party public key.
2600 There are several commercial services around providing such
2601 timestamping.  A quick search for
2602 "<a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rfc+3161+service">rfc 3161
2603 service</a>" pointed me to at least
2604 <a href="https://www.digistamp.com/technical/how-a-digital-time-stamp-works/">DigiStamp</a>,
2605 <a href="http://www.quovadisglobal.co.uk/CertificateServices/SigningServices/TimeStamp.aspx">Quo
2606 Vadis</a>,
2607 <a href="https://www.globalsign.com/timestamp-service/">Global Sign</a>
2608 and <a href="http://www.globaltrustfinder.com/TSADefault.aspx">Global
2609 Trust Finder</a>.  The system work as long as the private key of the
2610 trusted third party is not compromised.</p>
2611
2612 <p>But as far as I can tell, there are very few public trusted
2613 timestamp services available for everyone.  I've been looking for one
2614 for a while now. But yesterday I found one over at
2615 <a href="https://www.pki.dfn.de/zeitstempeldienst/">Deutches
2616 Forschungsnetz</a> mentioned in
2617 <a href="http://www.d-mueller.de/blog/dealing-with-trusted-timestamps-in-php-rfc-3161/">a
2618 blog by David Müller</a>.  I then found
2619 <a href="http://www.rz.uni-greifswald.de/support/dfn-pki-zertifikate/zeitstempeldienst.html">a
2620 good recipe on how to use the service</a> over at the University of
2621 Greifswald.</p>
2622
2623 <p><a href="http://www.openssl.org/">The OpenSSL library</a> contain
2624 both server and tools to use and set up your own signing service.  See
2625 the ts(1SSL), tsget(1SSL) manual pages for more details.  The
2626 following shell script demonstrate how to extract a signed timestamp
2627 for any file on the disk in a Debian environment:</p>
2628
2629 <p><blockquote><pre>
2630 #!/bin/sh
2631 set -e
2632 url="http://zeitstempel.dfn.de"
2633 caurl="https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt"
2634 reqfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsq)
2635 resfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsr)
2636 cafile=chain.txt
2637 if [ ! -f $cafile ] ; then
2638     wget -O $cafile "$caurl"
2639 fi
2640 openssl ts -query -data "$1" -cert | tee "$reqfile" \
2641     | /usr/lib/ssl/misc/tsget -h "$url" -o "$resfile"
2642 openssl ts -reply -in "$resfile" -text 1>&2
2643 openssl ts -verify -data "$1" -in "$resfile" -CAfile "$cafile" 1>&2
2644 base64 < "$resfile"
2645 rm "$reqfile" "$resfile"
2646 </pre></blockquote></p>
2647
2648 <p>The argument to the script is the file to timestamp, and the output
2649 is a base64 encoded version of the signature to STDOUT and details
2650 about the signature to STDERR.  Note that due to
2651 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=742553">a bug
2652 in the tsget script</a>, you might need to modify the included script
2653 and remove the last line.  Or just write your own HTTP uploader using
2654 curl. :) Now you too can prove and verify that files have not been
2655 changed.</p>
2656
2657 <p>But the Internet need more public trusted timestamp services.
2658 Perhaps something for <a href="http://www.uninett.no/">Uninett</a> or
2659 my work place the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
2660 to set up?</p>
2661
2662       </div>
2663       <div class="tags">
2664
2665
2666         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2667
2668
2669       </div>
2670     </div>
2671     <div class="padding"></div>
2672
2673     <div class="entry">
2674       <div class="title">
2675         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Video_DVD_reader_library___python_dvdvideo___nice_free_software.html">Video DVD reader library / python-dvdvideo - nice free software</a>
2676       </div>
2677       <div class="date">
2678         21st March 2014
2679       </div>
2680       <div class="body">
2681         <p>Keeping your DVD collection safe from scratches and curious
2682 children fingers while still having it available when you want to see a
2683 movie is not straight forward.  My preferred method at the moment is
2684 to store a full copy of the ISO on a hard drive, and use VLC, Popcorn
2685 Hour or other useful players to view the resulting file.  This way the
2686 subtitles and bonus material are still available and using the ISO is
2687 just like inserting the original DVD record in the DVD player.</p>
2688
2689 <p>Earlier I used dd for taking security copies, but it do not handle
2690 DVDs giving read errors (which are quite a few of them).  I've also
2691 tried using
2692 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">dvdbackup
2693 and genisoimage</a>, but these days I use the marvellous python library
2694 and program
2695 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">python-dvdvideo</a>
2696 written by Bastian Blank.  It is
2697 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/python-dvdvideo.html">in Debian
2698 already</a> and the binary package name is python3-dvdvideo. Instead
2699 of trying to read every block from the DVD, it parses the file
2700 structure and figure out which block on the DVD is actually in used,
2701 and only read those blocks from the DVD.  This work surprisingly well,
2702 and I have been able to almost backup my entire DVD collection using
2703 this method.</p>
2704
2705 <p>So far, python-dvdvideo have failed on between 10 and
2706 20 DVDs, which is a small fraction of my collection.  The most common
2707 problem is
2708 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=720831">DVDs
2709 using UTF-16 instead of UTF-8 characters</a>, which according to
2710 Bastian is against the DVD specification (and seem to cause some
2711 players to fail too).  A rarer problem is what seem to be inconsistent
2712 DVD structures, as the python library
2713 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=723079">claim
2714 there is a overlap between objects</a>.  An equally rare problem claim
2715 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=741878">some
2716 value is out of range</a>.  No idea what is going on there.  I wish I
2717 knew enough about the DVD format to fix these, to ensure my movie
2718 collection will stay with me in the future.</p>
2719
2720 <p>So, if you need to keep your DVDs safe, back them up using
2721 python-dvdvideo. :)</p>
2722
2723       </div>
2724       <div class="tags">
2725
2726
2727         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
2728
2729
2730       </div>
2731     </div>
2732     <div class="padding"></div>
2733
2734     <div class="entry">
2735       <div class="title">
2736         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
2737       </div>
2738       <div class="date">
2739         14th March 2014
2740       </div>
2741       <div class="body">
2742         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2743 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
2744 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
2745 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
2746 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
2747 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
2748 release (0.2).</p>
2749
2750 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
2751 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
2752 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
2753 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
2754 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
2755 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
2756 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
2757 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
2758 and build using
2759 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
2760 with a user with sudo access to become root:
2761
2762 <pre>
2763 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2764   freedom-maker
2765 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2766   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2767   u-boot-tools
2768 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2769 </pre>
2770
2771 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2772 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
2773 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
2774 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
2775 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
2776 kpartx call.</p>
2777
2778 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2779 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2780 the preseed values:</p>
2781
2782 <pre>
2783 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2784 </pre>
2785
2786 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
2787 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
2788 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
2789 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
2790 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
2791 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
2792
2793 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2794 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2795 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2796 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2797 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2798 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2799
2800       </div>
2801       <div class="tags">
2802
2803
2804         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2805
2806
2807       </div>
2808     </div>
2809     <div class="padding"></div>
2810
2811     <div class="entry">
2812       <div class="title">
2813         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_add_extra_storage_servers_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">How to add extra storage servers in Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
2814       </div>
2815       <div class="date">
2816         12th March 2014
2817       </div>
2818       <div class="body">
2819         <p>On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for
2820 storing user home directories and data.  The design for handling this
2821 in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, is
2822 to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on
2823 the clients take care of the rest.  I was reminded about the need to
2824 document this better when one of the customers of
2825 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a>, where I am
2826 on the board of directors, asked about how to do this.  The steps to
2827 get this working are the following:</p>
2828
2829 <p><ol>
2830
2831 <li>Add new storage server in DNS.  I use nas-server.intern as the
2832 example host here.</li>
2833
2834 <li>Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow
2835 all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust.</li>
2836
2837 <li>Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because
2838 tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops.</li>
2839
2840 </ol></p>
2841
2842 <p>DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here.  Follow the
2843 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/GettingStarted">instructions
2844 in the manual</a> (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting
2845 started).</p>
2846
2847 <p>Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the
2848 relevant subnets or machines:</p>
2849
2850 <p><blockquote><pre>
2851 root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server
2852 Export list for nas-server:
2853 /storage         10.0.0.0/8
2854 root@tjener:~#
2855 </pre></blockquote></p>
2856
2857 <p>Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the
2858 /storage export.  With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to
2859 netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the
2860 NFS access.</p>
2861
2862 <p>The next step is to update LDAP.  This can not be done using GOsa²,
2863 because it lack a module for automount.  Instead, use ldapvi and add
2864 the required LDAP objects using an editor.</p>
2865
2866 <p><blockquote><pre>
2867 ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD '(cn=admin)' -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
2868 </pre></blockquote></p>
2869
2870 <p>When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the
2871 bottom of the document.  The "/&" part in the last LDAP object is a
2872 wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the
2873 need to list individual mount points in LDAP.</p>
2874
2875 <p><blockquote><pre>
2876 add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
2877 objectClass: automount
2878 cn: nas-server
2879 automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
2880
2881 add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
2882 objectClass: top
2883 objectClass: automountMap
2884 ou: auto.nas-server
2885
2886 add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
2887 objectClass: automount
2888 cn: /
2889 automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/&
2890 </pre></blockquote></p>
2891
2892 <p>The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in
2893 tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount
2894 directories using mkdir and running "mount -a" to mount them.</p>
2895
2896 <p>When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on
2897 the storage server directly by just visiting the
2898 /tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any
2899 workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.</p>
2900
2901       </div>
2902       <div class="tags">
2903
2904
2905         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>.
2906
2907
2908       </div>
2909     </div>
2910     <div class="padding"></div>
2911
2912     <div class="entry">
2913       <div class="title">
2914         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
2915       </div>
2916       <div class="date">
2917         22nd February 2014
2918       </div>
2919       <div class="body">
2920         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
2921 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
2922 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
2923 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
2924 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
2925 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
2926 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
2927 proper home since then.</p>
2928
2929 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
2930 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
2931 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
2932 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
2933 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
2934
2935 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
2936 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
2937 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
2938 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
2939 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
2940 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
2941 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
2942 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
2943 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
2944
2945       </div>
2946       <div class="tags">
2947
2948
2949         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>.
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/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
2959       </div>
2960       <div class="date">
2961          3rd February 2014
2962       </div>
2963       <div class="body">
2964         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
2965 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
2966 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
2967 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
2968 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
2969 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
2970 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
2971 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
2972 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
2973
2974 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
2975 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
2976 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
2977 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
2978 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
2979 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
2980
2981 <p><blockquote><pre>
2982 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
2983 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
2984 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
2985 dhclient /dev/eth0
2986 </pre></blockquote></p>
2987
2988 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
2989 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
2990 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
2991
2992 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
2993 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
2994 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
2995 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
2996 side.</p>
2997
2998 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
2999 stuff:</p>
3000
3001 <p><blockquote><pre>
3002 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3003 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
3004 EOF
3005 apt-get update
3006 apt-get dist-upgrade
3007 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
3008     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
3009 update-alternatives --config runsystem
3010 </pre></blockquote></p>
3011
3012 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
3013 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
3014 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
3015 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
3016 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
3017 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
3018 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
3019 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
3020 ssh instead.
3021
3022 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
3023 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
3024 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
3025 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
3026 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
3027 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
3028
3029 <p><blockquote><pre>
3030 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3031 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
3032 EOF
3033 </pre></blockquote></p>
3034
3035 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
3036 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
3037 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
3038 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
3039
3040 <p><blockquote><pre>
3041 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
3042 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
3043 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
3044 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
3045 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
3046 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
3047 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
3048 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
3049 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
3050 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
3051 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
3052 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
3053 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
3054 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
3055 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
3056 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
3057 #
3058 </pre></blockquote></p>
3059
3060 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
3061 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
3062 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
3063 command line stuff.<p>
3064
3065       </div>
3066       <div class="tags">
3067
3068
3069         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>.
3070
3071
3072       </div>
3073     </div>
3074     <div class="padding"></div>
3075
3076     <div class="entry">
3077       <div class="title">
3078         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_fist_full_of_non_anonymous_Bitcoins.html">A fist full of non-anonymous Bitcoins</a>
3079       </div>
3080       <div class="date">
3081         29th January 2014
3082       </div>
3083       <div class="body">
3084         <p>Bitcoin is a incredible use of peer to peer communication and
3085 encryption, allowing direct and immediate money transfer without any
3086 central control.  It is sometimes claimed to be ideal for illegal
3087 activity, which I believe is quite a long way from the truth.  At least
3088 I would not conduct illegal money transfers using a system where the
3089 details of every transaction are kept forever.  This point is
3090 investigated in
3091 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">USENIX ;login:</a>
3092 from December 2013, in the article
3093 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/system/files/login/articles/03_meiklejohn-online.pdf">A
3094 Fistful of Bitcoins - Characterizing Payments Among Men with No
3095 Names</a>" by Sarah Meiklejohn, Marjori Pomarole,Grant Jordan, Kirill
3096 Levchenko, Damon McCoy, Geoffrey M. Voelker, and Stefan Savage.  They
3097 analyse the transaction log in the Bitcoin system, using it to find
3098 addresses belong to individuals and organisations and follow the flow
3099 of money from both Bitcoin theft and trades on Silk Road to where the
3100 money end up.  This is how they wrap up their article:</p>
3101
3102 <p><blockquote>
3103 <p>"To demonstrate the usefulness of this type of analysis, we turned
3104 our attention to criminal activity. In the Bitcoin economy, criminal
3105 activity can appear in a number of forms, such as dealing drugs on
3106 Silk Road or simply stealing someone else’s bitcoins. We followed the
3107 flow of bitcoins out of Silk Road (in particular, from one notorious
3108 address) and from a number of highly publicized thefts to see whether
3109 we could track the bitcoins to known services. Although some of the
3110 thieves attempted to use sophisticated mixing techniques (or possibly
3111 mix services) to obscure the flow of bitcoins, for the most part
3112 tracking the bitcoins was quite straightforward, and we ultimately saw
3113 large quantities of bitcoins flow to a variety of exchanges directly
3114 from the point of theft (or the withdrawal from Silk Road).</p>
3115
3116 <p>As acknowledged above, following stolen bitcoins to the point at
3117 which they are deposited into an exchange does not in itself identify
3118 the thief; however, it does enable further de-anonymization in the
3119 case in which certain agencies can determine (through, for example,
3120 subpoena power) the real-world owner of the account into which the
3121 stolen bitcoins were deposited.  Because such exchanges seem to serve
3122 as chokepoints into and out of the Bitcoin economy (i.e., there are
3123 few alternative ways to cash out), we conclude that using Bitcoin for
3124 money laundering or other illicit purposes does not (at least at
3125 present) seem to be particularly attractive."</p>
3126 </blockquote><p>
3127
3128 <p>These researches are not the first to analyse the Bitcoin
3129 transaction log.  The 2011 paper
3130 "<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524">An Analysis of Anonymity in
3131 the Bitcoin System</A>" by Fergal Reid and Martin Harrigan is
3132 summarized like this:</p>
3133
3134 <p><blockquote>
3135 "Anonymity in Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic currency system, is a
3136 complicated issue. Within the system, users are identified by
3137 public-keys only. An attacker wishing to de-anonymize its users will
3138 attempt to construct the one-to-many mapping between users and
3139 public-keys and associate information external to the system with the
3140 users. Bitcoin tries to prevent this attack by storing the mapping of
3141 a user to his or her public-keys on that user's node only and by
3142 allowing each user to generate as many public-keys as required. In
3143 this chapter we consider the topological structure of two networks
3144 derived from Bitcoin's public transaction history. We show that the
3145 two networks have a non-trivial topological structure, provide
3146 complementary views of the Bitcoin system and have implications for
3147 anonymity. We combine these structures with external information and
3148 techniques such as context discovery and flow analysis to investigate
3149 an alleged theft of Bitcoins, which, at the time of the theft, had a
3150 market value of approximately half a million U.S. dollars."
3151 </blockquote></p>
3152
3153 <p>I hope these references can help kill the urban myth that Bitcoin
3154 is anonymous.  It isn't really a good fit for illegal activites.  Use
3155 cash if you need to stay anonymous, at least until regular DNA
3156 sampling of notes and coins become the norm. :)</p>
3157
3158 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3159 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3160 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3161
3162       </div>
3163       <div class="tags">
3164
3165
3166         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix</a>.
3167
3168
3169       </div>
3170     </div>
3171     <div class="padding"></div>
3172
3173     <div class="entry">
3174       <div class="title">
3175         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
3176       </div>
3177       <div class="date">
3178         14th January 2014
3179       </div>
3180       <div class="body">
3181         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
3182 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
3183 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
3184 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
3185 the source.  The company behind it provide
3186 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
3187 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
3188 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
3189 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
3190 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
3191 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
3192 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
3193 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
3194 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
3195 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
3196 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
3197 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
3198 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
3199 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
3200 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
3201 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
3202 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
3203 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
3204 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
3205
3206 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
3207
3208 <ul>
3209
3210   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
3211   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
3212   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
3213
3214 </ul>
3215
3216 <p>You can
3217 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3218 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3219 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3220 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3221 include a test suite check.</p>
3222
3223       </div>
3224       <div class="tags">
3225
3226
3227         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3228
3229
3230       </div>
3231     </div>
3232     <div class="padding"></div>
3233
3234     <div class="entry">
3235       <div class="title">
3236         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Dominik_George.html">Debian Edu interview: Dominik George</a>
3237       </div>
3238       <div class="date">
3239         25th December 2013
3240       </div>
3241       <div class="body">
3242         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3243 project</a> consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I
3244 was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed
3245 up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his
3246 successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School.  Say hello
3247 to <a href="https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/Natureshadow">Dominik
3248 George</a>.</p>
3249
3250 <!-- http://www.dominik-george.de/images/foto.jpg -->
3251
3252 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3253
3254 <p>I am a 23 year-old student from Germany who has spent half of his
3255 life with open source. In "real life", I am, as already mentioned, a
3256 student in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
3257 Information Technologies and Anglistics. Due to my (only partially
3258 voluntary) huge engagement in the open source world, these things are
3259 a bit vacant right now however.</p>
3260
3261 <p>I also have been working as a project teacher at a Gymasnium
3262 (public school) for various years now. I took up that work some time
3263 around 2005 when still attending that school myself and have continued
3264 it until today. I also had been running the (kind of very advanced)
3265 network of that school together with a team of very interested and
3266 talented students in the age of 11 to 15 years, who took the chance to
3267 learn a lot about open source and networking before I left the school
3268 to help building another school's informational education concept from
3269 scratch.</p>
3270
3271 <p>That said, one might see me as a kind of "glue" between school kids
3272 and the elderly of teachers as well as between the open source
3273 ecosystem and the (even more complex) educational ecosystem.</p>
3274
3275 <p>When I am not busy with open source or education, I like Geocaching
3276 and cycling.</p>
3277
3278 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
3279 project?</strong></p>
3280
3281 <p>I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended
3282 <a href="http://www.froscon.org">FrOSCon</a> and visited the project
3283 booth. I think I wasn't too interested back then because I used to
3284 have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its
3285 own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an
3286 "out-of-the-box" solution ;).</p>
3287
3288 <p>The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at
3289 <a href="http://www.openrheinruhr.de">OpenRheinRuhr</a> 2011 when the
3290 BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various
3291 really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch
3292 ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to
3293 a stage where it could have been published. I asked the Skolelinux
3294 guys running the booth if the project were interested in it and gave a
3295 small demonstration, but there wasn't any real feedback and the guys
3296 seemed rather uninterested.</p>
3297
3298 <p>After I left the school where I developed the software, it got
3299 mostly lost, but I am now reimplementing it for my new school. I have
3300 reusability and compatibility in mind, and I hop there will be a new
3301 basis for contributing it to the Skolelinux project ;)!</p>
3302
3303 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3304 Edu?</strong></p>
3305
3306 <p>The most important advantage seems to be that it "just
3307 works". After overcoming some minor (but still very annoying) glitches
3308 in the installer, I got a fully functional, working school network,
3309 without the month-long hassle I experienced when setting all that up
3310 from scratch in earlier years. And above that, it rocked - I didn't
3311 have any real hardware at hand, because the school was just founded
3312 and has no money whatsoever, so I installed a combined server (main
3313 server, terminal services and workstation) in a VM on my personal
3314 notebook, bridging the LTSP network interface to the ethernet port,
3315 and then PXE-booted the Windows notebooks that were lying around from
3316 it. I could use 8 clients without any performance issues, by using a
3317 tiny little VM on a tiny little notebook. I think that's enough to say
3318 that it rocks!</p>
3319
3320 <p>Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life's bad, and so no
3321 politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debian, an universal
3322 operating system, with some really cool educational tools" while they
3323 will be jsut fine with "Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your
3324 school network", even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes,
3325 this is unfair towards the Skolelinux project, and must not be taken
3326 too seriously - you get the idea, anyway).</p>
3327
3328 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3329 Edu?</strong></p>
3330
3331 <p>I have not been involved with Skolelinux long enough to really
3332 answer this question in a fair way. Thus, please allow me to put it in
3333 other words: "What do you expect from Skolelinux to keep liking it?" I
3334 can list a few points about that:</p>
3335
3336 <ul>
3337
3338  <li>always strive to get all things integrated into Debian upstream
3339  <li>be open to discussion about changes and the like, even with newcomers
3340  <li>be helpful at being helpful ;)
3341
3342 </ul>
3343
3344 <p>I'm really sorry I cannot say much more about that :(!</p>
3345
3346 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3347
3348 <p>First of all, all software I use is free and open. I have abandoned
3349 all non-free software (except for firmware on my darned phone) this
3350 year.</p>
3351
3352 <p>I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly
3353 run text tools. I use
3354 <a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm">mksh</a> as shell,
3355 <a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm">jupp</a> as very advanced
3356 text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro
3357 based full-featured student management software with the two),
3358 <a href="http://mcabber.com/">mcabber</a> for XMPP and
3359 <a href="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> for IRC. For that overly
3360 coloured world called the WWW, I use
3361 <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/">Iceweasel
3362 (Firefox)</a>. Oh, and <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> for
3363 e-mail.</p>
3364
3365 <p>However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools
3366 are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at
3367 least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to
3368 kids. One of these things is <a href="http://jappix.org/">Jappix</a>,
3369 which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of
3370 Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need
3371 Facebook now ;).</p>
3372
3373 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3374 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3375
3376 <p>Well, that's a two-sided thing. One side is what I believe, and one
3377 side is what I have experienced.</p>
3378
3379 <p>I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But
3380 that won't work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives
3381 grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced
3382 to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not
3383 see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen
3384 students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian
3385 desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and
3386 they jsut refused to use it because "Linux sucks". It is something
3387 that makes the council of our city spend around 600000 € to buy
3388 software - not including hardware, mind you - for operating school
3389 networks, and for installing a system that, as has been proved, does
3390 not work. For those of you readers who are good at maths, have you
3391 already found out how many lives could have been saved with that money
3392 if we had instead used it to bring education to parts of the world
3393 that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than
3394 plain criminal.</p>
3395
3396 <p>That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up
3397 method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have
3398 founded an association named
3399 <a href="https://www.teckids.org">Teckids</a> here in Germany that does
3400 just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the
3401 area of free and open source software, for example the
3402 <a href="http://kids.froscon.org">FrogLabs</a>, which share staff with
3403 Teckids and are the youth programme of
3404 <a href="http://www.froscon.org">the Free and Open Source Software
3405 Conference (FrOSCon)</a>. We do a lot more than most other conferences
3406 - this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids
3407 aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part
3408 and learning with and about free software through a whole weekend. All
3409 of us had a lot of fun, and the results were really exciting.</p>
3410
3411 <p>Apart from that, we are preparing a campaign that is supposed to bring
3412 the message of free alternatives to stuff kids use every day to them and
3413 their parents, e.g. the use of Jabber / Jappix instead of Facebook and
3414 Skype. To make that possible, we are planning to get together a team of
3415 clever kids who understand very well what their peers need and can bring
3416 it across to them. So we will have a peer-driven network of adolescents
3417 who teach each other and collect feedback from the community of minors.
3418 We then take that feedback and our own experience to work closely with
3419 open source projects, such as Skolelinux or Jappix, at improving their
3420 software in a way that makes it more and more attractive for the target
3421 group. At least I hope that we will have good cooperation with
3422 Skolelinux in the future ;)!</p>
3423
3424 <p>So in conclusion, what I believe is that, if it weren't for the world
3425 being so bad, it should be very clear to the political decision makers
3426 that the only way to go nowadays is free software for various reasons,
3427 but I have learnt that the only way that seems to work is bottom up.</p>
3428
3429 <!--
3430
3431 >  * Who should be interviewed with this questions in the future?
3432
3433 That's probably the hardest question of them all, as I do not know the
3434 community. However, I would be willing to do the following:
3435
3436  <li>Run an interview with a German headteacher who is very open to
3437    free software, and also prefers it, but cannot really use it because
3438    of the decision makers above;
3439  <li>Run interviews with some kids, both with and without previous
3440    knowledge about free software
3441
3442 If that is wanted, just let me know ;).
3443
3444 -->
3445
3446       </div>
3447       <div class="tags">
3448
3449
3450         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>.
3451
3452
3453       </div>
3454     </div>
3455     <div class="padding"></div>
3456
3457     <div class="entry">
3458       <div class="title">
3459         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Klaus_Knopper.html">Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper</a>
3460       </div>
3461       <div class="date">
3462          6th December 2013
3463       </div>
3464       <div class="body">
3465         <p>It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview,
3466 but the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3467 Skolelinux</a> community is still going strong, and yesterday we even
3468 had a new school administrator show up on
3469 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a> to share
3470 his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school.  This
3471 time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of
3472 Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in
3473 Germany a few years ago.</p>
3474
3475 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3476
3477 <p>I am Klaus Knopper.  I have a master degree in electrical
3478 engineering, and is currently professor in information management at
3479 the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and
3480 freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.</p>
3481
3482 <p>All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart
3483 from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental
3484 projects like the <a href="http://www.knoppix.org">Knoppix GNU/Linux live
3485 system</a> (Debian-based like Skolelinux),
3486 <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html">ADRIANE</a>
3487 (a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
3488 <a href="http://www.knopper.net/linbo/index-en.html">LINBO</a>
3489 (Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair
3490 system supporting various operating systems).</p>
3491
3492 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
3493 project?</strong></p>
3494
3495 <p>The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German
3496 coordinator for Skolelinux.  We were looking for an all-in-one open
3497 source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt
3498 introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.</p>
3499
3500 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3501 Edu?</strong></p>
3502
3503 <ul>
3504   <li>Quick installation,</li>
3505   <li>works (almost) out of the box,</li>
3506   <li>contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,</li>
3507   <li>is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a
3508     single company,</li>
3509   <li>has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their
3510     experience and problem solutions.</li>
3511 </ul>
3512
3513 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
3514 Edu?</strong></p>
3515
3516 <ul>
3517   <li>Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to
3518   the next version.  Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to
3519   a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it
3520   working again reliably.
3521
3522   <li>Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a
3523   little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or
3524   similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing
3525   as their base.
3526
3527   <li>Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default
3528   configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is
3529   not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network
3530   configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux
3531   and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their
3532   network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible".
3533
3534   <li>Some proposed extensions, which were made available as
3535   contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material
3536   distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline
3537   Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the
3538   future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update
3539   schemes.</li>
3540
3541   <li>Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers
3542   compared to Debian.</li>
3543
3544 </ul>
3545
3546 <p>For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now
3547 rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until
3548 Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes
3549 upgradeable without reinstallation.</p>
3550
3551 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3552
3553 <p>GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and
3554 programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence,
3555 occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various
3556 programming languages for teaching.</p>
3557
3558 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3559 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3560
3561 <p>Strong arguments are</p>
3562
3563 <ul>
3564
3565   <li>Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
3566     teaching and learning.</li>
3567
3568   <li>Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
3569     home, and at their working place without running into license or
3570     conversion problems.</li>
3571
3572   <li>Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
3573     than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind
3574     customers to certain products.  But teachers need to teach
3575     science, not products.</li>
3576
3577   <li>If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what
3578     would you need proprietary software for?</li>
3579
3580 </ul>
3581
3582       </div>
3583       <div class="tags">
3584
3585
3586         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>.
3587
3588
3589       </div>
3590     </div>
3591     <div class="padding"></div>
3592
3593     <div class="entry">
3594       <div class="title">
3595         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnadsnett_for_alle__a_wireless_community_network_in_Oslo__take_shape.html">Dugnadsnett for alle, a wireless community network in Oslo, take shape</a>
3596       </div>
3597       <div class="date">
3598         30th November 2013
3599       </div>
3600       <div class="body">
3601         <p>If you want the ability to electronically communicate directly with
3602 your neighbors and friends using a network controlled by your peers in
3603 stead of centrally controlled by a few corporations, or would like to
3604 experiment with interesting network technology, the
3605 <a href="http://www.dugnadsnett.no/">Dugnasnett for alle i Oslo</a>
3606 might be project for you.  39 mesh nodes are currently being planned,
3607 in the freshly started initiative from NUUG and Hackeriet to create a
3608 wireless community network.  The work is inspired by
3609 <a href="http://freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a>,
3610 <a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan
3611 Network</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roofnet">Roofnet</a>
3612 and other successful mesh networks around the globe.  Two days ago we
3613 held a workshop to try to get people started on setting up their own
3614 mesh node, and there we decided to create a new mailing list
3615 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/dugnadsnett">dugnadsnett
3616 (at) nuug.no</a> and IRC channel
3617 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#dugnadsnett.no">#dugnadsnett.no</a> to
3618 coordinate the work.  See also the NUUG blog post
3619 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/E_postliste_og_IRC_kanal_for_Dugnadsnett_for_alle_i_Oslo.shtml">announcing
3620 the mailing list and IRC channel</a>.</p>
3621
3622       </div>
3623       <div class="tags">
3624
3625
3626         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
3627
3628
3629       </div>
3630     </div>
3631     <div class="padding"></div>
3632
3633     <div class="entry">
3634       <div class="title">
3635         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
3636       </div>
3637       <div class="date">
3638         24th November 2013
3639       </div>
3640       <div class="body">
3641         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
3642 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
3643 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
3644 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
3645 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
3646 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
3647 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
3648 is working on.  I checked the
3649 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
3650 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
3651 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
3652 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
3653 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
3654 These are the release notes:</p>
3655
3656 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
3657
3658 <ul>
3659
3660   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
3661    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
3662    up.</li>
3663
3664   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
3665
3666   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
3667    Matthias Klose.</li>
3668
3669   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
3670    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
3671
3672   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
3673    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
3674    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
3675
3676 </ul>
3677
3678 <p>You can
3679 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3680 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3681 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3682 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3683 include a testsuite check.</p>
3684
3685       </div>
3686       <div class="tags">
3687
3688
3689         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3690
3691
3692       </div>
3693     </div>
3694     <div class="padding"></div>
3695
3696     <div class="entry">
3697       <div class="title">
3698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/All_drones_should_be_radio_marked_with_what_they_do_and_who_they_belong_to.html">All drones should be radio marked with what they do and who they belong to</a>
3699       </div>
3700       <div class="date">
3701         21st November 2013
3702       </div>
3703       <div class="body">
3704         <p>Drones, flying robots, are getting more and more popular.  The most
3705 know ones are the killer drones used by some government to murder
3706 people they do not like without giving them the chance of a fair
3707 trial, but the technology have many good uses too, from mapping and
3708 forest maintenance to photography and search and rescue.  I am sure it
3709 is just a question of time before "bad drones" are in the hands of
3710 private enterprises and not only state criminals but petty criminals
3711 too.  The drone technology is very useful and very dangerous.  To have
3712 some control over the use of drones, I agree with Daniel Suarez in his
3713 TED talk
3714 "<a href="https://archive.org/details/DanielSuarez_2013G">The kill
3715 decision shouldn't belong to a robot</a>", where he suggested this
3716 little gem to keep the good while limiting the bad use of drones:</p>
3717
3718 <blockquote>
3719
3720 <p>Each robot and drone should have a cryptographically signed
3721 I.D. burned in at the factory that can be used to track its movement
3722 through public spaces. We have license plates on cars, tail numbers on
3723 aircraft. This is no different. And every citizen should be able to
3724 download an app that shows the population of drones and autonomous
3725 vehicles moving through public spaces around them, both right now and
3726 historically. And civic leaders should deploy sensors and civic drones
3727 to detect rogue drones, and instead of sending killer drones of their
3728 own up to shoot them down, they should notify humans to their
3729 presence. And in certain very high-security areas, perhaps civic
3730 drones would snare them and drag them off to a bomb disposal facility.</p>
3731
3732 <p>But notice, this is more an immune system than a weapons system. It
3733 would allow us to avail ourselves of the use of autonomous vehicles
3734 and drones while still preserving our open, civil society.</p>
3735
3736 </blockquote>
3737
3738 <p>The key is that <em>every citizen</em> should be able to read the
3739 radio beacons sent from the drones in the area, to be able to check
3740 both the government and others use of drones.  For such control to be
3741 effective, everyone must be able to do it.  What should such beacon
3742 contain?  At least formal owner, purpose, contact information and GPS
3743 location.  Probably also the origin and target position of the current
3744 flight.  And perhaps some registration number to be able to look up
3745 the drone in a central database tracking their movement.  Robots
3746 should not have privacy.  It is people who need privacy.</p>
3747
3748       </div>
3749       <div class="tags">
3750
3751
3752         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</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>.
3753
3754
3755       </div>
3756     </div>
3757     <div class="padding"></div>
3758
3759     <div class="entry">
3760       <div class="title">
3761         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_wireless_community_network_in_Oslo_.html">Lets make a wireless community network in Oslo!</a>
3762       </div>
3763       <div class="date">
3764         13th November 2013
3765       </div>
3766       <div class="body">
3767         <p>Today NUUG and Hackeriet announced
3768 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Bli_med___bygge_dugnadsnett_for_alle_i_Oslo.shtml">our
3769 plans to join forces and create a wireless community network in
3770 Oslo</a>.  The workshop to help people get started will take place
3771 Thursday 2013-11-28, but we already are collecting the geolocation of
3772 people joining forces to make this happen.  We have
3773 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/oslo-nodes.geojson">9
3774 locations plotted on the map</a>, but we will need more before we have
3775 a connected mesh spread across Oslo.  If this sound interesting to
3776 you, please join us at the workshop.  If you are too impatient to wait
3777 15 days, please join us on the IRC channel
3778 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nuug">#nuug on irc.freenode.net</a>
3779 right away. :)</p>
3780
3781       </div>
3782       <div class="tags">
3783
3784
3785         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
3786
3787
3788       </div>
3789     </div>
3790     <div class="padding"></div>
3791
3792     <div class="entry">
3793       <div class="title">
3794         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Running_TP_Link_MR3040_as_a_batman_adv_mesh_node_using_openwrt.html">Running TP-Link MR3040 as a batman-adv mesh node using openwrt</a>
3795       </div>
3796       <div class="date">
3797         10th November 2013
3798       </div>
3799       <div class="body">
3800         <p>Continuing my research into mesh networking, I was recommended to
3801 use TP-Link 3040 and 3600 access points as mesh nodes, and the pair I
3802 bought arrived on Friday.  Here are my notes on how to set up the
3803 MR3040 as a mesh node using
3804 <a href="http://www.openwrt.org/">OpenWrt</a>.</p>
3805
3806 <p>I started by following the instructions on the OpenWRT wiki for
3807 <a href="http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-mr3040">TL-MR3040</a>,
3808 and downloaded
3809 <a href="http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3040-v2-squashfs-factory.bin">the
3810 recommended firmware image</a>
3811 (openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3040-v2-squashfs-factory.bin) and
3812 uploaded it into the original web interface.  The flashing went fine,
3813 and the machine was available via telnet on the ethernet port.  After
3814 logging in and setting the root password, ssh was available and I
3815 could start to set it up as a batman-adv mesh node.</p>
3816
3817 <p>I started off by reading the instructions from
3818 <a href="http://wirelessafrica.meraka.org.za/wiki/index.php?title=Antoine's_Research">Wireless
3819 Africa</a>, which had quite a lot of useful information, but
3820 eventually I followed the recipe from the Open Mesh wiki for
3821 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Batman-adv-openwrt-config">using
3822 batman-adv on OpenWrt</a>.  A small snag was the fact that the
3823 <tt>opkg install kmod-batman-adv</tt> command did not work as it
3824 should.  The batman-adv kernel module would fail to load because its
3825 dependency crc16 was not already loaded.  I
3826 <a href="https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/14452">reported the bug</a> to
3827 the openwrt project and hope it will be fixed soon.  But the problem
3828 only seem to affect initial testing of batman-adv, as configuration
3829 seem to work when booting from scratch.</p>
3830
3831 <p>The setup is done using files in /etc/config/.  I did not bridge
3832 the Ethernet and mesh interfaces this time, to be able to hook up the
3833 box on my local network and log into it for configuration updates.
3834 The following files were changed and look like this after modifying
3835 them:</p>
3836
3837 <p><tt>/etc/config/network</tt></p>
3838
3839 <pre>
3840
3841 config interface 'loopback'
3842         option ifname 'lo'
3843         option proto 'static'
3844         option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
3845         option netmask '255.0.0.0'
3846
3847 config globals 'globals'
3848         option ula_prefix 'fdbf:4c12:3fed::/48'
3849
3850 config interface 'lan'
3851         option ifname 'eth0'
3852         option type 'bridge'
3853         option proto 'dhcp'
3854         option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
3855         option netmask '255.255.255.0'
3856         option hostname 'tl-mr3040'
3857         option ip6assign '60'
3858
3859 config interface 'mesh'
3860         option ifname 'adhoc0'
3861         option mtu '1528'
3862         option proto 'batadv'
3863         option mesh 'bat0'
3864 </pre>
3865
3866 <p><tt>/etc/config/wireless</tt></p>
3867 <pre>
3868
3869 config wifi-device 'radio0'
3870         option type 'mac80211'
3871         option channel '11'
3872         option hwmode '11ng'
3873         option path 'platform/ar933x_wmac'
3874         option htmode 'HT20'
3875         list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
3876         list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
3877         list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
3878         list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
3879         option disabled '0'
3880
3881 config wifi-iface 'wmesh'
3882         option device 'radio0'
3883         option ifname 'adhoc0'
3884         option network 'mesh'
3885         option encryption 'none'
3886         option mode 'adhoc'
3887         option bssid '02:BA:00:00:00:01'
3888         option ssid 'meshfx@hackeriet'
3889 </pre>
3890 <p><tt>/etc/config/batman-adv</tt></p>
3891 <pre>
3892
3893 config 'mesh' 'bat0'
3894         option interfaces 'adhoc0'
3895         option 'aggregated_ogms'
3896         option 'ap_isolation'
3897         option 'bonding'
3898         option 'fragmentation'
3899         option 'gw_bandwidth'
3900         option 'gw_mode'
3901         option 'gw_sel_class'
3902         option 'log_level'
3903         option 'orig_interval'
3904         option 'vis_mode'
3905         option 'bridge_loop_avoidance'
3906         option 'distributed_arp_table'
3907         option 'network_coding'
3908         option 'hop_penalty'
3909
3910 # yet another batX instance
3911 # config 'mesh' 'bat5'
3912 #       option 'interfaces' 'second_mesh'
3913 </pre>
3914
3915 <p>The mesh node is now operational.  I have yet to test its range,
3916 but I hope it is good.  I have not yet tested the TP-Link 3600 box
3917 still wrapped up in plastic.</p>
3918
3919       </div>
3920       <div class="tags">
3921
3922
3923         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
3924
3925
3926       </div>
3927     </div>
3928     <div class="padding"></div>
3929
3930     <div class="entry">
3931       <div class="title">
3932         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
3933       </div>
3934       <div class="date">
3935          2nd November 2013
3936       </div>
3937       <div class="body">
3938         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
3939 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
3940 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
3941 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
3942 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
3943
3944 <p><pre>
3945 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
3946 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
3947 # Provides:          rsyslog
3948 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
3949 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
3950 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
3951 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
3952 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
3953 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
3954 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
3955 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
3956 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
3957 ### END INIT INFO
3958 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
3959 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
3960 </pre></p>
3961
3962 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
3963 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
3964 info/comments.</p>
3965
3966 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
3967 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
3968
3969 <p><pre>
3970 #!/bin/sh
3971
3972 # Define LSB log_* functions.
3973 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
3974 # and status_of_proc is working.
3975 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
3976
3977 #
3978 # Function that starts the daemon/service
3979
3980 #
3981 do_start()
3982 {
3983         # Return
3984         #   0 if daemon has been started
3985         #   1 if daemon was already running
3986         #   2 if daemon could not be started
3987         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
3988                 || return 1
3989         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
3990                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
3991                 || return 2
3992         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
3993         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
3994         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
3995 }
3996
3997 #
3998 # Function that stops the daemon/service
3999 #
4000 do_stop()
4001 {
4002         # Return
4003         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
4004         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
4005         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
4006         #   other if a failure occurred
4007         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
4008         RETVAL="$?"
4009         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
4010         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
4011         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
4012         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
4013         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
4014         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
4015         # sleep for some time.
4016         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
4017         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
4018         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
4019         rm -f $PIDFILE
4020         return "$RETVAL"
4021 }
4022
4023 #
4024 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
4025 #
4026 do_reload() {
4027         #
4028         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
4029         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
4030         # then implement that here.
4031         #
4032         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
4033         return 0
4034 }
4035
4036 SCRIPTNAME=$1
4037 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
4038 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
4039 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
4040     script="$1"
4041     shift
4042     . $script
4043 else
4044     exit 0
4045 fi
4046
4047 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
4048 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
4049
4050 # Exit if the package is not installed
4051 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
4052
4053 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
4054 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
4055
4056 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
4057 . /lib/init/vars.sh
4058
4059 case "$1" in
4060   start)
4061         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
4062         do_start
4063         case "$?" in
4064                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4065                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4066         esac
4067         ;;
4068   stop)
4069         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
4070         do_stop
4071         case "$?" in
4072                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4073                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4074         esac
4075         ;;
4076   status)
4077         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
4078         ;;
4079   #reload|force-reload)
4080         #
4081         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
4082         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
4083         #
4084         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
4085         #do_reload
4086         #log_end_msg $?
4087         #;;
4088   restart|force-reload)
4089         #
4090         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
4091         # 'force-reload' alias
4092         #
4093         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
4094         do_stop
4095         case "$?" in
4096           0|1)
4097                 do_start
4098                 case "$?" in
4099                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
4100                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
4101                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
4102                 esac
4103                 ;;
4104           *)
4105                 # Failed to stop
4106                 log_end_msg 1
4107                 ;;
4108         esac
4109         ;;
4110   *)
4111         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
4112         exit 3
4113         ;;
4114 esac
4115
4116 :
4117 </pre></p>
4118
4119 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
4120 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
4121 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
4122 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
4123
4124 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
4125 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
4126 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
4127 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
4128 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
4129
4130       </div>
4131       <div class="tags">
4132
4133
4134         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>.
4135
4136
4137       </div>
4138     </div>
4139     <div class="padding"></div>
4140
4141     <div class="entry">
4142       <div class="title">
4143         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
4144       </div>
4145       <div class="date">
4146          1st November 2013
4147       </div>
4148       <div class="body">
4149         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
4150 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
4151 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
4152 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
4153 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
4154 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
4155 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
4156 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
4157 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
4158 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
4159 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
4160 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
4161
4162 <p>The source is now available from
4163 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
4164
4165       </div>
4166       <div class="tags">
4167
4168
4169         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>.
4170
4171
4172       </div>
4173     </div>
4174     <div class="padding"></div>
4175
4176     <div class="entry">
4177       <div class="title">
4178         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
4179       </div>
4180       <div class="date">
4181         27th October 2013
4182       </div>
4183       <div class="body">
4184         <p>The
4185 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
4186 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
4187 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
4188 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
4189 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
4190 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
4191 of a plan to simplify the build system for
4192 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
4193 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
4194 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
4195 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
4196 Raspberry Pi.</p>
4197
4198 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
4199 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
4200 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
4201 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
4202 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
4203 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
4204 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
4205 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
4206 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
4207 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
4208 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
4209 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
4210 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
4211 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
4212 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
4213 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
4214 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
4215 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
4216 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
4217 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
4218 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
4219 available from
4220 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
4221 upstream project page</a>.</p>
4222
4223 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
4224 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
4225 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
4226 list:</p>
4227
4228 <p><pre>
4229 #!/bin/sh
4230 set -e # Exit on first error
4231 rootdir="$1"
4232 cd "$rootdir"
4233 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
4234 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
4235 EOF
4236 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
4237 # install a kernel somewhere too.
4238 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
4239     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4240 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4241 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
4242 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
4243 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
4244 </pre></p>
4245
4246 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
4247 to build the image:</p>
4248
4249 <pre>
4250 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
4251     --variant minbase \
4252     --arch armel \
4253     --distribution jessie \
4254     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
4255     --image test.img \
4256     --size 600M \
4257     --bootsize 64M \
4258     --boottype vfat \
4259     --log-level debug \
4260     --verbose \
4261     --no-kernel \
4262     --no-extlinux \
4263     --root-password raspberry \
4264     --hostname raspberrypi \
4265     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
4266     --customize `pwd`/customize \
4267     --package netbase \
4268     --package git-core \
4269     --package binutils \
4270     --package ca-certificates \
4271     --package wget \
4272     --package kmod
4273 </pre></p>
4274
4275 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
4276 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
4277 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
4278 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
4279 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
4280 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
4281 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
4282
4283 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
4284 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
4285 build dependency list.</p>
4286
4287 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
4288 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
4289 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
4290 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
4291
4292       </div>
4293       <div class="tags">
4294
4295
4296         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
4297
4298
4299       </div>
4300     </div>
4301     <div class="padding"></div>
4302
4303     <div class="entry">
4304       <div class="title">
4305         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node</a>
4306       </div>
4307       <div class="date">
4308         21st October 2013
4309       </div>
4310       <div class="body">
4311         <p>The last few days I have been experimenting with
4312 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki">the
4313 batman-adv mesh technology</a>.  I want to gain some experience to see
4314 if it will fit <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the
4315 Freedombox project</a>, and together with my neighbors try to build a
4316 mesh network around the park where I live.  Batman-adv is a layer 2
4317 mesh system ("ethernet" in other words), where the mesh network appear
4318 as if all the mesh clients are connected to the same switch.</p>
4319
4320 <p>My hardware of choice was the Linksys WRT54GL routers I had lying
4321 around, but I've been unable to get them working with batman-adv.  So
4322 instead, I started playing with a
4323 <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a>, and tried to
4324 get it working as a mesh node.  My idea is to use it to create a mesh
4325 node which function as a switch port, where everything connected to
4326 the Raspberry Pi ethernet plug is connected (bridged) to the mesh
4327 network.  This allow me to hook a wifi base station like the Linksys
4328 WRT54GL to the mesh by plugging it into a Raspberry Pi, and allow
4329 non-mesh clients to hook up to the mesh.  This in turn is useful for
4330 Android phones using <a href="http://servalproject.org/">the Serval
4331 Project</a> voip client, allowing every one around the playground to
4332 phone and message each other for free.  The reason is that Android
4333 phones do not see ad-hoc wifi networks (they are filtered away from
4334 the GUI view), and can not join the mesh without being rooted.  But if
4335 they are connected using a normal wifi base station, they can talk to
4336 every client on the local network.</p>
4337
4338 <p>To get this working, I've created a debian package
4339 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node">meshfx-node</a>
4340 and a script
4341 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/build-rpi-mesh-node">build-rpi-mesh-node</a>
4342 to create the Raspberry Pi boot image.  I'm using Debian Jessie (and
4343 not Raspbian), to get more control over the packages available.
4344 Unfortunately a huge binary blob need to be inserted into the boot
4345 image to get it booting, but I'll ignore that for now.  Also, as
4346 Debian lack support for the CPU features available in the Raspberry
4347 Pi, the system do not use the hardware floating point unit.  I hope
4348 the routing performance isn't affected by the lack of hardware FPU
4349 support.</p>
4350
4351 <p>To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user
4352 after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:</p>
4353
4354 <p><pre>
4355 % wget -O build-rpi-mesh-node \
4356     https://raw.github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/master/build-rpi-mesh-node
4357 % sudo bash -x ./build-rpi-mesh-node > build.log 2>&1
4358 % dd if=/root/rpi/rpi_basic_jessie_$(date +%Y%m%d).img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
4359 %
4360 </pre></p>
4361
4362 <p>Booting with the resulting SD card on a Raspberry PI with a USB
4363 wifi card inserted should give you a mesh node.  At least it does for
4364 me with a the wifi card I am using. The default mesh settings are the
4365 ones used by the Oslo mesh project at Hackeriet, as I mentioned in
4366 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">an
4367 earlier blog post about this mesh testing</a>.</p>
4368
4369 <p>The mesh node was not horribly expensive either.  I bought
4370 everything over the counter in shops nearby.  If I had ordered online
4371 from the lowest bidder, the price should be significantly lower:</p>
4372
4373 <p><table>
4374
4375 <tr><th>Supplier</th><th>Model</th><th>NOK</th></tr>
4376 <tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi model B</td><td>349.90</td></tr>
4377 <tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi type B case</td><td>99.90</td></tr>
4378 <tr><td>Lefdal</td><td>Jensen Air:Link 25150</td><td>295.-</td></tr>
4379 <tr><td>Clas Ohlson</td><td>Kingston 16 GB SD card</td><td>199.-</td></tr>
4380 <tr><td>Total cost</td><td></td><td>943.80</td></tr>
4381
4382 </table></p>
4383
4384 <p>Now my mesh network at home consist of one laptop in the basement
4385 connected to my production network, one Raspberry Pi node on the 1th
4386 floor that can be seen by my neighbor across the park, and one
4387 play-node I use to develop the image building script.  And some times
4388 I hook up my work horse laptop to the mesh to test it.  I look forward
4389 to figuring out what kind of latency the batman-adv setup will give,
4390 and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)</p>
4391
4392       </div>
4393       <div class="tags">
4394
4395
4396         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4397
4398
4399       </div>
4400     </div>
4401     <div class="padding"></div>
4402
4403     <div class="entry">
4404       <div class="title">
4405         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html">Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github</a>
4406       </div>
4407       <div class="date">
4408         19th October 2013
4409       </div>
4410       <div class="body">
4411         <p>Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to
4412 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee">the Spykee robot</a>
4413 (with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my
4414 web page.  Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is
4415 easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github.  If
4416 you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out
4417 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl">the
4418 libspykee-perl github repository</a>.</p>
4419
4420       </div>
4421       <div class="tags">
4422
4423
4424         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>.
4425
4426
4427       </div>
4428     </div>
4429     <div class="padding"></div>
4430
4431     <div class="entry">
4432       <div class="title">
4433         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
4434       </div>
4435       <div class="date">
4436         15th October 2013
4437       </div>
4438       <div class="body">
4439         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
4440 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
4441 these. :)</p>
4442
4443 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
4444 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
4445 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
4446 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
4447 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
4448 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
4449 hope you will to. :)</p>
4450
4451 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
4452 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
4453 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
4454 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
4455 donated.  Are you next?</p>
4456
4457 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
4458 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
4459 statement under the heading
4460 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
4461 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
4462 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
4463 too.</p>
4464
4465       </div>
4466       <div class="tags">
4467
4468
4469         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4470
4471
4472       </div>
4473     </div>
4474     <div class="padding"></div>
4475
4476     <div class="entry">
4477       <div class="title">
4478         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania</a>
4479       </div>
4480       <div class="date">
4481         11th October 2013
4482       </div>
4483       <div class="body">
4484         <p>Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing
4485 networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large
4486 areas, depending on the radio technology used.  Normal wifi equipment
4487 can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several
4488 successful examples like
4489 <a href="http://www.freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a> and
4490 <a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network</a>
4491 (see
4492 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region#Greece">wikipedia
4493 for a large list</a>) around the globe.  To give you an idea how it
4494 work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which
4495 can be seen from their
4496 <a href="http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/ffmap/nodes.html">dynamically
4497 updated node graph and map</a>, where one can see how the mesh nodes
4498 automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing.
4499 There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway,
4500 and that is the main topic of this blog post.</p>
4501
4502 <p>I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped
4503 to do it as part of my involvement with the <a
4504 href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member organisation</a> community, and
4505 my recent involvement in
4506 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the Freedombox project</a>
4507 finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a
4508 Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family
4509 when possible, given that most communication between people are
4510 between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook
4511 communication patterns).  It also allow people to communicate without
4512 any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the
4513 private communication of citizens, which have become more and more
4514 important over the years.</p>
4515
4516 <p>So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo
4517 working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space
4518 <a href="http://hackeriet.no/">Hackeriet</a> at Husmania.  They seem to
4519 have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called
4520 <a href="http://oslo.freifunk.net/index.php?title=Main_Page">the Oslo
4521 Freifunk project</a>, but that effort is now dead and the people
4522 behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called
4523 <a href="http://meshfx.org/trac">meshfx</a>.  Unfortunately the wiki
4524 site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to
4525 reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to
4526 the new project.  A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people
4527 from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks.  I
4528 came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the
4529 speakers about this talk (from
4530 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Kd7CLkhSY">youtube</a>):</p>
4531
4532 <p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
4533
4534 <p>I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols.
4535 There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to
4536 figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
4537 given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
4538 is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
4539 completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on
4540 batman-adv for now.  It sure help me to  know that the very cool
4541 <a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
4542 is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
4543 organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and
4544 less industrialized communities.  Check out this cool video presenting
4545 that project (from
4546 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>):</p>
4547
4548 <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
4549
4550 <p>According to the wikipedia page on
4551 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless
4552 mesh network</a> there are around 70 competing schemes for routing
4553 packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and
4554 B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
4555 based community mesh networks.</p>
4556
4557 <p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
4558 (as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
4559 network.  One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
4560 vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
4561 computer.  The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at
4562 least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up.  A
4563 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good
4564 introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project.  These are
4565 the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
4566
4567 <p><table>
4568 <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
4569 <tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
4570 <tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
4571 <td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
4572 <td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
4573 </table></p>
4574
4575 <p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
4576 in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers.  (See a nice post from
4577 VillageTelco about
4578 "<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information
4579 about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a>
4580 for details.)  When these settings are activated and you have some
4581 other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh
4582 network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to
4583 any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)</p>
4584
4585 <p>My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node,
4586 but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a
4587 firmware supporting batman-adv.  If anyone know how to use that old
4588 wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.</p>
4589
4590 <p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join
4591 us on IRC, either channel
4592 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a>
4593 or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on
4594 irc.freenode.net.</p>
4595
4596 <p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old
4597 research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research
4598 and Innovation called
4599 <a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The
4600 reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere
4601 learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at
4602 Grünerløkka in Oslo.  So mesh networks are also interesting for
4603 commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard
4604 to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
4605 know have closed down the experiment.  Perhaps Telenor or others would
4606 be interested in a cooperation?</p>
4607
4608 <p><strong>Update 2013-10-12</strong>: I was just
4609 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2013-October/005900.html">told
4610 by the Serval project developers</a> that they no longer use
4611 batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based
4612 mesh system.</p>
4613
4614       </div>
4615       <div class="tags">
4616
4617
4618         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4619
4620
4621       </div>
4622     </div>
4623     <div class="padding"></div>
4624
4625     <div class="entry">
4626       <div class="title">
4627         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador</a>
4628       </div>
4629       <div class="date">
4630          8th October 2013
4631       </div>
4632       <div class="body">
4633         <p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
4634 Salvador had published a
4635 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on
4636 Youtube</a> showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
4637 Skolelinux profile.  This is the profile intended for use at home or
4638 on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
4639 services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
4640 in other word a single user machine).  The result is 11 minutes long,
4641 and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
4642 Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
4643 showing the <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model
4644 of the human body</a>, but I guess he did not know about those or find
4645 other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
4646 advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
4647 Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
4648 computers without hard drives by installing one central
4649 <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p>
4650
4651 <p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p>
4652
4653 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
4654
4655 <p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux?  Please let
4656 me know. :)</p>
4657
4658       </div>
4659       <div class="tags">
4660
4661
4662         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>.
4663
4664
4665       </div>
4666     </div>
4667     <div class="padding"></div>
4668
4669     <div class="entry">
4670       <div class="title">
4671         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html">Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!</a>
4672       </div>
4673       <div class="date">
4674         29th September 2013
4675       </div>
4676       <div class="body">
4677         <p>A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of
4678 Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team.  The
4679 complete announcement text can be found at
4680 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130928">the Debian News
4681 section</a>, translated to several languages.  Please check it out.</p>
4682
4683 <p>There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon.  One
4684 can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/
4685 partition is too small.  A workaround is to extend the partition (use
4686 lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).</p>
4687
4688       </div>
4689       <div class="tags">
4690
4691
4692         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>.
4693
4694
4695       </div>
4696     </div>
4697     <div class="padding"></div>
4698
4699     <div class="entry">
4700       <div class="title">
4701         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
4702       </div>
4703       <div class="date">
4704         27th September 2013
4705       </div>
4706       <div class="body">
4707         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
4708 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
4709 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
4710 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
4711
4712 <ul>
4713
4714 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
4715 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
4716
4717 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
4718 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4719
4720 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
4721 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
4722 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
4723 (Youtube)</li>
4724
4725 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
4726 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
4727
4728 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
4729 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4730
4731 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
4732 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
4733 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
4734
4735 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
4736 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
4737 (Youtube)</li>
4738
4739 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
4740 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
4741
4742 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
4743 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
4744
4745 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
4746 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
4747 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
4748
4749 </ul>
4750
4751 <p>A larger list is available from
4752 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
4753 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
4754
4755 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
4756 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
4757 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
4758 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
4759 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
4760 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
4761 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
4762 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
4763 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
4764 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4765 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4766
4767       </div>
4768       <div class="tags">
4769
4770
4771         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4772
4773
4774       </div>
4775     </div>
4776     <div class="padding"></div>
4777
4778     <div class="entry">
4779       <div class="title">
4780         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_and_probably_last_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Wheezy.html">Third and probably last beta release of Debian Edu Wheezy</a>
4781       </div>
4782       <div class="date">
4783         16th September 2013
4784       </div>
4785       <div class="body">
4786         <p>The third wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
4787 today.  This is the release announcement from Holger Levsen:</p>
4788
4789 <blockquote>
4790 <p>Hi,</p>
4791
4792 <p>it is my pleasure to announce the third beta release (beta 2 for
4793 short) of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
4794 Skolelinux</a> based on Debian Wheezy!</p>
4795
4796 <p>Please test these images extensivly, if no new problems are found
4797 we plan to do this final Debian Edu Wheezy release this coming
4798 weekend.  We are not aware of any major problems or blockers in beta2,
4799 if you find something, please notify us immediately!</p>
4800
4801 <p>(More about the remaining steps for the Edu Wheezy release in
4802 another mail to the edu list tonight or tomorrow...)</p>
4803
4804 <p>Noteworthy changes and software updates for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b2
4805 compared to beta1:</p>
4806
4807 <ul>
4808
4809 <li>The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This
4810 also gets Chromium to use this proxy.</li>
4811 <li>Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer
4812 understand ical/dav sources.</li>
4813 <li>Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the
4814 main server.</li>
4815 <li>A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.</li>
4816 <li>Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick
4817 (6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug
4818 (0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image
4819 (3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).</li>
4820
4821 </ul>
4822
4823 <p>Where to get it:</p>
4824
4825 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
4826
4827 <ul>
4828 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso</a></li>
4829 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso</a></li>
4830 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso .</li>
4831 </ul>
4832
4833 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is:  3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f</p>
4834
4835 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
4836 <ul>
4837 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso</a></li>
4838 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso</a></li>
4839 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso .</li>
4840 </ul>
4841
4842 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 702d1718548f401c74bfa6df9f032cc3ee16597e</p>
4843
4844 <p>The Source DVD image has the filename
4845 debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-source-DVD.iso and the SHA1SUM
4846 089eed8b3f962db47aae1f6a9685e9bb2fa30ca5 and is available the same way
4847 as the other isos.</p>
4848
4849 <p>How to report bugs</p>
4850
4851 <p>For information how to report bugs please see
4852 <br><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
4853
4854
4855 <p>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</p>
4856
4857 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
4858 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
4859 configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
4860 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
4861 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
4862 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
4863 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
4864 machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
4865 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
4866 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
4867 services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
4868 packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
4869 can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
4870
4871 <p>This is the seventh test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
4872 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
4873 Squeeze release.</p>
4874
4875 <p>Notes for upgrades from Alpha Prereleases</p>
4876
4877 <p>Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
4878 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
4879 release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
4880 deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
4881 gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined on the mailing list. (2)
4882 Accept the new version of gosa.conf and replace both contained admin
4883 password placeholders with the password hashes found in the old one
4884 (backup copy!). In both cases all users need to change their password
4885 to make sure a password is set for CIFS access to their home
4886 directory.</p>
4887
4888
4889 <p>cheers,
4890 <br>        Holger</p>
4891 </blockquote>
4892
4893       </div>
4894       <div class="tags">
4895
4896
4897         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4898
4899
4900       </div>
4901     </div>
4902     <div class="padding"></div>
4903
4904     <div class="entry">
4905       <div class="title">
4906         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
4907       </div>
4908       <div class="date">
4909         10th September 2013
4910       </div>
4911       <div class="body">
4912         <p>I was introduced to the
4913 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
4914 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
4915 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
4916 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
4917 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
4918 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
4919 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
4920 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
4921
4922 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
4923 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
4924 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
4925 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
4926 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
4927
4928 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
4929 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
4930 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
4931 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
4932 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
4933 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
4934 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
4935 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
4936 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
4937 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
4938 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
4939 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
4940 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
4941 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
4942 missing in Debian).</p>
4943
4944 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
4945 scripts
4946 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
4947 and a administrative web interface
4948 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
4949 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
4950 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
4951 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
4952 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
4953 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
4954 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
4955 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
4956 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
4957 this is really working yet, see
4958 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
4959 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
4960 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
4961 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
4962 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
4963 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
4964 with lots of half baked features.</p>
4965
4966 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
4967 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
4968 at.</p>
4969
4970 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
4971
4972 <ol>
4973
4974 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
4975 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
4976 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
4977 to the Debian installer:<p>
4978 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
4979
4980 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
4981 install on.</li>
4982
4983 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
4984 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
4985
4986 </ol>
4987
4988 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
4989
4990 <ol>
4991
4992 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
4993 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
4994 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
4995 <pre>
4996 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
4997 </pre></li>
4998 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
4999 <pre>
5000 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
5001    apt-key add -
5002 apt-get update
5003 apt-get install freedombox-setup
5004 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
5005 </pre></li>
5006 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
5007
5008 </ol>
5009
5010 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
5011 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
5012 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
5013 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
5014 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
5015
5016 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
5017 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
5018 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
5019 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
5020
5021 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
5022 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
5023 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
5024 irc.debian.org and the
5025 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
5026 mailing list</a>.</p>
5027
5028 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
5029 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
5030 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
5031 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
5032 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
5033 default password is 'secret'.</p>
5034
5035       </div>
5036       <div class="tags">
5037
5038
5039         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5040
5041
5042       </div>
5043     </div>
5044     <div class="padding"></div>
5045
5046     <div class="entry">
5047       <div class="title">
5048         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_release__beta_1__of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second beta release (beta 1) of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
5049       </div>
5050       <div class="date">
5051         22nd August 2013
5052       </div>
5053       <div class="body">
5054         <p>The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
5055 today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows
5056 integration fixes .  This is the release announcement:</p>
5057
5058 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22</strong></p>
5059
5060 <p>These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5061 7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
5062
5063 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
5064
5065 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
5066 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
5067 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
5068 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
5069 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
5070 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
5071 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
5072 the main server from CD or USB stick all other machines can be
5073 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
5074 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
5075 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
5076 desktop contains
5077 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
5078 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
5079 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
5080 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
5081
5082 <p>This is the sixth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically this
5083 is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the Squeeze
5084 release.</p>
5085
5086 <p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
5087 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
5088 release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
5089 deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
5090 gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined
5091 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/08/msg00127.html">on
5092 the mailing list</a>. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and
5093 replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password
5094 hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user
5095 need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for
5096 CIFS access to their home directory.</p>
5097
5098 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
5099
5100 <ul>
5101
5102 <li>Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh
5103     work also without a attached tty.</li>
5104 <li>Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to
5105     make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line
5106     tools. Please note, that the command 'update-command-not-found'
5107     has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access
5108     required).</li>
5109
5110 </ul>
5111
5112 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
5113
5114 <ul>
5115
5116 <li>Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool
5117 needed for desktop=xfce installations.</li>
5118 <li>Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB
5119 stick ISO image.</li>
5120 <li>Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format).</li>
5121 <li>Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup.</li>
5122 <li>Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens
5123     during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to
5124     cope with this.</li>
5125 <li>Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa².</li>
5126 <li>Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid
5127     empty password hashes.</li>
5128 <li>Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the
5129     smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines
5130     from joining the Samba domain.</li>
5131
5132 </ul>
5133
5134 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
5135
5136 <ul>
5137
5138 <li>KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
5139     not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
5140 <li>Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop
5141     (using the KDE configuration).</li>
5142
5143 </ul>
5144
5145 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
5146
5147 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
5148
5149 <ul>
5150
5151 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
5152
5153 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
5154
5155 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso .</li>
5156
5157 </ul>
5158
5159 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b
5160 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2</p>
5161
5162 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
5163
5164 <ul>
5165
5166 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
5167 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
5168 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso .</li>
5169
5170 </ul>
5171
5172 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b
5173 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119</p>
5174
5175
5176 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
5177
5178 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
5179
5180       </div>
5181       <div class="tags">
5182
5183
5184         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>.
5185
5186
5187       </div>
5188     </div>
5189     <div class="padding"></div>
5190
5191     <div class="entry">
5192       <div class="title">
5193         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
5194       </div>
5195       <div class="date">
5196         18th August 2013
5197       </div>
5198       <div class="body">
5199         <p>Earlier, I reported about
5200 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
5201 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
5202 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
5203 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
5204 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
5205 currently on the disk.</p>
5206
5207 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
5208 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
5209 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
5210 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
5211 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
5212 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
5213 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
5214 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
5215 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
5216 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
5217 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
5218 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
5219 the broken disks.</p>
5220
5221       </div>
5222       <div class="tags">
5223
5224
5225         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>.
5226
5227
5228       </div>
5229     </div>
5230     <div class="padding"></div>
5231
5232     <div class="entry">
5233       <div class="title">
5234         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/90_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html">90 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture</a>
5235       </div>
5236       <div class="date">
5237          2nd August 2013
5238       </div>
5239       <div class="body">
5240         <p>It has been a while since my last update.  Since last summer, I
5241 have worked on a Norwegian
5242 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
5243 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
5244 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright
5245 law.  Yesterday, I finally broken the 90% mark, when counting the
5246 number of strings to translate.  Due to real life constraints, I have
5247 not had time to work on it since March, but when the summer broke out,
5248 I found time to work on it again.  Still lots of work left, but the
5249 first draft is nearing completion.  I created a graph to show the
5250 progress of the translation:</p>
5251
5252 <p><img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png"></p>
5253
5254 <p>When the first draft is done, the translated text need to be
5255 proof read, and the remaining formatting problems with images and SVG
5256 drawings need to be fixed.  There are probably also some index entries
5257 missing that need to be added.  This can be done by comparing the
5258 index entries listed in the SiSU version of the book, or comparing the
5259 English docbook version with the paper version.  Last, the colophon
5260 page with ISBN numbers etc need to be wrapped up before the release is
5261 done.  I should also figure out how to get correct Norwegian sorting
5262 of the index pages.  All docbook tools I have tried so far (xmlto,
5263 docbook-xsl, dblatex) get the order of symbols and the special
5264 Norwegian letters ÆØÅ wrong.</p>
5265
5266 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
5267 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
5268 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
5269 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
5270 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
5271 around?  There are also some legal terms that are unfamiliar to me.
5272 If you want to help, please get in touch with me, and check out the
5273 project files currently available from
5274 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
5275
5276 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
5277 the updated
5278 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
5279 and
5280 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
5281 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
5282 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
5283 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
5284
5285       </div>
5286       <div class="tags">
5287
5288
5289         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>.
5290
5291
5292       </div>
5293     </div>
5294     <div class="padding"></div>
5295
5296     <div class="entry">
5297       <div class="title">
5298         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
5299       </div>
5300       <div class="date">
5301         27th July 2013
5302       </div>
5303       <div class="body">
5304         <p>The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
5305 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
5306
5307 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released
5308 2013-07-27</strong></p>
5309
5310 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5311 7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
5312
5313 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
5314
5315 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
5316 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
5317 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
5318 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
5319 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
5320 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
5321 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
5322 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
5323 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
5324 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
5325 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
5326 desktop contains
5327 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
5328 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
5329 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
5330 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
5331
5332 <p>This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
5333 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
5334 Squeeze release.</p>
5335
5336 <p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
5337 versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
5338 release.</p>
5339
5340 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
5341
5342 <ul>
5343
5344 <li>Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager
5345    for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.</li>
5346 <li>Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser
5347    packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced
5348    by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those
5349    installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa
5350    and libpam-mklocaluser.</li>
5351 <li>Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).</li>
5352 <li>Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).</li>
5353 <li>Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of
5354    crash bugs.</li>
5355
5356 </ul>
5357
5358 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
5359
5360 <ul>
5361
5362 <li>Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break
5363    desktop=gnome installations.</li>
5364 <li>Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the
5365    netinst CD.</li>
5366 <li>Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific
5367    setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.</li>
5368 <li>Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at
5369    install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash
5370    with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.</li>
5371 <li>Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient
5372    exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host
5373    name setting at run time to work again.</li>
5374 <li>Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL
5375    fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by
5376    updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.</li>
5377 <li>Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique
5378    (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.</li>
5379 <li>Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.</li>
5380
5381 </ul>
5382
5383 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
5384
5385 <ul>
5386
5387 <li>Grub is missing the new artwork.</li>
5388 <li>KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
5389     not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
5390 <li>Chromium also fail to use the proxy.</li>
5391
5392 </ul>
5393
5394 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
5395
5396 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
5397
5398 <ul>
5399
5400 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
5401
5402 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
5403
5404 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .</li>
5405
5406 </ul>
5407
5408 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109
5409 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f</p>
5410
5411 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
5412
5413 <ul>
5414
5415 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
5416 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
5417 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .</li>
5418
5419 </ul>
5420
5421 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69
5422 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733</p>
5423
5424
5425 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
5426
5427 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
5428
5429       </div>
5430       <div class="tags">
5431
5432
5433         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>.
5434
5435
5436       </div>
5437     </div>
5438     <div class="padding"></div>
5439
5440     <div class="entry">
5441       <div class="title">
5442         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
5443       </div>
5444       <div class="date">
5445         17th July 2013
5446       </div>
5447       <div class="body">
5448         <p>Today I switched to
5449 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
5450 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
5451 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
5452 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
5453 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
5454 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
5455 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
5456 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
5457 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
5458 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
5459 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
5460 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
5461 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
5462 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
5463 station from now on.</p>
5464
5465 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
5466 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
5467 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
5468 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
5469 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
5470 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
5471 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
5472 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
5473 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
5474 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
5475 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
5476 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
5477
5478 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
5479 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
5480 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
5481 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
5482 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
5483 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
5484 parameters are tuned:</p>
5485
5486 <ul>
5487
5488 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
5489     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
5490
5491 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
5492     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
5493     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
5494
5495 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
5496     systems.</li>
5497
5498 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
5499     /etc/fstab.</li>
5500
5501 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
5502
5503 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
5504     cron.daily).</li>
5505
5506 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
5507     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
5508
5509 </ul>
5510
5511 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
5512 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
5513 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
5514 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
5515 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
5516 from getting the data on the disk (see
5517 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
5518 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
5519 right thing to do.</p>
5520
5521 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
5522 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
5523 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
5524
5525 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
5526 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
5527 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
5528 instead of during my work.</p>
5529
5530 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
5531 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
5532
5533 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
5534 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
5535 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
5536
5537 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
5538 there.</p>
5539
5540 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
5541 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
5542 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
5543 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
5544 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
5545 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
5546 back.</p>
5547
5548       </div>
5549       <div class="tags">
5550
5551
5552         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>.
5553
5554
5555       </div>
5556     </div>
5557     <div class="padding"></div>
5558
5559     <div class="entry">
5560       <div class="title">
5561         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
5562       </div>
5563       <div class="date">
5564         10th July 2013
5565       </div>
5566       <div class="body">
5567         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
5568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
5569 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
5570 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
5571 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
5572 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
5573 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
5574 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
5575
5576 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
5577 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
5578 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
5579 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
5580 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
5581 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
5582 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
5583 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
5584 lock up when I download a new
5585 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
5586 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
5587 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
5588
5589 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5590 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
5591 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5592 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
5593 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5594 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5595
5596 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5597 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
5598 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5599 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
5600 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5601 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5602
5603 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
5604 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
5605 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
5606 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
5607 exist).</p>
5608
5609       </div>
5610       <div class="tags">
5611
5612
5613         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>.
5614
5615
5616       </div>
5617     </div>
5618     <div class="padding"></div>
5619
5620     <div class="entry">
5621       <div class="title">
5622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
5623       </div>
5624       <div class="date">
5625          9th July 2013
5626       </div>
5627       <div class="body">
5628         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
5629 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
5630 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
5631 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
5632 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5633 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
5634 Bitraf</a>.</p>
5635
5636 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
5637 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
5638 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
5639 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
5640 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
5641
5642       </div>
5643       <div class="tags">
5644
5645
5646         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>.
5647
5648
5649       </div>
5650     </div>
5651     <div class="padding"></div>
5652
5653     <div class="entry">
5654       <div class="title">
5655         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
5656       </div>
5657       <div class="date">
5658          5th July 2013
5659       </div>
5660       <div class="body">
5661         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
5662 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
5663 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
5664 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
5665 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
5666 ended up picking a
5667 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
5668 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
5669 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
5670 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
5671 on that below.</p>
5672
5673 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5674 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5675 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5676 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5677 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5678 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
5679 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
5680 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
5681 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
5682
5683 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
5684 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
5685 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
5686 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
5687 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
5688 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
5689 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
5690
5691 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
5692 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
5693
5694 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
5695 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
5696 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
5697 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
5698 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
5699 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
5700 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
5701 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
5702 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
5703 kernel developers as
5704 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
5705 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
5706 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
5707 Lenovo forums, both for
5708 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
5709 2012-11-10</a> and for
5710 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
5711 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
5712 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
5713 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
5714 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
5715 There is even a
5716 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
5717 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
5718 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
5719
5720 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
5721 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
5722 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
5723 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
5724 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
5725 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
5726 fixed. :)</p>
5727
5728       </div>
5729       <div class="tags">
5730
5731
5732         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>.
5733
5734
5735       </div>
5736     </div>
5737     <div class="padding"></div>
5738
5739     <div class="entry">
5740       <div class="title">
5741         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
5742       </div>
5743       <div class="date">
5744          4th July 2013
5745       </div>
5746       <div class="body">
5747         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
5748 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
5749 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
5750 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
5751 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
5752 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
5753 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
5754 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
5755 with an expencive door stop.</p>
5756
5757 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5758 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5759 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5760 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5761 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5762 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
5763 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
5764
5765 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
5766 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
5767 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
5768 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
5769 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
5770 new laptop now. :)</p>
5771
5772 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
5773
5774       </div>
5775       <div class="tags">
5776
5777
5778         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>.
5779
5780
5781       </div>
5782     </div>
5783     <div class="padding"></div>
5784
5785     <div class="entry">
5786       <div class="title">
5787         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
5788       </div>
5789       <div class="date">
5790          3rd July 2013
5791       </div>
5792       <div class="body">
5793         <p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
5794 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
5795
5796 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
5797 2013-07-03</strong></p>
5798
5799 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5800 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
5801
5802 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
5803
5804 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
5805 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
5806 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
5807 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
5808 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
5809 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
5810 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
5811 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
5812 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
5813 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
5814 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
5815 desktop contains
5816 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
5817 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
5818 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
5819 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
5820
5821 <p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
5822 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
5823 Squeeze release.</p>
5824
5825 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
5826 <ul>
5827   <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
5828   <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
5829     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
5830     brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
5831   <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
5832     they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
5833     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
5834   <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
5835     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
5836     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
5837     too.</li>
5838   <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
5839     are too few to make the package useful.</li>
5840 </ul>
5841 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
5842 <ul>
5843   <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
5844   <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
5845   <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
5846     up for some language options.</li>
5847   <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
5848   <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
5849   <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
5850     d-i is doing it.</li>
5851   <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
5852     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
5853   <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
5854     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
5855     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
5856   <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
5857     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
5858   <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
5859   <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
5860     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
5861   <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
5862     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
5863 </ul>
5864 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
5865 <ul>
5866   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
5867     available yet (698840).</li>
5868   <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
5869 </ul>
5870 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
5871
5872 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
5873 <ul>
5874   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
5875   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
5876   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
5877 </ul>
5878
5879 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
5880 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
5881
5882 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
5883 <ul>
5884   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
5885   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
5886   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
5887 </ul>
5888
5889 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
5890 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
5891
5892 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
5893
5894 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
5895
5896       </div>
5897       <div class="tags">
5898
5899
5900         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>.
5901
5902
5903       </div>
5904     </div>
5905     <div class="padding"></div>
5906
5907     <div class="entry">
5908       <div class="title">
5909         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
5910       </div>
5911       <div class="date">
5912         25th June 2013
5913       </div>
5914       <div class="body">
5915         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
5916 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
5917 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
5918 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
5919 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
5920 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
5921 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
5922 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
5923 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
5924 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
5925 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
5926
5927 <p><pre>
5928 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
5929 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
5930 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
5931 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
5932 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
5933 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
5934 firmware-ipw2x00
5935 firmware-ipw2x00
5936 Preconfiguring packages ...
5937 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
5938 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
5939 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
5940 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
5941 #
5942 </pre></p>
5943
5944 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
5945 printed instead:</p>
5946
5947 <p><pre>
5948 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
5949 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
5950 #
5951 </pre></p>
5952
5953 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
5954 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
5955
5956 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
5957 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
5958 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
5959 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
5960 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
5961 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
5962 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
5963 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
5964 machine.</p>
5965
5966 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
5967 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
5968 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
5969 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
5970 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
5971 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
5972
5973       </div>
5974       <div class="tags">
5975
5976
5977         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>.
5978
5979
5980       </div>
5981     </div>
5982     <div class="padding"></div>
5983
5984     <div class="entry">
5985       <div class="title">
5986         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html">The value of a good distro wide test suite...</a>
5987       </div>
5988       <div class="date">
5989         22nd June 2013
5990       </div>
5991       <div class="body">
5992         <p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
5993 Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
5994 which check that services are running, working, and return the
5995 expected results.  It runs automatically just after the first boot on
5996 test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
5997 installations (using non-test ISOs).  It test that the LDAP service is
5998 operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
5999 online resizable, etc, etc.  And it check that the PXE service is
6000 configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
6001
6002 <p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
6003 Edu Wheezy release.  These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
6004 complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
6005 happen all the needed packages need to be on them.  Thanks to our test
6006 suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
6007 cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
6008 When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
6009 using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
6010 working packages to get it working.  And the packages changed name
6011 from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
6012 debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
6013 packages during installation.  Without our test suite, I suspect we
6014 would never have discovered this before release.  Now it is fixed
6015 right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
6016
6017 <p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
6018 administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
6019 test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
6020 any errors are detected.  This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
6021 the problem.</p>
6022
6023 <p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
6024 please join us on
6025 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
6026 irc.debian.org</a> and the
6027 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
6028 list.</p>
6029
6030       </div>
6031       <div class="tags">
6032
6033
6034         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>.
6035
6036
6037       </div>
6038     </div>
6039     <div class="padding"></div>
6040
6041     <div class="entry">
6042       <div class="title">
6043         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html">Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</a>
6044       </div>
6045       <div class="date">
6046         17th June 2013
6047       </div>
6048       <div class="body">
6049         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
6050 Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
6051 globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
6052 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
6053 #debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
6054 worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
6055 help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
6056 with him, to learn more about him.</p>
6057
6058 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6059
6060 <p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
6061 which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
6062 party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
6063 friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
6064 country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
6065 community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
6066 began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
6067 constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
6068 field.</p>
6069
6070 <p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
6071 provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
6072 activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
6073 of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
6074 software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
6075 the only one we have in our country.</p>
6076
6077 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
6078 project?</strong></p>
6079
6080 <p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
6081 even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
6082 it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
6083 educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
6084 love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
6085 technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
6086 ways to contribute.</p>
6087
6088 <p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
6089 configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
6090 haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
6091 areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
6092 software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
6093 one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
6094 environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
6095 for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
6096 from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
6097 have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
6098
6099 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6100 Edu?</strong></p>
6101
6102 <p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
6103 maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
6104 took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
6105 Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
6106 time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
6107 with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
6108 out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
6109 it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
6110
6111 <p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
6112 availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
6113 scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
6114 only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
6115 lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
6116 project.</p>
6117
6118 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6119 Edu?</strong></p>
6120
6121 <p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
6122 disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
6123 project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
6124 a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I'd like to see
6125 Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
6126 ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
6127 lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
6128 opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
6129 to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
6130
6131 <p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
6132 with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
6133 to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
6134 on.</p>
6135
6136 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6137
6138 <p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
6139 daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
6140 am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
6141 Enlightenment project a lot!),
6142 <a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/‎">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
6143 use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
6144 <a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
6145 get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
6146 stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
6147
6148 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6149 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6150
6151 <p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
6152 now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
6153 that:</p>
6154
6155 <ul>
6156
6157 <li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
6158
6159 <li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
6160     experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
6161     of teenagers more?</li>
6162
6163 <li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
6164     be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
6165     other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
6166     them!)</li>
6167
6168 <li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
6169     lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
6170     person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
6171
6172 </ul>
6173
6174 <p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
6175 example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
6176 it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
6177 people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
6178 very hard to convert against their will.</p>
6179
6180       </div>
6181       <div class="tags">
6182
6183
6184         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>.
6185
6186
6187       </div>
6188     </div>
6189     <div class="padding"></div>
6190
6191     <div class="entry">
6192       <div class="title">
6193         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html">Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</a>
6194       </div>
6195       <div class="date">
6196         12th June 2013
6197       </div>
6198       <div class="body">
6199         <p>There is a certain cross-over between the
6200 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6201 project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
6202 project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
6203 effort between the projects.  One person with a foot in both camps is
6204 Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
6205
6206 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6207
6208 <p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
6209 days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
6210 getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
6211
6212 <p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
6213 opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
6214 each other.</p>
6215
6216 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
6217 project?</strong></p>
6218
6219 <p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
6220 first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
6221 [Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
6222 London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
6223 Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
6224 it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
6225 was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
6226 day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
6227 over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
6228 been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
6229 still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
6230 we'll get there one day.</p>
6231
6232 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6233 Edu?</strong></p>
6234
6235 <p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
6236 it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
6237 that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
6238 very high quality work.</p>
6239
6240 <p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
6241 set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
6242 with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
6243 helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
6244 community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
6245
6246 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6247 Edu?</strong></p>
6248
6249 <p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
6250 separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
6251 what I originally rambled on about)</p>
6252
6253 <p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
6254 project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
6255 think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
6256 content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
6257 on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
6258 years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
6259 concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
6260 more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
6261 myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
6262 currently.</p>
6263
6264 <p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
6265 for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
6266 their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
6267 educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
6268 have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
6269 much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
6270 autonomous.</p>
6271
6272 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6273
6274 <p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
6275 Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
6276 some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
6277 particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
6278 so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
6279
6280 <p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
6281 git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
6282 which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
6283 while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
6284 Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
6285 it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
6286 up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
6287 X.</p>
6288
6289 <p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
6290 using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
6291 people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
6292 it :p)
6293
6294 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6295 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6296
6297 <p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
6298 many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
6299 don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
6300 that.</p>
6301
6302 <p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
6303 problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
6304 advantage of that.</p>
6305
6306 <p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
6307 some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
6308 Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
6309 general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
6310 Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
6311 that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
6312 best solution for them.</p>
6313
6314 <p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
6315 educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
6316 make a decision that would work for them.</p>
6317
6318       </div>
6319       <div class="tags">
6320
6321
6322         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>.
6323
6324
6325       </div>
6326     </div>
6327     <div class="padding"></div>
6328
6329     <div class="entry">
6330       <div class="title">
6331         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
6332       </div>
6333       <div class="date">
6334         11th June 2013
6335       </div>
6336       <div class="body">
6337         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
6338 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
6339 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
6340 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
6341 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
6342 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
6343 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
6344 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
6345 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
6346 i915 driver used by the
6347 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6348 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
6349
6350 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
6351 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
6352 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
6353 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
6354 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
6355
6356 <pre>
6357 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
6358 update-initramfs -u -k all
6359 </pre>
6360
6361 <p>Since March 2012 there is
6362 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
6363 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
6364 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
6365 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
6366 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
6367 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
6368 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
6369 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
6370 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
6371 number.</p>
6372
6373 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
6374 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
6375
6376 <p><pre>
6377 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
6378     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
6379     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
6380  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
6381  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
6382     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
6383  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
6384     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
6385  Latency: 0
6386  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
6387  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
6388  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
6389  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
6390  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
6391  Capabilities: <access denied>
6392  Kernel driver in use: i915
6393 </pre></p>
6394
6395 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
6396
6397 <p><pre>
6398 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
6399        ...
6400         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
6401         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
6402        ...
6403 }
6404 </pre></p>
6405
6406 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
6407 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
6408 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
6409 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
6410 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
6411 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
6412 yet shown up in
6413 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
6414 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
6415 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
6416 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
6417 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
6418 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
6419
6420 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
6421 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
6422 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
6423 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
6424 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
6425 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
6426 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
6427 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
6428 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
6429 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
6430 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
6431 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
6432
6433 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
6434 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
6435 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
6436 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
6437 backlight.</p>
6438
6439       </div>
6440       <div class="tags">
6441
6442
6443         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>.
6444
6445
6446       </div>
6447     </div>
6448     <div class="padding"></div>
6449
6450     <div class="entry">
6451       <div class="title">
6452         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
6453       </div>
6454       <div class="date">
6455         10th June 2013
6456       </div>
6457       <div class="body">
6458         <p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
6459 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
6460
6461 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
6462 2013-06-10</strong></p>
6463
6464 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
6465 alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
6466
6467 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
6468
6469 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
6470 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
6471 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
6472 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
6473 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
6474 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
6475 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
6476 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
6477 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
6478 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
6479 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
6480 desktop contains
6481 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
6482 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
6483 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
6484 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
6485
6486 <p>This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
6487 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
6488 Squeeze release.</p>
6489
6490 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
6491
6492 <ul>
6493
6494 <li>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
6495 <li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
6496 <li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
6497 <li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
6498 <li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
6499
6500 </ul>
6501
6502 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
6503
6504 <ul>
6505
6506 <li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
6507 <li>Updated translation of the installation.
6508 <li>New Romanian translation.
6509 <li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
6510 <li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
6511 <li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
6512 <li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
6513 <li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
6514 <li>More testsuite tests.
6515 <li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
6516 <li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
6517
6518 <li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
6519 LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
6520
6521 <li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
6522 them up with GOsa².</li>
6523
6524 <li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
6525
6526 <li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
6527 slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
6528 entered password). </li>
6529
6530 </ul>
6531
6532 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
6533
6534 <ul>
6535
6536 <li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
6537
6538 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
6539 available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
6540 missing import feature).</li>
6541
6542 <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
6543
6544 <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
6545 own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
6546 unfixed.</li>
6547
6548 </ul>
6549
6550 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
6551
6552 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
6553
6554 <ul>
6555
6556 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
6557
6558 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
6559
6560 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
6561
6562 </ul>
6563
6564 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
6565 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</p>
6566
6567 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
6568
6569 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
6570
6571       </div>
6572       <div class="tags">
6573
6574
6575         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>.
6576
6577
6578       </div>
6579     </div>
6580     <div class="padding"></div>
6581
6582     <div class="entry">
6583       <div class="title">
6584         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html">Is there a PHP expert in the building?  Debian Edu need help!</a>
6585       </div>
6586       <div class="date">
6587          5th June 2013
6588       </div>
6589       <div class="body">
6590         <p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
6591 We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
6592 hope to get released soon.  The two problems require some with PHP
6593 skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
6594 the project:
6595
6596 <ol>
6597
6598 <li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
6599   (slbackup-php) using the root user and password.  This is
6600   <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
6601   This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
6602   Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
6603
6604 <li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
6605   using ldif nor using CSV files.  The feature was disabled after a
6606   major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
6607   This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
6608   #698840</a>.</li>
6609
6610 </ol>
6611
6612 <p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
6613 (<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
6614 irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
6615
6616       </div>
6617       <div class="tags">
6618
6619
6620         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>.
6621
6622
6623       </div>
6624     </div>
6625     <div class="padding"></div>
6626
6627     <div class="entry">
6628       <div class="title">
6629         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html">Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</a>
6630       </div>
6631       <div class="date">
6632          4th June 2013
6633       </div>
6634       <div class="body">
6635         <p>It has been a while since my last English
6636 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
6637 interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
6638 pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
6639 time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
6640 in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
6641
6642 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6643
6644 <p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
6645 professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
6646 mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
6647 probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
6648
6649 <p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
6650 and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
6651 packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
6652
6653 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
6654 project?</strong></p>
6655
6656 <p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
6657 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
6658 Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
6659 then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
6660 manual.
6661
6662 <p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
6663 virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
6664 shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
6665 how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
6666
6667 <p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
6668 ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
6669 by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>.  What pleased
6670 me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
6671 there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
6672 to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
6673 artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
6674 <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
6675 movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
6676 <a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
6677
6678 <p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
6679 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
6680 Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
6681 beautiful project.</p>
6682
6683 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6684 Edu?</strong></p>
6685
6686 <p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
6687 community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
6688 fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
6689
6690 <p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
6691 distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
6692 of educational free software.</p>
6693
6694 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
6695 Edu?</strong></p>
6696
6697 <p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
6698 project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
6699 not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
6700 solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
6701 is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
6702
6703 <p>One can find support from a company by looking at
6704 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
6705 wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
6706 companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
6707 Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
6708 for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
6709 consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
6710 support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
6711
6712 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6713
6714 <p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
6715 most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
6716 scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
6717 also using the mathematical software
6718 <a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and
6719 <a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from
6720 source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
6721
6722 <p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
6723 using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
6724 statistics?</strong></p>
6725
6726 <p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
6727 university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and
6728 Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
6729 geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
6730
6731 <ul>
6732
6733 <li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
6734 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do
6735 constructions in planar geometry
6736
6737 <li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
6738 to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
6739 groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
6740
6741 </ul>
6742
6743 <p>I like also
6744 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
6745 provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
6746 <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
6747
6748 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6749 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6750
6751 <p>My suggestions would be to</p>
6752
6753 <ul>
6754
6755 <li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
6756
6757 <li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
6758     well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
6759     OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
6760
6761 <li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
6762
6763 <li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
6764     system.</li>
6765
6766 </ul>
6767
6768       </div>
6769       <div class="tags">
6770
6771
6772         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>.
6773
6774
6775       </div>
6776     </div>
6777     <div class="padding"></div>
6778
6779     <div class="entry">
6780       <div class="title">
6781         <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>
6782       </div>
6783       <div class="date">
6784          1st June 2013
6785       </div>
6786       <div class="body">
6787         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
6788 Skolelinux</a>, there are quite a lot of educational software.
6789 Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn.  We have tried to
6790 tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
6791 the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
6792 educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
6793 debtag field.  Here it is.  Click on a image to learn more about the
6794 program.</p>
6795
6796 <!-- 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 -->
6797
6798 <p><strong>field::arts</strong></p>
6799 <p>
6800 <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>
6801 <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>
6802 <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>
6803 <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>
6804 <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>
6805 <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>
6806 <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>
6807 <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>
6808 <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>
6809 <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>
6810 <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>
6811 <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>
6812 <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>
6813 <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>
6814 </p>
6815
6816 <p><strong>field::astronomy</strong></p>
6817 <p>
6818 <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>
6819 <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>
6820 <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>
6821 <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>
6822 <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>
6823 <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>
6824 </p>
6825
6826 <p><strong>field::biology:structural</strong></p>
6827 <p>
6828 <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>
6829 </p>
6830
6831 <p><strong>field::chemistry</strong></p>
6832 <p>
6833 <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>
6834 <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>
6835 <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>
6836 <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>
6837 <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>
6838 <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>
6839 <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>
6840 <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>
6841 <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>
6842 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=viewmol'>[viewmol]</a>
6843 <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>
6844 </p>
6845
6846 <p><strong>field::electronics</strong></p>
6847 <p>
6848 <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>
6849 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpsim'>[gpsim]</a>
6850 </p>
6851
6852 <p><strong>field::geography</strong></p>
6853 <p>
6854 <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>
6855 <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>
6856 <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>
6857 </p>
6858
6859 <p><strong>field::linguistics</strong></p>
6860 <p>
6861 <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>
6862 <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>
6863 <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>
6864 <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>
6865 <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>
6866 </p>
6867
6868 <p><strong>field::mathematics</strong></p>
6869 <p>
6870 <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>
6871 <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>
6872 <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>
6873 <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>
6874 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geomview'>[geomview]</a>
6875 <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>
6876 <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>
6877 <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>
6878 <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>
6879 <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>
6880 <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>
6881 <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>
6882 <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>
6883 <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>
6884 <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>
6885 <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>
6886 <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>
6887 </p>
6888
6889 <p><strong>field::physics</strong></p>
6890 <p>
6891 <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>
6892 <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>
6893 </p>
6894
6895 <p><strong>field::TODO</strong></p>
6896 <p>
6897 <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>
6898 <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>
6899 <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>
6900 <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>
6901 <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>
6902 <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>
6903 <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>
6904 <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>
6905 <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>
6906 <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>
6907 </p>
6908
6909 <p>In total, 61 applications.  3 of them lacked screen shots on
6910 <a href="http://screenshot.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a>.  If
6911 you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
6912 know on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu
6913 on irc.debian.org</a>, or our
6914 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">mailing list
6915 debian-edu@</a>.</p>
6916
6917       </div>
6918       <div class="tags">
6919
6920
6921         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>.
6922
6923
6924       </div>
6925     </div>
6926     <div class="padding"></div>
6927
6928     <div class="entry">
6929       <div class="title">
6930         <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>
6931       </div>
6932       <div class="date">
6933         27th May 2013
6934       </div>
6935       <div class="body">
6936         <p>Two days ago, I asked
6937 <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
6938 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
6939 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
6940 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
6941 and Windows 8.</p>
6942
6943 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
6944 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
6945 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
6946 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
6947 enough to tell.</p>
6948
6949 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
6950 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
6951 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
6952 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
6953 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
6954 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
6955 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
6956 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
6957 to follow.</p>
6958
6959 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
6960 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
6961 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
6962 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
6963 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
6964 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
6965 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
6966 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
6967
6968 <p>I've updated the
6969 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
6970 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
6971 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
6972 machine.</p>
6973
6974 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
6975 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
6976
6977       </div>
6978       <div class="tags">
6979
6980
6981         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>.
6982
6983
6984       </div>
6985     </div>
6986     <div class="padding"></div>
6987
6988     <div class="entry">
6989       <div class="title">
6990         <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>
6991       </div>
6992       <div class="date">
6993         25th May 2013
6994       </div>
6995       <div class="body">
6996         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
6997 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
6998 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
6999 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
7000 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
7001 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
7002
7003 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
7004 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
7005 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
7006 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
7007 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
7008 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
7009 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
7010 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
7011 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
7012 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
7013
7014 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
7015 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
7016 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
7017 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
7018 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
7019 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
7020
7021 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
7022 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
7023 on new Laptops?</p>
7024
7025       </div>
7026       <div class="tags">
7027
7028
7029         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>.
7030
7031
7032       </div>
7033     </div>
7034     <div class="padding"></div>
7035
7036     <div class="entry">
7037       <div class="title">
7038         <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>
7039       </div>
7040       <div class="date">
7041         17th May 2013
7042       </div>
7043       <div class="body">
7044         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
7045 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
7046 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
7047 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
7048 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
7049 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
7050 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
7051 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
7052 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
7053 donate some money</a>.
7054
7055 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
7056 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
7057 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
7058 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
7059 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
7060
7061 <p>The script,
7062 <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/>
7063 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
7064 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
7065 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
7066
7067 <ol>
7068
7069 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
7070 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
7071 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
7072     our configuration.</li>
7073 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
7074     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
7075     according to the profile specified in the config above,
7076     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
7077 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
7078     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
7079 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
7080
7081 </ol>
7082
7083 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
7084 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
7085 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
7086 the needed packages.</p>
7087
7088 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
7089 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
7090 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
7091 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
7092 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
7093 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
7094
7095 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
7096 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
7097 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
7098
7099 <p><pre>
7100 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
7101 DESKTOP="lxde"
7102 </pre></p>
7103
7104 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
7105 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
7106 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
7107 boot.</p>
7108
7109       </div>
7110       <div class="tags">
7111
7112
7113         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>.
7114
7115
7116       </div>
7117     </div>
7118     <div class="padding"></div>
7119
7120     <div class="entry">
7121       <div class="title">
7122         <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>
7123       </div>
7124       <div class="date">
7125         14th May 2013
7126       </div>
7127       <div class="body">
7128         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7129 project</a> is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
7130 release today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
7131
7132 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
7133 2013-05-14</strong></p>
7134
7135 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
7136 alpha1, based on <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> with
7137 codename "Wheezy".</p>
7138
7139 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
7140
7141 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
7142 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
7143 configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
7144 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
7145 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
7146 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
7147 initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
7148 other machines can be installed via the network.</p>
7149
7150 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
7151 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
7152 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
7153
7154 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
7155 <ul>
7156   <li>Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
7157     default.</li>
7158   <li>Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.</li>
7159   <li>Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.</li>
7160   <li>Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
7161     ibus-anthy.</li>
7162 </ul>
7163
7164 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
7165 <ul>
7166
7167   <li>Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
7168     reliability improvements.</li>
7169   <li>Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
7170     of <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706434">706434</a>.</li>
7171   <li>Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
7172     problems.</li>
7173   <li>Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
7174     direct:// URL.</li>
7175   <li>Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.</li>
7176   <li>Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.</li>
7177   <li>Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.</li>
7178   <li>Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
7179     servers, to make room for all the software installed.</li>
7180   <li>Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
7181     log in (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706753">706753</a>).</li>
7182 </ul>
7183
7184 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
7185 <ul>
7186
7187   <li>IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
7188     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/705900">705900</a>).  Only install
7189     libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.</li>
7190   <li>DVD images are not yet ready.</li>
7191   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
7192     available yet (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">698840</a>).</li>
7193   <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).</li>
7194   <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.</li>
7195   <li>LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
7196     (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.</li>
7197   <li>Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
7198     password submission problem
7199     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">700257</a>).</li>
7200
7201 </ul>
7202
7203 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
7204
7205 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
7206 <ul>
7207
7208   <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>
7209   <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>
7210   <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>
7211
7212 </ul>
7213
7214 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b</p>
7215
7216 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c</p>
7217
7218 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
7219
7220 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
7221
7222       </div>
7223       <div class="tags">
7224
7225
7226         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7227
7228
7229       </div>
7230     </div>
7231     <div class="padding"></div>
7232
7233     <div class="entry">
7234       <div class="title">
7235         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
7236       </div>
7237       <div class="date">
7238         11th May 2013
7239       </div>
7240       <div class="body">
7241         <P>In January,
7242 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
7243 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
7244 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
7245 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
7246 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
7247 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
7248 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
7249 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
7250 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
7251 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
7252 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
7253 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
7254
7255 <p><table>
7256 <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>
7257 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
7258 <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>
7259 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
7260 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
7261 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
7262 <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>
7263 <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>
7264 <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>
7265 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
7266 </table></p>
7267
7268 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
7269 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
7270 available in experimental.</p>
7271
7272 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
7273 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
7274 for LEGO designers.</p>
7275
7276       </div>
7277       <div class="tags">
7278
7279
7280         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>.
7281
7282
7283       </div>
7284     </div>
7285     <div class="padding"></div>
7286
7287     <div class="entry">
7288       <div class="title">
7289         <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>
7290       </div>
7291       <div class="date">
7292          5th May 2013
7293       </div>
7294       <div class="body">
7295         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
7296 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
7297 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
7298 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
7299 soon.</p>
7300
7301 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
7302 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
7303 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
7304 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
7305 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
7306 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
7307 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
7308 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
7309 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
7310 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
7311 Edu.</a>
7312
7313 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
7314 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
7315 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
7316 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
7317 follow.<p>
7318
7319       </div>
7320       <div class="tags">
7321
7322
7323         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>.
7324
7325
7326       </div>
7327     </div>
7328     <div class="padding"></div>
7329
7330     <div class="entry">
7331       <div class="title">
7332         <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>
7333       </div>
7334       <div class="date">
7335         26th April 2013
7336       </div>
7337       <div class="body">
7338         <p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made
7339 its first Wheezy based release today.  This is the release
7340 announcement:</p>
7341
7342 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released
7343 2013-04-26</strong></p>
7344
7345 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0
7346 edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
7347
7348 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
7349
7350 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
7351 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
7352 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
7353 network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all
7354 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
7355 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
7356 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
7357 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
7358 installed via the network.</p>
7359
7360 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
7361 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
7362 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
7363
7364 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
7365
7366 <ul>
7367 <li>Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg:
7368   <ul>
7369      <li>Linux kernel 3.2.x</li>
7370      <li>Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4
7371          (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see
7372          manual.)</li>
7373      <li>Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR</li>
7374      <li>LibreOffice 3.5.4</li>
7375      <li>LTSP 5.4.2</li>
7376      <li>GOsa 2.7.4</li>
7377      <li>CUPS print system 1.5.3</li>
7378      <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01</li>
7379      <li>Music creator Rosegarden 12.04</li>
7380      <li>Image editor Gimp 2.8.2</li>
7381      <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1</li>
7382      <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3</li>
7383      <li>Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6</li>
7384      <li>New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see
7385          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation
7386          manual</a> for more details.</li>
7387      <li>Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for
7388          installation.</li>
7389      <li>More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the
7390          <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>
7391   </ul></li>
7392 </ul>
7393
7394 <p><strong>Documentation</strong></p>
7395 <ul>
7396 <li>The (<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy">English</a>) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to
7397     German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist
7398     for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.</li>
7399 </ul>
7400
7401 <p><Strong>LDAP related changes</strong></p>
7402 <ul>
7403 <li>Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to
7404     choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type
7405     server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.</li>
7406 </ul>
7407
7408 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
7409 <ul>
7410 <li>LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be
7411     configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an
7412     entry in lts.conf or LDAP.<li>
7413 <li>GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non
7414     functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are
7415     completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.</li>
7416 </ul>
7417
7418 <p><strong>Regressions</strong></p>
7419 <ul>
7420 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available
7421     yet.</li>
7422 </ul>
7423
7424 <p><strong>No updated artwork</strong></p>
7425
7426 <ul>
7427 <li>Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login
7428     screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we
7429     had for our Squeeze based release.</li>
7430 </ul>
7431
7432 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
7433
7434 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
7435 <ul>
7436 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
7437 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
7438 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</li>
7439 </ul>
7440
7441 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c</p>
7442
7443 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2</p>
7444
7445 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
7446
7447 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
7448
7449       </div>
7450       <div class="tags">
7451
7452
7453         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>.
7454
7455
7456       </div>
7457     </div>
7458     <div class="padding"></div>
7459
7460     <div class="entry">
7461       <div class="title">
7462         <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>
7463       </div>
7464       <div class="date">
7465         16th April 2013
7466       </div>
7467       <div class="body">
7468         <p>This years first <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux /
7469 Debian Edu</a> developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim.
7470 Details about the gathering can be found
7471 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim">on
7472 the FRiSK wiki</a>.  The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online
7473 participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome,
7474 and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this
7475 weekend.</p>
7476
7477 <p>The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project
7478 infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian
7479 Edu release.</p>
7480
7481 <p>See you on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,</a> then?</p>
7482
7483       </div>
7484       <div class="tags">
7485
7486
7487         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>.
7488
7489
7490       </div>
7491     </div>
7492     <div class="padding"></div>
7493
7494     <div class="entry">
7495       <div class="title">
7496         <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>
7497       </div>
7498       <div class="date">
7499          3rd April 2013
7500       </div>
7501       <div class="body">
7502         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
7503 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
7504 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
7505 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
7506
7507 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
7508 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
7509 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
7510 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
7511 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
7512 BTS. :)</p>
7513
7514       </div>
7515       <div class="tags">
7516
7517
7518         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>.
7519
7520
7521       </div>
7522     </div>
7523     <div class="padding"></div>
7524
7525     <div class="entry">
7526       <div class="title">
7527         <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>
7528       </div>
7529       <div class="date">
7530         26th March 2013
7531       </div>
7532       <div class="body">
7533         <p>Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same
7534 time, without much sacrifice?  A small step could be to change the
7535 font you use when printing.</p>
7536
7537 <p>Three years ago,
7538 <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/">Ars
7539 Technica</a> reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
7540 changed their default front from
7541 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial">Arial</a> to
7542 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic">Century
7543 Gothic</a> to save money.  The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner
7544 than Arial to print the same text.  In other word, you could cut your
7545 toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time
7546 by more than 30%), by simply changing the default font used in your
7547 prints.</p>
7548
7549 <p>But it is not quite obvious how much one will save by switching.
7550 The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year
7551 on ink and toner cartridges, according to
7552 <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097">a report from
7553 TwinCities.com</a>, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000
7554 per year by asking staff and students to use a different font.  Not
7555 all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external
7556 sources will most likely still use a different font.  Also, the
7557 Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use
7558 more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving
7559 depend on the documents printed.</p>
7560
7561 <p>But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce
7562 the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world,
7563 and save some money in the process.</p>
7564
7565 <p>Update 2013-04-10: If you want to know how much ink/toner could be
7566 saved when switching between fonts, Inkfarm got a
7567 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font">service to calculate the
7568 difference between font pairs</a>.  They also
7569 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---">recommend
7570 which fonts to use</a> to save ink.  Check it out. :) While updating
7571 this blog post, I also came across a blog post from InkCloners,
7572 <a href="http://inkcloners.com/blog/ink-cartridges/change-fonts-to-save-ink-costs/">listing
7573 the fonts they recommend</a>, with Centory Gothic at the top.</p>
7574
7575       </div>
7576       <div class="tags">
7577
7578
7579         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7580
7581
7582       </div>
7583     </div>
7584     <div class="padding"></div>
7585
7586     <div class="entry">
7587       <div class="title">
7588         <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>
7589       </div>
7590       <div class="date">
7591         24th March 2013
7592       </div>
7593       <div class="body">
7594         <p>A few days ago, during a discussion in
7595 <a href="http://www.efn.no/">EFN</a> about interesting books to read
7596 about copyright and the data retention directive, a suggestion to read
7597 the 1968 short story Kodémus by
7598 <a href="http://web2.gyldendal.no/toraage/">Tore Åge Bringsværd</a>
7599 came up.  The text was only available in old paper books, and thus not
7600 easily available for current and future generations.  Some of the
7601 people participating in the discussion contacted the author, and
7602 reported back 2013-03-19 that the author was OK with releasing the
7603 short story using a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org/">Creative
7604 Commons</a> license.  The text was quickly scanned and OCR-ed, and we
7605 were ready to start on the editing and typesetting.</p>
7606
7607 <p>As I already had some experience formatting text in my project to
7608 provide a Norwegian version of the Free Culture book by Lawrence
7609 Lessig, I chipped in and set up a
7610 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">DocBook</a> processing framework to
7611 generate PDF, HTML and EPUB version of the short story.  The tools to
7612 transform DocBook to different formats are already in my Linux
7613 distribution of choice, <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>, so
7614 all I had to do was to use the
7615 <a href="http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/">dblatex</a>,
7616 <a href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/epub/README">dbtoepub</a>
7617 and <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/">xmlto</a> tools to do the
7618 conversion.  After a few days, we decided to replace dblatex with
7619 xsltproc/fop (aka
7620 <a href="http://wiki.docbook.org/DocBookXslStylesheets">docbook-xsl</a>),
7621 to get the copyright information to show up in the PDF and to get a
7622 nicer &lt;variablelist&gt; typesetting, but that is just a minor
7623 technical detail.</p>
7624
7625 <p>There were a few challenges, of course.  We want to typeset the
7626 short story to look like the original, and that require fairly good
7627 control over the layout.  The original short story have three
7628 parts/scenes separated by a single horizontally centred star (*), and
7629 the paragraphs do not contain only flowing text, but dialogs and text
7630 that started on a new line in the middle of the paragraph.</p>
7631
7632 <p>I initially solved the first challenge by using a paragraph with a
7633 single star in it, ie &lt;para&gt;*&lt;/para&gt;, but it made sure a
7634 placeholder indicated where the scene shifted.  This did not look too
7635 good without the centring.  The next approach was to create a new
7636 preprocessor directive &lt;?newscene?&gt;, mapping to "&lt;hr/&gt;"
7637 for HTML and "&lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;&lt;fo:leader
7638 leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;&lt;/fo:block&gt;"
7639 for FO/PDF output (did not try to implement this in dblatex, as we had
7640 switched at this time).  The HTML XSL file looked like this:</p>
7641
7642 <p><blockquote><pre>
7643 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
7644 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
7645   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
7646     &lt;hr/&gt;
7647   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
7648 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
7649 </pre></blockquote></p>
7650
7651 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
7652
7653 <p><blockquote><pre>
7654 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
7655 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
7656   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
7657     &lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;
7658       &lt;fo:leader leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;
7659     &lt;/fo:block&gt;
7660   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
7661 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
7662 </pre></blockquote></p>
7663
7664 <p>Finally, I came across the &lt;bridgehead&gt; tag, which seem to be
7665 a good fit for the task at hand, and I replaced &lt;?newscene?&gt;
7666 with &lt;bridgehead&gt;*&lt;/bridgehead&gt;.  It isn't centred, but we
7667 can fix it with some XSL rule if the current visual layout isn't
7668 enough.</p>
7669
7670 <p>I did not find a good DocBook compliant way to solve the
7671 linebreak/paragraph challenge, so I ended up creating a new processor
7672 directive &lt;?linebreak?&gt;, mapping to &lt;br/&gt; in HTML, and
7673 &lt;fo:block/&gt; in FO/PDF.  I suspect there are better ways to do
7674 this, and welcome ideas and patches on github.  The HTML XSL file now
7675 look like this:</p>
7676
7677 <p><blockquote><pre>
7678 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
7679 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
7680   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
7681     &lt;br/&gt;
7682   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
7683 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
7684 </pre></blockquote></p>
7685
7686 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
7687
7688 <p><blockquote><pre>
7689 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
7690 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'
7691   xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"&gt;
7692   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
7693     &lt;fo:block/&gt;
7694   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
7695 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
7696 </pre></blockquote></p>
7697
7698 <p>One unsolved challenge is our wish to expose different ISBN numbers
7699 per publication format, while keeping all of them in some conditional
7700 structure in the DocBook source.  No idea how to do this, so we ended
7701 up listing all the ISBN numbers next to their format in the colophon
7702 page.</p>
7703
7704 <p>If you want to check out the finished result, check out the
7705 <a href="https://github.com/sickel/kodemus">source repository at
7706 github</a>
7707 (<a href="https://github.com/EFN/kodemus">future/new/official
7708 repository</a>).  We expect it to be ready and announced in a few
7709 days.</p>
7710
7711       </div>
7712       <div class="tags">
7713
7714
7715         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>.
7716
7717
7718       </div>
7719     </div>
7720     <div class="padding"></div>
7721
7722     <div class="entry">
7723       <div class="title">
7724         <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>
7725       </div>
7726       <div class="date">
7727         17th March 2013
7728       </div>
7729       <div class="body">
7730         <p>Via
7731 <a href="https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930">twitter</a>
7732 I just discovered that <a href="http://pcwizz.net/">Pcwizz</a> have
7733 done a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc">video
7734 review</a> on Youtube of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
7735 / Debian Edu</a> version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
7736 the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
7737 a few programs and his view of our distribution.</p>
7738
7739 <p>There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
7740 have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:</p>
7741
7742 <blockquote>
7743 "Basically everything you ever need in a school environment."
7744 </blockquote>
7745
7746 <p>And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:</p>
7747
7748 <blockquote>
7749 "So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
7750 to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
7751 lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
7752 I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
7753 feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network."
7754 </blockquote>
7755
7756 <p>To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
7757 installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
7758 server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
7759 considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)</p>
7760
7761 <p>While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
7762 about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:
7763
7764 <blockquote>
7765 "[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
7766 is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
7767 actually don't need in the education distribution, but have just been
7768 included because it isn't stripped out for some reason."
7769 </blockquote>
7770
7771 <p>I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
7772 Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
7773 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries">one
7774 consistent menu system</a> instead of two incomplete and partly
7775 inconsistent menu systems.</p>
7776
7777 <p>The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
7778 embedding:</p>
7779
7780 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
7781
7782       </div>
7783       <div class="tags">
7784
7785
7786         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>.
7787
7788
7789       </div>
7790     </div>
7791     <div class="padding"></div>
7792
7793     <div class="entry">
7794       <div class="title">
7795         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html">First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</a>
7796       </div>
7797       <div class="date">
7798          8th March 2013
7799       </div>
7800       <div class="body">
7801         <p>Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
7802 of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
7803 based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
7804 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
7805 initial release 2012-03-11</a>.  This is the
7806 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html">release
7807 announcement email from Holger</a>:</p>
7808
7809 <blockquote><p>Hi,</p>
7810
7811 <p>it's my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
7812 Edu 6.0.7+r1 ("Debian Edu Squeeze").</p>
7813
7814 <p>Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
7815 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
7816 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
7817 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
7818 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311">http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311</a>
7819 for more information on "Debian Edu Squeeze".</p>
7820
7821 <p>Images are available for download at
7822 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/</a></p>
7823
7824 <p>md5sums:
7825 <br>1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
7826 <br>a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
7827 <br>ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
7828
7829 <p>sha1sums:
7830 <br>a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
7831 <br>9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
7832 <br>43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
7833
7834 <p>These images are suitable for amd64+i386.</p>
7835
7836 <p>Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename "Squeeze", released
7837 2013-03-03:</p>
7838
7839 <ul>
7840   <li>sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
7841   <ul>
7842         <li>Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient</li>
7843         <li>Comply with 3.X kernel</li>
7844   </ul></li>
7845   <li>debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
7846   <ul>
7847         <li>Minor updates from the wiki</li>
7848         <li>Danish translation now complete</li>
7849   </ul></li>
7850   <li>debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
7851      <ul>
7852         <li>Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880</li>
7853         <li>Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.</li>
7854         <li>Correct Kerberos user policy: don't expire password after 2 days.
7855                 Closes: #664596</li>
7856         <li>Handle '#' characters in the root or first users password.
7857                 Closes: #664976</li>
7858         <li>Fixes for gosa-sync:
7859            <ul>
7860                 <li>Don't fail if password contains "</li>
7861                 <li>Don't disclose new password string in syslog</li>
7862            </ul></li>
7863         <li>Fixes for gosa-create:
7864            <ul>
7865                 <li>Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes</li>
7866                 <li>Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²</li>
7867                 <li>gosa-netgroups plugin: don't erase entries of attribute type
7868                          "memberNisNetgroup". Closes: #687256</li>
7869                 <li>First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users</li>
7870            </ul></li>
7871         <li>Add Danish web page</li>
7872     </ul>
7873   <li>debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
7874     <ul>
7875         <li>Improve preseeding support and documentation</li>
7876     </ul></li>
7877 </ul>
7878
7879 <p>End-user documentation in English is available at
7880 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/</a>
7881 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
7882 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)</p>
7883
7884 <p>If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
7885 mailinglist
7886 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@lists.debian.org</a>!
7887 </p></blockquote>
7888
7889 <p>I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)</p>
7890
7891       </div>
7892       <div class="tags">
7893
7894
7895         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>.
7896
7897
7898       </div>
7899     </div>
7900     <div class="padding"></div>
7901
7902     <div class="entry">
7903       <div class="title">
7904         <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>
7905       </div>
7906       <div class="date">
7907          3rd March 2013
7908       </div>
7909       <div class="body">
7910         <p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
7911 broadcast them on the air?  Using free software?  With video on demand
7912 support using
7913 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
7914 open standards</a>?  Included a web based video stream as well?  And
7915 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world?  A
7916 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
7917 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> have been building a
7918 system to do just this.  The source code for the solution is licensed
7919 using the GNU LGPL, and
7920 <a href="http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github</a>.</p>
7921
7922 <p>The idea is simple.  You upload a video file over the web, and
7923 attach meta information to the file.  You select a time slot in the
7924 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
7925 in the web stream.  It is also made available in a video on demand
7926 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time.  All
7927 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.</p>
7928
7929 <p>There are several parts to this web based solution.  I'll mention
7930 the three most important ones.  The first part is the database of
7931 videos and the schedule.  This is written in Django and include a REST
7932 API.  The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
7933 PostgreSQL.  At the moment this system can be tested on
7934 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv</a>.  The
7935 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
7936 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast.  This is done
7937 using <a href="http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT</a> and
7938 <a href="http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit</a>.  Video
7939 signal distribution is handled using
7940 <a href="http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder</a>.  The
7941 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
7942 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
7943 on demand.  It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
7944 decided what it will end up using.  Note that the source of the latter
7945 two parts are not yet pushed to github.  The lead author want to clean
7946 them up a bit more first.</p>
7947
7948 <p>The development is coordinated on the
7949 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
7950 channel</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
7951 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
7952 frikanalen mailing list</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
7953 (phed on IRC).  Anyone is welcome to participate in the
7954 development.</p>
7955
7956       </div>
7957       <div class="tags">
7958
7959
7960         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>.
7961
7962
7963       </div>
7964     </div>
7965     <div class="padding"></div>
7966
7967     <div class="entry">
7968       <div class="title">
7969         <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>
7970       </div>
7971       <div class="date">
7972         27th February 2013
7973       </div>
7974       <div class="body">
7975         <p>Dr. <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a>,
7976 founder of <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a>,
7977 is giving <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
7978 talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00</a>.  The event is public
7979 and organised by <a href="">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)</a>
7980 (where I am the chair of the board) and
7981 <a href="http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
7982 Center</a>.  The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
7983 GNU», with this description:
7984
7985 <p><blockquote>
7986 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
7987 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
7988 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
7989 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
7990 </blockquote></p>
7991
7992 <p>The meeting is open for everyone.  Due to space limitations, the
7993 doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45.  I
7994 am really curious how many will show up.  See
7995 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
7996 page</a> for the location details.</p>
7997
7998       </div>
7999       <div class="tags">
8000
8001
8002         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>.
8003
8004
8005       </div>
8006     </div>
8007     <div class="padding"></div>
8008
8009     <div class="entry">
8010       <div class="title">
8011         <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>
8012       </div>
8013       <div class="date">
8014         15th February 2013
8015       </div>
8016       <div class="body">
8017         <p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
8018 now a great source of free maps available from
8019 <a href="http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart</a>.  To
8020 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
8021 download the map type you want.  There are 8 different maps available,
8022 using different colours and data selection.  Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
8023 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
8024 "Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
8025 page for descriptions).</p>
8026
8027 <p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
8028 map you can just edit the
8029 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> map source
8030 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)</p>
8031
8032       </div>
8033       <div class="tags">
8034
8035
8036         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>.
8037
8038
8039       </div>
8040     </div>
8041     <div class="padding"></div>
8042
8043     <div class="entry">
8044       <div class="title">
8045         <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>
8046       </div>
8047       <div class="date">
8048         12th February 2013
8049       </div>
8050       <div class="body">
8051         <p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
8052 <a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
8053 by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
8054 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
8055 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
8056 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
8057 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
8058 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
8059 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
8060 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
8061 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
8062 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
8063 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
8064 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
8065 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
8066 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
8067
8068 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
8069 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
8070 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
8071 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
8072 for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
8073 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
8074 fields:</p>
8075
8076 <p><pre>
8077 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
8078 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
8079 X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
8080 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
8081 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
8082 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
8083 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
8084 </pre></p>
8085
8086 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
8087 answer regarding
8088 <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
8089 to put bank account information into a vCard</a>.  For payments in
8090 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
8091 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.</p>
8092
8093 <p>The complete vCard could look like this:</p>
8094
8095 <p><pre>
8096 BEGIN:VCARD
8097 VERSION:2.1
8098 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
8099 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
8100 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
8101 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
8102 REV:20130212T095000Z
8103 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
8104 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
8105 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
8106 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
8107 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
8108 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
8109 END:VCARD
8110 </pre></p>
8111
8112 <p>The resulting QR code created using
8113 <a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
8114 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
8115 phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
8116 bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
8117 system.</p>
8118
8119 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
8120
8121 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
8122 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
8123 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
8124 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
8125
8126 <p><strong>Update 2013-02-12 11:30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
8127 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.</p>
8128
8129       </div>
8130       <div class="tags">
8131
8132
8133         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>.
8134
8135
8136       </div>
8137     </div>
8138     <div class="padding"></div>
8139
8140     <div class="entry">
8141       <div class="title">
8142         <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>
8143       </div>
8144       <div class="date">
8145         10th February 2013
8146       </div>
8147       <div class="body">
8148         <p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
8149
8150 <p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
8151 during the night and wake up when it is morning.  I mean, when I
8152 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier.  In our household we
8153 have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
8154 sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day.  They have adapted
8155 quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
8156 up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
8157 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
8158 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
8159 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
8160 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
8161
8162 <p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem.  It
8163 involve home automation.  A few years ago I bought a
8164 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
8165 switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
8166 Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
8167 gadgets using my Linux server.  When I moved from the old flat to a
8168 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
8169 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
8170 the gadgets I had.  But recently I bought a
8171 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
8172 Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
8173 sockets.  I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
8174 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding.  The default
8175 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
8176 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
8177 ones own
8178 <a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
8179 with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
8180 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
8181 code.  I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
8182 important.  But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
8183 the kids came to me yesterday.  We can set up a night light controlled
8184 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00.  The kids can
8185 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
8186 get up or not.  They joined me in setting everything up, and I
8187 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
8188 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
8189
8190 <p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
8191 after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
8192 "morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
8193 arrived.  So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
8194 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
8195 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
8196
8197 <p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
8198 to tell the kids to get up.  We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
8199 can also delay it if we want to.</p>
8200
8201       </div>
8202       <div class="tags">
8203
8204
8205         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8206
8207
8208       </div>
8209     </div>
8210     <div class="padding"></div>
8211
8212     <div class="entry">
8213       <div class="title">
8214         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
8215       </div>
8216       <div class="date">
8217          2nd February 2013
8218       </div>
8219       <div class="body">
8220         <p>My
8221 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
8222 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
8223 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
8224 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
8225 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
8226 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
8227 version too.</p>
8228
8229 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
8230 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
8231 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
8232 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
8233 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
8234 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
8235 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
8236 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
8237
8238 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
8239 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
8240 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
8241 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
8242 it. :)</p>
8243
8244 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
8245 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
8246 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
8247
8248       </div>
8249       <div class="tags">
8250
8251
8252         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>.
8253
8254
8255       </div>
8256     </div>
8257     <div class="padding"></div>
8258
8259     <div class="entry">
8260       <div class="title">
8261         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
8262       </div>
8263       <div class="date">
8264         22nd January 2013
8265       </div>
8266       <div class="body">
8267         <p>Yesterday, I
8268 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
8269 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
8270 pluggable hardware devices, which I
8271 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
8272 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
8273 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
8274 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
8275 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
8276 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
8277 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
8278 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
8279 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
8280 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
8281
8282 <pre>
8283 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
8284 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
8285 </pre>
8286
8287 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
8288 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
8289 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
8290 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
8291
8292 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
8293 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
8294 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
8295 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
8296 word.</p>
8297
8298 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
8299 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
8300 process.</p>
8301
8302 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
8303 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
8304
8305       </div>
8306       <div class="tags">
8307
8308
8309         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>.
8310
8311
8312       </div>
8313     </div>
8314     <div class="padding"></div>
8315
8316     <div class="entry">
8317       <div class="title">
8318         <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>
8319       </div>
8320       <div class="date">
8321         21st January 2013
8322       </div>
8323       <div class="body">
8324         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
8325 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
8326 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
8327 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
8328 it, fetch the
8329 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
8330 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
8331 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
8332 autostart script.</p>
8333
8334 <p>The design is simple:</p>
8335
8336 <ul>
8337
8338 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
8339 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
8340
8341 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
8342 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
8343 initially did.</li>
8344
8345 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
8346 the APT database, a database
8347 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
8348 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
8349
8350 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
8351 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
8352 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
8353 package or packages.</li>
8354
8355 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
8356 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
8357
8358 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
8359 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
8360
8361 </ul>
8362
8363 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
8364 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
8365 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
8366 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
8367
8368 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
8369 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
8370 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
8371 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
8372 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
8373
8374 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
8375 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
8376 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
8377 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
8378 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
8379 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
8380 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
8381 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
8382
8383 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
8384 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
8385 '<tt>svn checkout
8386 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
8387 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
8388 devscripts package.</p>
8389
8390 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
8391 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
8392 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
8393 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
8394 instructions</a> for details.</p>
8395
8396       </div>
8397       <div class="tags">
8398
8399
8400         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>.
8401
8402
8403       </div>
8404     </div>
8405     <div class="padding"></div>
8406
8407     <div class="entry">
8408       <div class="title">
8409         <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>
8410       </div>
8411       <div class="date">
8412         19th January 2013
8413       </div>
8414       <div class="body">
8415         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
8416 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
8417 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
8418 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
8419 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
8420 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
8421 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
8422 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
8423 not a durable solution.
8424
8425 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
8426 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
8427
8428 <ul>
8429
8430 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
8431   than A4).</li>
8432 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
8433 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
8434 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
8435 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
8436 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
8437 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
8438 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
8439 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
8440 size).</li>
8441 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
8442   X.org packages.</li>
8443 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
8444   the time).
8445
8446 </ul>
8447
8448 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
8449 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
8450 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
8451 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
8452 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
8453 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
8454 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
8455 still be useful.</p>
8456
8457 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
8458 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
8459 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
8460 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
8461 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
8462 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
8463
8464       </div>
8465       <div class="tags">
8466
8467
8468         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>.
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/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
8478       </div>
8479       <div class="date">
8480         18th January 2013
8481       </div>
8482       <div class="body">
8483         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
8484 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
8485 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
8486 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
8487 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
8488 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
8489 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
8490
8491 <pre>
8492 #!/usr/bin/python
8493 import sys
8494 import apt
8495 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
8496     cache = apt.Cache()
8497     cache.open(None)
8498     thepkgs = []
8499     for pkg in cache:
8500         version = pkg.candidate
8501         if version is None:
8502             version = pkg.installed
8503         if version is None:
8504             continue
8505         record = version.record
8506         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
8507             continue
8508         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
8509         for t in mime_types:
8510             t = t.rstrip().strip()
8511             if t == mimetype:
8512                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
8513     return thepkgs
8514 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
8515 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
8516     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
8517 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
8518 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
8519     print "  %s" %pkg
8520 </pre>
8521
8522 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
8523
8524 <pre>
8525 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
8526 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
8527   gecko-mediaplayer
8528 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
8529 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
8530   browser-plugin-gnash
8531 %
8532 </pre>
8533
8534 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
8535 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
8536 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
8537 anyone working on adding it?</p>
8538
8539 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
8540 request for icweasel support for this feature is
8541 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
8542 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
8543 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
8544 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
8545
8546       </div>
8547       <div class="tags">
8548
8549
8550         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>.
8551
8552
8553       </div>
8554     </div>
8555     <div class="padding"></div>
8556
8557     <div class="entry">
8558       <div class="title">
8559         <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>
8560       </div>
8561       <div class="date">
8562         16th January 2013
8563       </div>
8564       <div class="body">
8565         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
8566 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
8567 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
8568 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
8569 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
8570 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
8571 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
8572 downloaded by the browser.</p>
8573
8574 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
8575 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
8576 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
8577 can be found on the
8578 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
8579 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
8580 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
8581 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
8582 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
8583
8584 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
8585
8586 <pre>
8587   count MIME type
8588   ----- -----------------------
8589      32 text/plain
8590      30 audio/mpeg
8591      29 image/png
8592      28 image/jpeg
8593      27 application/ogg
8594      26 audio/x-mp3
8595      25 image/tiff
8596      25 image/gif
8597      22 image/bmp
8598      22 audio/x-wav
8599      20 audio/x-flac
8600      19 audio/x-mpegurl
8601      18 video/x-ms-asf
8602      18 audio/x-musepack
8603      18 audio/x-mpeg
8604      18 application/x-ogg
8605      17 video/mpeg
8606      17 audio/x-scpls
8607      17 audio/ogg
8608      16 video/x-ms-wmv
8609 </pre>
8610
8611 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
8612
8613 <pre>
8614   count MIME type
8615   ----- -----------------------
8616      33 text/plain
8617      32 image/png
8618      32 image/jpeg
8619      29 audio/mpeg
8620      27 image/gif
8621      26 image/tiff
8622      26 application/ogg
8623      25 audio/x-mp3
8624      22 image/bmp
8625      21 audio/x-wav
8626      19 audio/x-mpegurl
8627      19 audio/x-mpeg
8628      18 video/mpeg
8629      18 audio/x-scpls
8630      18 audio/x-flac
8631      18 application/x-ogg
8632      17 video/x-ms-asf
8633      17 text/html
8634      17 audio/x-musepack
8635      16 image/x-xbitmap
8636 </pre>
8637
8638 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
8639
8640 <pre>
8641   count MIME type
8642   ----- -----------------------
8643      31 text/plain
8644      31 image/png
8645      31 image/jpeg
8646      29 audio/mpeg
8647      28 application/ogg
8648      27 image/gif
8649      26 image/tiff
8650      26 audio/x-mp3
8651      23 audio/x-wav
8652      22 image/bmp
8653      21 audio/x-flac
8654      20 audio/x-mpegurl
8655      19 audio/x-mpeg
8656      18 video/x-ms-asf
8657      18 video/mpeg
8658      18 audio/x-scpls
8659      18 application/x-ogg
8660      17 audio/x-musepack
8661      16 video/x-ms-wmv
8662      16 video/x-msvideo
8663 </pre>
8664
8665 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
8666 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
8667 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
8668 issues.</p>
8669
8670 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
8671 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
8672
8673       </div>
8674       <div class="tags">
8675
8676
8677         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>.
8678
8679
8680       </div>
8681     </div>
8682     <div class="padding"></div>
8683
8684     <div class="entry">
8685       <div class="title">
8686         <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>
8687       </div>
8688       <div class="date">
8689         15th January 2013
8690       </div>
8691       <div class="body">
8692         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
8693 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
8694 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
8695 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
8696 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
8697 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
8698 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
8699 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
8700 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
8701 packages.</p>
8702
8703 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
8704 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
8705 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
8706 modalias.</p>
8707
8708 <p><blockquote>
8709 Package: package-name
8710 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
8711 </blockquote></p>
8712
8713 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
8714 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
8715
8716 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
8717 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
8718
8719 <p><blockquote>
8720 Package: cheese
8721 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
8722 </blockquote></p>
8723
8724 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
8725 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
8726
8727 <p><blockquote>
8728 Package: pcmciautils
8729 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
8730 </blockquote></p>
8731
8732 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
8733 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
8734
8735 <p><blockquote>
8736 Package: colorhug-client
8737 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
8738 </blockquote></p>
8739
8740 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
8741 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
8742 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
8743
8744 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
8745 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
8746 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
8747 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
8748 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
8749 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
8750 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
8751 Raring.</p>
8752
8753 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
8754 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
8755 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
8756 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
8757 try the
8758 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
8759 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
8760 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
8761 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
8762
8763 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
8764 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
8765
8766 <p><blockquote>
8767 % ./hw-support-lookup
8768 <br>yubikey-personalization
8769 <br>%
8770 </blockquote></p>
8771
8772 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
8773 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
8774
8775 <p><blockquote>
8776 % ./hw-support-lookup
8777 <br>pcmciautils
8778 <br>%
8779 </blockquote></p>
8780
8781 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
8782 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
8783 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
8784
8785 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
8786 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
8787 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
8788 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
8789 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
8790 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
8791 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
8792 see if it work.</p>
8793
8794 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
8795 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
8796 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
8797 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
8798
8799       </div>
8800       <div class="tags">
8801
8802
8803         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>.
8804
8805
8806       </div>
8807     </div>
8808     <div class="padding"></div>
8809
8810     <div class="entry">
8811       <div class="title">
8812         <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>
8813       </div>
8814       <div class="date">
8815         14th January 2013
8816       </div>
8817       <div class="body">
8818         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
8819 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
8820 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
8821 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
8822 in
8823 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
8824 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
8825
8826 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
8827
8828 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
8829 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
8830 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
8831 &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;,
8832 &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
8833 &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;.
8834
8835 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
8836 this shell script:</p>
8837
8838 <pre>
8839 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
8840 </pre>
8841
8842 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
8843 using modinfo:</p>
8844
8845 <pre>
8846 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
8847 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
8848 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
8849 %
8850 </pre>
8851
8852 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
8853
8854 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
8855 Bridge memory controller:</p>
8856
8857 <p><blockquote>
8858 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
8859 </blockquote></p>
8860
8861 <p>This represent these values:</p>
8862
8863 <pre>
8864  v   00008086  (vendor)
8865  d   00002770  (device)
8866  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
8867  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
8868  bc  06        (bus class)
8869  sc  00        (bus subclass)
8870  i   00        (interface)
8871 </pre>
8872
8873 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
8874 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
8875 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
8876 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
8877
8878 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
8879 means.</p>
8880
8881 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
8882
8883 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
8884 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
8885
8886 <p><blockquote>
8887 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
8888 </blockquote></p>
8889
8890 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
8891
8892 <pre>
8893  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
8894  p    0001  (device product)
8895  d    0206  (bcddevice)
8896  dc     09  (device class)
8897  dsc    00  (device subclass)
8898  dp     00  (device protocol)
8899  ic     09  (interface class)
8900  isc    00  (interface subclass)
8901  ip     00  (interface protocol)
8902 </pre>
8903
8904 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
8905 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
8906 these alias entries show up:</p>
8907
8908 <p><blockquote>
8909 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
8910 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
8911 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
8912 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
8913 </blockquote></p>
8914
8915 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
8916 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
8917 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
8918
8919 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
8920
8921 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
8922 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
8923
8924 <p><blockquote>
8925 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
8926 </blockquote></p>
8927
8928 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
8929
8930 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
8931
8932 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
8933 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
8934 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
8935
8936 <p><blockquote>
8937 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
8938 </blockquote></p>
8939
8940 <p>The values present are</p>
8941
8942 <pre>
8943  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
8944  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
8945  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
8946  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
8947  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
8948  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
8949  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
8950  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
8951  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
8952  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
8953  ct   10             (chassis type)
8954  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
8955 </pre>
8956
8957 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
8958 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
8959
8960 <pre>
8961   3 Desktop
8962   4 Low Profile Desktop
8963   5 Pizza Box
8964   6 Mini Tower
8965   7 Tower
8966   8 Portable
8967   9 Laptop
8968  10 Notebook
8969  11 Hand Held
8970  12 Docking Station
8971  13 All In One
8972  14 Sub Notebook
8973  15 Space-saving
8974  16 Lunch Box
8975  17 Main Server Chassis
8976  18 Expansion Chassis
8977  19 Sub Chassis
8978  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
8979  21 Peripheral Chassis
8980  22 RAID Chassis
8981  23 Rack Mount Chassis
8982  24 Sealed-case PC
8983  25 Multi-system
8984  26 CompactPCI
8985  27 AdvancedTCA
8986  28 Blade
8987  29 Blade Enclosing
8988 </pre>
8989
8990 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
8991 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
8992 claim it is a desktop.</p>
8993
8994 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
8995
8996 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
8997 test machine:</p>
8998
8999 <p><blockquote>
9000 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
9001 </blockquote></p>
9002
9003 <p>The values present are</p>
9004
9005 <pre>
9006   ty  01  (type)
9007   pr  00  (prototype)
9008   id  00  (id)
9009   ex  00  (extra)
9010 </pre>
9011
9012 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
9013 the valid values are.</p>
9014
9015 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
9016
9017 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
9018 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
9019 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
9020 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
9021 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
9022 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
9023 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
9024
9025 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
9026
9027 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
9028 one can use the following shell script:</p>
9029
9030 <pre>
9031   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
9032     echo "$id" ; \
9033     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
9034   done
9035 </pre>
9036
9037 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
9038 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
9039
9040 <pre>
9041   acpi:ACPI0003:
9042     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
9043   acpi:device:
9044   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
9045   acpi:IBM0068:
9046     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
9047     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
9048     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
9049     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
9050   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
9051     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
9052     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
9053     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
9054   [...]
9055 </pre>
9056
9057 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
9058 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
9059 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
9060 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
9061
9062 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
9063 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
9064 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
9065
9066       </div>
9067       <div class="tags">
9068
9069
9070         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>.
9071
9072
9073       </div>
9074     </div>
9075     <div class="padding"></div>
9076
9077     <div class="entry">
9078       <div class="title">
9079         <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>
9080       </div>
9081       <div class="date">
9082         10th January 2013
9083       </div>
9084       <div class="body">
9085         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
9086 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
9087 Launcher and updated the Debian package
9088 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
9089 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
9090 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
9091 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
9092 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
9093 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
9094 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
9095 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
9096 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
9097 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
9098 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
9099 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
9100 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
9101 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
9102 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
9103
9104       </div>
9105       <div class="tags">
9106
9107
9108         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
9109
9110
9111       </div>
9112     </div>
9113     <div class="padding"></div>
9114
9115     <div class="entry">
9116       <div class="title">
9117         <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>
9118       </div>
9119       <div class="date">
9120          9th January 2013
9121       </div>
9122       <div class="body">
9123         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
9124 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
9125 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
9126 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
9127 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
9128 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
9129 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
9130 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
9131 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
9132 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
9133 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
9134
9135 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
9136 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
9137 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
9138 simple:
9139
9140 <ul>
9141
9142 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
9143   starting when a user log in.</li>
9144
9145 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
9146   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
9147
9148 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
9149   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
9150   packages.</li>
9151
9152 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
9153   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
9154
9155 </ul>
9156
9157 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
9158 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
9159 discover database to find packages and
9160 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
9161 packages.</p>
9162
9163 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
9164 draft package is now checked into
9165 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
9166 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
9167 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
9168 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
9169 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
9170 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
9171 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
9172 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
9173 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
9174 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
9175 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
9176 because of the freeze).</p>
9177
9178 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
9179 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
9180 inserted):</p>
9181
9182 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
9183
9184 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
9185 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
9186 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
9187
9188 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
9189 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
9190 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
9191 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
9192 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
9193 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
9194 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
9195
9196 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
9197 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
9198 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
9199 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
9200 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
9201 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
9202 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
9203 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
9204 not be installed?</p>
9205
9206 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
9207 please send me an email. :)</p>
9208
9209       </div>
9210       <div class="tags">
9211
9212
9213         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>.
9214
9215
9216       </div>
9217     </div>
9218     <div class="padding"></div>
9219
9220     <div class="entry">
9221       <div class="title">
9222         <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>
9223       </div>
9224       <div class="date">
9225          2nd January 2013
9226       </div>
9227       <div class="body">
9228         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
9229 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
9230 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
9231 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
9232 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
9233 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
9234 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
9235 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
9236 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
9237 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
9238
9239 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
9240 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
9241 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
9242
9243       </div>
9244       <div class="tags">
9245
9246
9247         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>.
9248
9249
9250       </div>
9251     </div>
9252     <div class="padding"></div>
9253
9254     <div class="entry">
9255       <div class="title">
9256         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
9257       </div>
9258       <div class="date">
9259         28th December 2012
9260       </div>
9261       <div class="body">
9262         <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
9263 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
9264 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
9265 Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
9266 December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
9267 present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
9268 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
9269 gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
9270 cost around NOK 15&nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
9271 development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
9272 followed by many others. :)</p>
9273
9274 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
9275 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
9276 donation page</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
9277 you want to donate to the project.</p>
9278
9279       </div>
9280       <div class="tags">
9281
9282
9283         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>.
9284
9285
9286       </div>
9287     </div>
9288     <div class="padding"></div>
9289
9290     <div class="entry">
9291       <div class="title">
9292         <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>
9293       </div>
9294       <div class="date">
9295         25th December 2012
9296       </div>
9297       <div class="body">
9298         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
9299 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
9300
9301 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
9302 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
9303 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
9304 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
9305 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
9306 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
9307 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
9308 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
9309 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
9310 name.</p>
9311
9312 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
9313 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
9314 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
9315
9316 <blockquote><pre>
9317 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
9318 cd bitcoin
9319 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
9320 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
9321 </pre></blockquote>
9322
9323 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
9324 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
9325 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
9326 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
9327 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
9328 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
9329 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
9330 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
9331 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
9332
9333 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
9334 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
9335 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9336
9337       </div>
9338       <div class="tags">
9339
9340
9341         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>.
9342
9343
9344       </div>
9345     </div>
9346     <div class="padding"></div>
9347
9348     <div class="entry">
9349       <div class="title">
9350         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
9351       </div>
9352       <div class="date">
9353         21st December 2012
9354       </div>
9355       <div class="body">
9356         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
9357 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
9358 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
9359 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
9360 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
9361 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
9362 is now maintained by a
9363 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
9364 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
9365 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
9366 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
9367 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
9368 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
9369 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
9370 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
9371 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
9372 Corallo in a
9373 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
9374 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
9375 Debian package.</p>
9376
9377 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
9378 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
9379 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
9380 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
9381 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
9382 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
9383 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
9384 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
9385 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
9386 new version to unstable.
9387
9388 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
9389 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
9390 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
9391 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
9392 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
9393 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
9394 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
9395 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
9396 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
9397 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
9398 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
9399 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
9400 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
9401 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
9402 have not tested them.</p>
9403
9404 <p>My
9405 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
9406 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
9407 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
9408 years ago, as can be
9409 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
9410 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
9411 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
9412 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
9413 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
9414 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
9415 the same address as last time,
9416 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9417
9418       </div>
9419       <div class="tags">
9420
9421
9422         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>.
9423
9424
9425       </div>
9426     </div>
9427     <div class="padding"></div>
9428
9429     <div class="entry">
9430       <div class="title">
9431         <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>
9432       </div>
9433       <div class="date">
9434         18th December 2012
9435       </div>
9436       <div class="body">
9437         <p>A few days ago I came across
9438 <a href="http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
9439 Hess</a> describing <a href="http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger</a> and
9440 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
9441 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
9442 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
9443 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
9444 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
9445 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
9446 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
9447
9448 are at least <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
9449 different implementations</a> able to read the format.  An example
9450 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
9451 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:</p>
9452
9453 <blockquote><pre>
9454 2004-05-27 Book Store
9455       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
9456       Liabilities:Visa
9457 </pre></blockquote>
9458
9459 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
9460 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
9461 <a href="http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
9462 Spang</a>,
9463 <a href="http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
9464 Keen</a>,
9465 <a href="http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
9466 Cantino</a> and
9467 <a href="http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
9468 Ip</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
9469 <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
9470 M. Kuhn</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
9471 recommendations fitting my need.</p>
9472
9473 <p>The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger</a>
9474 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
9475 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger</a>
9476 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
9477 seemed the best choice to get started.</p>
9478
9479 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
9480 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper</a> for
9481 <a href="http://www.lodo.no/">LODO</a>, the accounting system used by
9482 the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> association, and started to
9483 play with the data set.  I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
9484 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
9485 using the "<tt>ledger balance</tt>" command.  But I will have to
9486 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
9487 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
9488
9489       </div>
9490       <div class="tags">
9491
9492
9493         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>.
9494
9495
9496       </div>
9497     </div>
9498     <div class="padding"></div>
9499
9500     <div class="entry">
9501       <div class="title">
9502         <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>
9503       </div>
9504       <div class="date">
9505          6th December 2012
9506       </div>
9507       <div class="body">
9508         <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of
9509 Oslo</a>, we use the
9510 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/">Cerebrum user
9511 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
9512 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
9513 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a> API, but
9514 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
9515 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
9516 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
9517 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
9518 Python.</p>
9519
9520 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
9521 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/">bofh
9522 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
9523 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
9524 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html">a
9525 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
9526
9527 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
9528 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
9529 user currently logged in:</p>
9530
9531 <blockquote><pre>
9532 #!/usr/bin/env python
9533 import getpass
9534 import xmlrpclib
9535 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
9536 username = getpass.getuser()
9537 password = getpass.getpass()
9538 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
9539 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
9540 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
9541 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
9542 result = server.logout(sessionid)
9543 print result
9544 </pre></blockquote>
9545
9546 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
9547 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.</p>
9548
9549       </div>
9550       <div class="tags">
9551
9552
9553         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>.
9554
9555
9556       </div>
9557     </div>
9558     <div class="padding"></div>
9559
9560     <div class="entry">
9561       <div class="title">
9562         <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>
9563       </div>
9564       <div class="date">
9565         17th November 2012
9566       </div>
9567       <div class="body">
9568         <p>While working on a
9569 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
9570 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a> (76% done),
9571 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
9572 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
9573 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
9574 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.</p>
9575
9576 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
9577 <a href="http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
9578 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
9579 by John Perry Barlow</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
9580 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
9581 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
9582 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
9583 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
9584 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I'm sharing the idea here to
9585 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
9586 arguments.</p>
9587
9588 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
9589 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
9590 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
9591 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
9592 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
9593 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
9594 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
9595 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?</p>
9596
9597 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
9598 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
9599 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
9600 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
9601 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
9602 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
9603 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
9604 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
9605 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
9606 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
9607 correct right holder.</p>
9608
9609 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
9610 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
9611 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
9612 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
9613 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
9614 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
9615 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
9616 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
9617 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
9618 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
9619 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
9620 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
9621 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
9622 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.</p>
9623
9624 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
9625 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
9626 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .</p>
9627
9628 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
9629 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.</p>
9630
9631       </div>
9632       <div class="tags">
9633
9634
9635         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>.
9636
9637
9638       </div>
9639     </div>
9640     <div class="padding"></div>
9641
9642     <div class="entry">
9643       <div class="title">
9644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</a>
9645       </div>
9646       <div class="date">
9647         14th November 2012
9648       </div>
9649       <div class="body">
9650         <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a
9651 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
9652 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
9653 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
9654 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
9655 the people behind the German
9656 "<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>"
9657 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
9658 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
9659
9660 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
9661
9662 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
9663 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
9664 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
9665
9666 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
9667 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
9668 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
9669 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
9670 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
9671 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p>
9672
9673 <p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
9674 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
9675 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
9676 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
9677 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
9678 relationship management and the communication processes in the
9679 project.</p>
9680
9681 <p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
9682 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
9683 and a yoga teacher.</p>
9684
9685 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
9686 project?</strong></p>
9687
9688 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p>
9689
9690 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
9691 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
9692 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
9693 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
9694 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
9695 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
9696 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
9697 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
9698 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
9699 parents.</p>
9700
9701 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
9702 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
9703 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
9704 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
9705 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
9706 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
9707 Germany.</p>
9708
9709 <p>For information about our school project you can read
9710 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
9711 interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p>
9712
9713 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9714 Edu?</strong></p>
9715
9716 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
9717 answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p>
9718
9719 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
9720 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
9721 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
9722 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
9723 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
9724 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
9725 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
9726 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
9727 teachers, parents...</p>
9728
9729 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
9730 Edu?</strong></p>
9731
9732 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
9733 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
9734
9735 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
9736 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
9737 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
9738 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
9739 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
9740
9741 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
9742 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
9743 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
9744 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
9745 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
9746 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
9747 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
9748
9749 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
9750
9751 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
9752 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
9753 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
9754 my N900 running with Maemo.</p>
9755
9756 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
9757 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
9758
9759 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
9760 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
9761 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
9762 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
9763 strategy has three crucial pillars:</p>
9764
9765 <ul>
9766
9767 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
9768 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
9769 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li>
9770
9771 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
9772 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
9773 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
9774 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
9775 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
9776 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
9777 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li>
9778
9779 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
9780 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
9781 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
9782 offer to become more and more independent from us.</li>
9783
9784 </ul>
9785
9786       </div>
9787       <div class="tags">
9788
9789
9790         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>.
9791
9792
9793       </div>
9794     </div>
9795     <div class="padding"></div>
9796
9797     <div class="entry">
9798       <div class="title">
9799         <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>
9800       </div>
9801       <div class="date">
9802          4th November 2012
9803       </div>
9804       <div class="body">
9805         <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
9806 <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
9807 a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and
9808 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>.  It is interesting to
9809 see how a member of the bitcoin community
9810 <a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
9811 the report</a>.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
9812 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
9813 competition.  My thoughts go to the
9814 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with
9815 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
9816 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
9817 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
9818 powerful forces to work against it.</p>
9819
9820 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
9821 that the community already seem to have
9822 <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
9823 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>.  Not very surprising, given
9824 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
9825 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
9826 wealth is available.</p>
9827
9828       </div>
9829       <div class="tags">
9830
9831
9832         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>.
9833
9834
9835       </div>
9836     </div>
9837     <div class="padding"></div>
9838
9839     <div class="entry">
9840       <div class="title">
9841         <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>
9842       </div>
9843       <div class="date">
9844         26th October 2012
9845       </div>
9846       <div class="body">
9847         <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
9848 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
9849 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
9850 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn
9851 make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>.  NUUG
9852 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
9853 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
9854 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
9855 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
9856 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the
9857 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
9858 it every time.</p>
9859
9860 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
9861 article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from
9862 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
9863 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
9864 Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also
9865 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available
9866 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
9867 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
9868 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
9869 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
9870 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
9871 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
9872
9873 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
9874 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
9875 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
9876 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
9877 article: First the unplanned outage:
9878
9879 <blockquote><pre>
9880 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
9881 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
9882 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
9883 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
9884 Duration:    40 minutes
9885 Scope:       Exchange 2003
9886 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
9887              a cluster failover.
9888
9889 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
9890              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
9891 Technician:  [xxx]
9892 </pre></blockquote>
9893
9894 Next the planned outage:
9895
9896 <blockquote><pre>
9897 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
9898 Severity:    Major (Planned)
9899 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
9900 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
9901 Duration:    10 hours
9902 Scope:       H2 Transport
9903 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
9904              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
9905              4510s.
9906 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
9907              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
9908              connectivity.
9909 Technician:  [xxx]
9910 </pre></blockquote>
9911
9912 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
9913 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
9914 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
9915 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
9916 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
9917 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
9918 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
9919
9920 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
9921 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
9922 university too.  We do register
9923 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned
9924 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
9925 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
9926 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
9927 for other sites to consider too?</p>
9928
9929       </div>
9930       <div class="tags">
9931
9932
9933         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/usenix">usenix</a>.
9934
9935
9936       </div>
9937     </div>
9938     <div class="padding"></div>
9939
9940     <div class="entry">
9941       <div class="title">
9942         <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>
9943       </div>
9944       <div class="date">
9945         22nd October 2012
9946       </div>
9947       <div class="body">
9948         <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
9949 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how
9950 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
9951 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>.  If a real book store did
9952 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
9953 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
9954 background information is available in Norwegian from
9955 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>.
9956 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
9957 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
9958 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
9959 willing to
9960 <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html">
9961 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
9962 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
9963 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
9964 sounded like
9965 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon
9966 would never do that again</a>.  And here we are, three years
9967 later.</p>
9968
9969 <p>And thought this action is
9970 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against
9971 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
9972 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
9973 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
9974 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
9975 rights.</p>
9976
9977 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
9978 unacceptable terms.  For example
9979 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
9980 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
9981 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet
9982 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
9983 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
9984
9985 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
9986 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
9987 restored the account of the user, as reported by
9988 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a>
9989 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>.
9990 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
9991 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
9992 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
9993 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
9994 reading two opinions from
9995 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon
9996 Phipps</a> and
9997 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen
9998 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
9999 details about the original story.</p>
10000
10001       </div>
10002       <div class="tags">
10003
10004
10005         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>.
10006
10007
10008       </div>
10009     </div>
10010     <div class="padding"></div>
10011
10012     <div class="entry">
10013       <div class="title">
10014         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
10015       </div>
10016       <div class="date">
10017         18th October 2012
10018       </div>
10019       <div class="body">
10020         <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
10021 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
10022 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
10023 across a marvellous drawing by
10024 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a>
10025 visualising some of what is going on.
10026
10027 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html">
10028 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p>
10029
10030 <blockquote>
10031 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
10032 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
10033 </blockquote>
10034
10035 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
10036 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
10037 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
10038 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the
10039 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
10040 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
10041
10042       </div>
10043       <div class="tags">
10044
10045
10046         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>.
10047
10048
10049       </div>
10050     </div>
10051     <div class="padding"></div>
10052
10053     <div class="entry">
10054       <div class="title">
10055         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
10056       </div>
10057       <div class="date">
10058         12th October 2012
10059       </div>
10060       <div class="body">
10061         <p>Thanks to a blog post by
10062 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html">Eddy
10063 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
10064 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
10065 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
10066 <a href="http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
10067 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions</a>, the producer
10068 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
10069 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
10070 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
10071 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
10072 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
10073 matter".</p>
10074
10075 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
10076 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
10077 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
10078 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
10079 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
10080 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
10081 to argue its side.</p>
10082
10083 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
10084 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
10085 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
10086 effect</a> can make it rethink its strategy.</p>
10087
10088 <p>What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
10089 <a href="http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
10090 victims of detoxification</a>.</p>
10091
10092       </div>
10093       <div class="tags">
10094
10095
10096         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>.
10097
10098
10099       </div>
10100     </div>
10101     <div class="padding"></div>
10102
10103     <div class="entry">
10104       <div class="title">
10105         <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>
10106       </div>
10107       <div class="date">
10108          3rd October 2012
10109       </div>
10110       <div class="body">
10111         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
10112 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
10113 the computer science book collection available in his local
10114 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
10115 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
10116 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
10117 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
10118 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
10119 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
10120 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
10121 recently published books.</p>
10122
10123 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
10124 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
10125 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
10126 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
10127 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
10128 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
10129 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
10130 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
10131 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
10132 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
10133 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
10134 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
10135 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
10136 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
10137 for the library that evening.</p>
10138
10139 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
10140 going to know that for example
10141 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
10142 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
10143 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
10144 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
10145 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
10146 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
10147 book right away.</p>
10148
10149       </div>
10150       <div class="tags">
10151
10152
10153         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10154
10155
10156       </div>
10157     </div>
10158     <div class="padding"></div>
10159
10160     <div class="entry">
10161       <div class="title">
10162         <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>
10163       </div>
10164       <div class="date">
10165         23rd September 2012
10166       </div>
10167       <div class="body">
10168         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
10169 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
10170 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
10171 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
10172 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
10173 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
10174
10175 When I started, I
10176 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
10177 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
10178 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
10179 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
10180 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
10181 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
10182 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
10183
10184 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
10185
10186 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
10187 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
10188 the project files currently available from
10189 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
10190
10191 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
10192 the updated
10193 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
10194 and
10195 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
10196 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
10197 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
10198 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
10199
10200       </div>
10201       <div class="tags">
10202
10203
10204         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>.
10205
10206
10207       </div>
10208     </div>
10209     <div class="padding"></div>
10210
10211     <div class="entry">
10212       <div class="title">
10213         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
10214       </div>
10215       <div class="date">
10216         17th September 2012
10217       </div>
10218       <div class="body">
10219         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
10220 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
10221 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
10222 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
10223 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
10224 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
10225 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
10226
10227 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
10228
10229 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
10230 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
10231 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
10232 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
10233 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
10234 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
10235 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
10236 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
10237 training is anyway very important</p>
10238
10239 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
10240 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
10241 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
10242 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
10243 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
10244
10245 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
10246 project?</strong></p>
10247
10248 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
10249 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
10250 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
10251 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
10252 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
10253 hole.</p>
10254
10255 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
10256 Edu?</strong></p>
10257
10258 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
10259 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
10260 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
10261 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
10262 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
10263 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
10264 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
10265 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
10266 hassle.</p>
10267
10268 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
10269 Edu?</strong></p>
10270
10271 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
10272 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
10273 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
10274 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
10275 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
10276 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
10277 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
10278 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
10279
10280 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
10281
10282 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
10283 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
10284 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
10285 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
10286 has the same...</p>
10287
10288 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
10289 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
10290 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
10291 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
10292
10293 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
10294 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
10295
10296 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
10297 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
10298 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
10299
10300 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
10301 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
10302 don't.</p>
10303
10304 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
10305 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
10306 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
10307 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
10308 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
10309 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
10310 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
10311
10312       </div>
10313       <div class="tags">
10314
10315
10316         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>.
10317
10318
10319       </div>
10320     </div>
10321     <div class="padding"></div>
10322
10323     <div class="entry">
10324       <div class="title">
10325         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
10326       </div>
10327       <div class="date">
10328         15th September 2012
10329       </div>
10330       <div class="body">
10331         <p>After the
10332 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
10333 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
10334 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
10335 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
10336 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
10337 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
10338 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
10339 was
10340 <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
10341 formal working group should be formed.</p>
10342
10343 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
10344 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
10345 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
10346 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
10347 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
10348 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
10349 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
10350 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
10351
10352 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
10353 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
10354 IETF.</p>
10355
10356       </div>
10357       <div class="tags">
10358
10359
10360         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>.
10361
10362
10363       </div>
10364     </div>
10365     <div class="padding"></div>
10366
10367     <div class="entry">
10368       <div class="title">
10369         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
10370       </div>
10371       <div class="date">
10372         12th September 2012
10373       </div>
10374       <div class="body">
10375         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
10376 publication of of
10377 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
10378 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
10379 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
10380 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
10381 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
10382 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
10383 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
10384 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
10385 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
10386 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
10387
10388 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
10389 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
10390 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
10391 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
10392
10393 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
10394 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
10395
10396       </div>
10397       <div class="tags">
10398
10399
10400         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>.
10401
10402
10403       </div>
10404     </div>
10405     <div class="padding"></div>
10406
10407     <div class="entry">
10408       <div class="title">
10409         <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>
10410       </div>
10411       <div class="date">
10412          7th September 2012
10413       </div>
10414       <div class="body">
10415         <p>As I
10416 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
10417 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
10418 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
10419 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
10420 repository for the project</a>.</p>
10421
10422 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
10423 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
10424 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
10425 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
10426
10427 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
10428 PostScript formats at
10429 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
10430 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
10431
10432       </div>
10433       <div class="tags">
10434
10435
10436         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>.
10437
10438
10439       </div>
10440     </div>
10441     <div class="padding"></div>
10442
10443     <div class="entry">
10444       <div class="title">
10445         <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>
10446       </div>
10447       <div class="date">
10448         23rd August 2012
10449       </div>
10450       <div class="body">
10451         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
10452 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
10453 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
10454 revisit the great site
10455 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
10456 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
10457 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
10458
10459       </div>
10460       <div class="tags">
10461
10462
10463         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>.
10464
10465
10466       </div>
10467     </div>
10468     <div class="padding"></div>
10469
10470     <div class="entry">
10471       <div class="title">
10472         <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>
10473       </div>
10474       <div class="date">
10475         17th August 2012
10476       </div>
10477       <div class="body">
10478         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
10479 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
10480 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
10481 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
10482 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
10483 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
10484 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
10485 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
10486 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
10487 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
10488 summer I
10489 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
10490 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
10491 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
10492
10493 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
10494 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
10495 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
10496 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
10497 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
10498 progress:</p>
10499
10500 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
10501
10502 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
10503 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
10504 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
10505 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
10506 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
10507 english version of the docbook source.</p>
10508
10509 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
10510 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
10511 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
10512 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
10513 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
10514 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
10515 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
10516 project files currently available from <a
10517 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
10518
10519 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
10520 the updated
10521 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
10522 and
10523 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
10524 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
10525 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
10526 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
10527
10528       </div>
10529       <div class="tags">
10530
10531
10532         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>.
10533
10534
10535       </div>
10536     </div>
10537     <div class="padding"></div>
10538
10539     <div class="entry">
10540       <div class="title">
10541         <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>
10542       </div>
10543       <div class="date">
10544         10th August 2012
10545       </div>
10546       <div class="body">
10547         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
10548 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
10549 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
10550 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
10551 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
10552 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
10553 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
10554 case for the language
10555 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
10556 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
10557
10558 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
10559 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
10560 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
10561 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
10562 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
10563
10564 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
10565 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
10566 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
10567 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
10568 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
10569 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
10570 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
10571 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
10572 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
10573 alias for 'nb'.</p>
10574
10575 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
10576 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
10577 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
10578 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
10579 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
10580 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
10581 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
10582 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
10583 at the same time. :(</p>
10584
10585 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
10586 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
10587 processors. :(</p>
10588
10589 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
10590
10591       </div>
10592       <div class="tags">
10593
10594
10595         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>.
10596
10597
10598       </div>
10599     </div>
10600     <div class="padding"></div>
10601
10602     <div class="entry">
10603       <div class="title">
10604         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
10605       </div>
10606       <div class="date">
10607         31st July 2012
10608       </div>
10609       <div class="body">
10610         <p>I tried to send this text to the
10611 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
10612 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
10613 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
10614 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
10615 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
10616 out.</p>
10617
10618 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
10619 learning curve at the moment.</p>
10620
10621 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
10622 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
10623 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
10624 available from
10625 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
10626 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
10627 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
10628 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
10629 Squeeze.</p>
10630
10631 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
10632 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
10633 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
10634 problems.</p>
10635
10636 <ul>
10637
10638 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
10639    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
10640    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
10641    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
10642    index references spanning several pages (See
10643    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
10644    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
10645    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
10646
10647 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
10648    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
10649    #683163</a>).</li>
10650
10651 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
10652    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
10653    footnote and text body, see
10654    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
10655    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
10656    refs listed are not right).</li>
10657
10658 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
10659
10660 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
10661    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
10662
10663 </ul>
10664
10665 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
10666 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
10667 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
10668
10669 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
10670
10671       </div>
10672       <div class="tags">
10673
10674
10675         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>.
10676
10677
10678       </div>
10679     </div>
10680     <div class="padding"></div>
10681
10682     <div class="entry">
10683       <div class="title">
10684         <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>
10685       </div>
10686       <div class="date">
10687         21st July 2012
10688       </div>
10689       <div class="body">
10690         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
10691 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
10692 norwegian version</a> of the book
10693 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
10694 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
10695 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
10696 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
10697 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
10698
10699 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
10700 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
10701 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
10702 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
10703 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
10704 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
10705 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
10706 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
10707 print. :)</p>
10708
10709 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
10710 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
10711 language.</p>
10712
10713       </div>
10714       <div class="tags">
10715
10716
10717         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>.
10718
10719
10720       </div>
10721     </div>
10722     <div class="padding"></div>
10723
10724     <div class="entry">
10725       <div class="title">
10726         <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>
10727       </div>
10728       <div class="date">
10729         16th July 2012
10730       </div>
10731       <div class="body">
10732         <p>I am currently working on a
10733 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
10734 to translate</a> the book
10735 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
10736 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
10737 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
10738 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
10739 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
10740 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
10741 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
10742
10743 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
10744 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
10745 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
10746 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
10747 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
10748 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
10749 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
10750 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
10751 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
10752
10753       </div>
10754       <div class="tags">
10755
10756
10757         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>.
10758
10759
10760       </div>
10761     </div>
10762     <div class="padding"></div>
10763
10764     <div class="entry">
10765       <div class="title">
10766         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
10767       </div>
10768       <div class="date">
10769          9th July 2012
10770       </div>
10771       <div class="body">
10772         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
10773 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
10774 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
10775 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
10776 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
10777 to adjust and scale the just released
10778 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
10779 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
10780 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
10781
10782 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
10783
10784 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
10785 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
10786 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
10787 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
10788 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
10789 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
10790 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
10791 perspective when working with IT.</p>
10792
10793 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
10794 project?</strong></p>
10795
10796 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
10797 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
10798 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
10799 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
10800 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
10801 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
10802
10803 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
10804 Edu?</strong></p>
10805
10806 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
10807 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
10808 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
10809 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
10810 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
10811 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
10812 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
10813 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
10814 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
10815 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
10816 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
10817 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
10818 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
10819 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
10820 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
10821 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
10822 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
10823 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
10824 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
10825 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
10826 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
10827 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
10828 quicker to update.
10829
10830 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
10831 Edu?</strong></p>
10832
10833 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
10834 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
10835 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
10836 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
10837 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
10838 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
10839
10840 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
10841 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
10842 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
10843 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
10844 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
10845 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
10846 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
10847 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
10848 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
10849 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
10850 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
10851 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
10852 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
10853 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
10854 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
10855
10856 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
10857 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
10858 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
10859 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
10860 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
10861 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
10862 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
10863 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
10864
10865 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
10866 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
10867 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
10868 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
10869 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
10870 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
10871 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
10872 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
10873 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
10874 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
10875 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
10876 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
10877 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
10878 sound file.</p>
10879
10880 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
10881 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
10882 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
10883 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
10884 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
10885 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
10886 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
10887 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
10888 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
10889
10890 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
10891
10892 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
10893 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
10894 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
10895 )</p>
10896
10897 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
10898 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
10899
10900 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
10901 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
10902 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
10903 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
10904 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
10905 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
10906 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
10907 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
10908 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
10909 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
10910 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
10911 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
10912 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
10913 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
10914 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
10915
10916 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
10917 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
10918 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
10919 management with Airtime</a>,
10920 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
10921 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
10922 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
10923 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
10924 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
10925
10926       </div>
10927       <div class="tags">
10928
10929
10930         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>.
10931
10932
10933       </div>
10934     </div>
10935     <div class="padding"></div>
10936
10937     <div class="entry">
10938       <div class="title">
10939         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
10940       </div>
10941       <div class="date">
10942          8th July 2012
10943       </div>
10944       <div class="body">
10945         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
10946 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
10947 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
10948 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
10949 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
10950 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
10951 Steinberg in his blog post
10952 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
10953 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
10954 spending of your tax money.</p>
10955
10956 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
10957 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
10958 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
10959 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
10960 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
10961 purchases.</p>
10962
10963       </div>
10964       <div class="tags">
10965
10966
10967         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>.
10968
10969
10970       </div>
10971     </div>
10972     <div class="padding"></div>
10973
10974     <div class="entry">
10975       <div class="title">
10976         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
10977       </div>
10978       <div class="date">
10979          7th July 2012
10980       </div>
10981       <div class="body">
10982         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
10983 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
10984 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
10985 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
10986 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
10987 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
10988 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
10989 receive.  The software is
10990
10991 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
10992 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
10993 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
10994 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
10995 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
10996 Windows</a>.</p>
10997
10998 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
10999 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
11000
11001 <p><ul>
11002
11003   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
11004     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
11005
11006   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
11007     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
11008     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
11009     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
11010     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
11011     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
11012     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
11013     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
11014     </li>
11015
11016   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
11017     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
11018
11019   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
11020     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
11021
11022   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
11023     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
11024
11025   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
11026
11027   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
11028     formats </li>
11029
11030   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
11031     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
11032     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
11033     (as separate sets)</li>
11034
11035   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
11036     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
11037     percentage)</li>
11038
11039   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
11040     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
11041     memory):
11042     <ul>
11043       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
11044       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
11045       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
11046       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
11047       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
11048       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
11049       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
11050       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
11051       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
11052       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
11053           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
11054           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
11055           activity)</li>
11056       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
11057       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
11058     </ul></li>
11059
11060   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
11061     <ul>
11062       <li>Break periods</li>
11063       <li>For teacher(s):
11064         <ul>
11065           <li>Not available periods</li>
11066           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
11067           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
11068           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
11069           <li>Min hours daily</li>
11070           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
11071
11072           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
11073             days per week</li>
11074         </ul></li>
11075       <li>For students (sets):
11076         <ul>
11077           <li>Not available periods</li>
11078           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
11079           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
11080           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
11081           <li>Min hours daily</li>
11082           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
11083
11084           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
11085             days per week</li>
11086         </ul></li>
11087       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
11088         <ul>
11089           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
11090           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
11091           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
11092           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
11093           <li>End(s) students day</li>
11094           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
11095           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
11096             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
11097           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
11098           <li>Not overlapping</li>
11099           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
11100           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
11101         </ul></li>
11102     </ul></li>
11103
11104   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
11105     <ul>
11106       <li>Room not available periods</li>
11107       <li>For teacher(s):
11108         <ul>
11109           <li>Home room(s)</li>
11110           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
11111           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
11112         </ul>
11113       </li>
11114
11115       <li>For students (sets):
11116         <ul>
11117           <li>Home room(s)</li>
11118           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
11119           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
11120         </ul>
11121       </li>
11122       <li>Preferred room(s):
11123         <ul>
11124           <li>For a subject</li>
11125           <li>For an activity tag</li>
11126           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
11127           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
11128         </ul>
11129       </li>
11130
11131       <li>For a set of activities:
11132         <ul>
11133           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
11134         </ul>
11135       </li>
11136     </ul>
11137   </li>
11138 </ul></p>
11139
11140 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
11141 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
11142 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
11143 manually, check it out.
11144
11145 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
11146 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
11147 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
11148 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
11149 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
11150 section</a>.</p>
11151
11152       </div>
11153       <div class="tags">
11154
11155
11156         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>.
11157
11158
11159       </div>
11160     </div>
11161     <div class="padding"></div>
11162
11163     <div class="entry">
11164       <div class="title">
11165         <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>
11166       </div>
11167       <div class="date">
11168          3rd July 2012
11169       </div>
11170       <div class="body">
11171         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
11172 project (Norwegian version of
11173 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
11174 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
11175 a problem with the municipalities using
11176 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
11177 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
11178 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
11179 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
11180 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
11181 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
11182 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
11183 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
11184 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
11185 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
11186 the From: header.</p>
11187
11188 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
11189 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
11190 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
11191 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
11192 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
11193 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
11194 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
11195 behaviour.</p>
11196
11197 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
11198 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
11199 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
11200 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
11201 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
11202 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
11203 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
11204
11205       </div>
11206       <div class="tags">
11207
11208
11209         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>.
11210
11211
11212       </div>
11213     </div>
11214     <div class="padding"></div>
11215
11216     <div class="entry">
11217       <div class="title">
11218         <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>
11219       </div>
11220       <div class="date">
11221         26th June 2012
11222       </div>
11223       <div class="body">
11224         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
11225 another interview with the people behind
11226 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
11227 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
11228 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
11229 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
11230 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
11231 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
11232 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
11233
11234 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
11235
11236 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
11237 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
11238 ICT in schools</p>
11239
11240 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
11241 project?</strong></p>
11242
11243 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
11244 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
11245 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
11246 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
11247
11248 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11249 Edu?</strong></p>
11250
11251 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
11252 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
11253 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
11254 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
11255
11256 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11257 Edu?</strong></p>
11258
11259 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
11260 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
11261 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
11262 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
11263 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
11264 technologies in school.</p>
11265
11266 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
11267
11268 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
11269 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
11270 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
11271
11272 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
11273 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
11274
11275 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
11276 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
11277 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
11278 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
11279
11280 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
11281 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
11282 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
11283
11284 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
11285 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
11286 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
11287 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
11288 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
11289 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
11290 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
11291 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
11292 working there.</p>
11293
11294       </div>
11295       <div class="tags">
11296
11297
11298         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>.
11299
11300
11301       </div>
11302     </div>
11303     <div class="padding"></div>
11304
11305     <div class="entry">
11306       <div class="title">
11307         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
11308       </div>
11309       <div class="date">
11310         24th June 2012
11311       </div>
11312       <div class="body">
11313         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
11314 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
11315 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
11316 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
11317 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
11318 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
11319 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
11320 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
11321 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
11322 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
11323 missing in my book.</p>
11324
11325 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
11326 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
11327 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
11328 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
11329 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
11330 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
11331 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
11332
11333       </div>
11334       <div class="tags">
11335
11336
11337         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>.
11338
11339
11340       </div>
11341     </div>
11342     <div class="padding"></div>
11343
11344     <div class="entry">
11345       <div class="title">
11346         <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>
11347       </div>
11348       <div class="date">
11349         11th June 2012
11350       </div>
11351       <div class="body">
11352         <p>During my work on
11353 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
11354 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
11355 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
11356 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
11357 explanation.</p>
11358
11359 <p><ul>
11360
11361 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
11362 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
11363 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
11364 system depend on tasksel tasks in
11365 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
11366 installation.</li>
11367
11368 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
11369 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
11370 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
11371 at least try to enable it for these services:
11372 <ul>
11373
11374   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
11375     quotas.</li>
11376   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
11377   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
11378   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
11379   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
11380   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
11381
11382 </ul></li>
11383
11384 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
11385 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
11386 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
11387 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
11388
11389 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
11390 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
11391 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
11392
11393 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
11394 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
11395 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
11396 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
11397 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
11398 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
11399
11400 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
11401 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
11402 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
11403 in Wheezy.
11404
11405 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
11406 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
11407 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
11408
11409 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
11410 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
11411 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
11412 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
11413
11414 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
11415 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
11416 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
11417 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
11418
11419 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
11420 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
11421 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
11422
11423 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
11424 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
11425 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
11426
11427 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
11428 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
11429 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
11430 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
11431 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
11432
11433 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
11434 <ul>
11435
11436 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
11437 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
11438 <li>and probably more?</li>
11439 </ul></li>
11440
11441 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
11442 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
11443 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
11444 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
11445 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
11446 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
11447 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
11448 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
11449
11450
11451 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
11452 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
11453 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
11454 use.</li>
11455
11456 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
11457 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
11458 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
11459 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
11460 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
11461
11462 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
11463 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
11464 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
11465 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
11466 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
11467 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
11468
11469 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
11470 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
11471 There are at least three implementations,
11472 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
11473 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
11474 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
11475 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
11476 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
11477 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
11478 given room.</li>
11479
11480 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
11481 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
11482 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
11483 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
11484 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
11485 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
11486 investigated.</li>
11487
11488 </ul></p>
11489
11490 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
11491 version.</p>
11492
11493       </div>
11494       <div class="tags">
11495
11496
11497         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>.
11498
11499
11500       </div>
11501     </div>
11502     <div class="padding"></div>
11503
11504     <div class="entry">
11505       <div class="title">
11506         <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>
11507       </div>
11508       <div class="date">
11509          9th June 2012
11510       </div>
11511       <div class="body">
11512         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
11513 <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
11514 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
11515 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
11516 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
11517 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
11518 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
11519 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
11520 be willing to pay for.</p>
11521
11522 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
11523 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
11524 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
11525 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
11526 Orwell</a>.</p>
11527
11528       </div>
11529       <div class="tags">
11530
11531
11532         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>.
11533
11534
11535       </div>
11536     </div>
11537     <div class="padding"></div>
11538
11539     <div class="entry">
11540       <div class="title">
11541         <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>
11542       </div>
11543       <div class="date">
11544          6th June 2012
11545       </div>
11546       <div class="body">
11547         <p>A few days ago
11548 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
11549 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
11550 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
11551 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
11552 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
11553 code for HP, Dell and IBM
11554 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
11555 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
11556 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
11557 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
11558 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
11559
11560 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
11561 output:
11562
11563 <blockquote><pre>
11564 % 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>
11565 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": ""})
11566 %
11567 </pre></blockquote>
11568
11569 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
11570 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
11571 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
11572
11573       </div>
11574       <div class="tags">
11575
11576
11577         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>.
11578
11579
11580       </div>
11581     </div>
11582     <div class="padding"></div>
11583
11584     <div class="entry">
11585       <div class="title">
11586         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
11587       </div>
11588       <div class="date">
11589          2nd June 2012
11590       </div>
11591       <div class="body">
11592         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
11593 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
11594 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
11595 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
11596 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
11597 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
11598
11599 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
11600
11601 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
11602 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
11603 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
11604 by Angela).</p>
11605
11606 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
11607 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
11608 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
11609 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
11610 becoming an osteopath.</p>
11611
11612 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
11613 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
11614 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
11615 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
11616 skills with communication skills.</p>
11617
11618 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
11619 project?</strong></p>
11620
11621 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
11622 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
11623 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
11624 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
11625 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
11626
11627 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
11628 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
11629 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
11630 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
11631 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
11632 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
11633 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
11634 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
11635 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
11636
11637 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
11638 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
11639 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
11640
11641 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
11642
11643 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
11644 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
11645 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
11646 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
11647 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
11648 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
11649 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
11650 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
11651 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
11652 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
11653 point.</p>
11654
11655 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
11656 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
11657 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
11658 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
11659 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
11660 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
11661
11662 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
11663 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
11664 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
11665 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
11666 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
11667 spare time.</p>
11668
11669 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
11670 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
11671 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
11672 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
11673 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
11674
11675 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
11676 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
11677 avoidance do exist.</p>
11678
11679 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
11680 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
11681 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
11682 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
11683 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
11684 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
11685 and probably a gain for all.</p>
11686
11687 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11688 Edu?</strong></p>
11689
11690 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
11691 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
11692 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
11693 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
11694 project communication, honest communication within the group of
11695 developers, etc.</p>
11696
11697 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11698 Edu?</strong></p>
11699
11700 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
11701
11702 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
11703 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
11704 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
11705 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
11706 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
11707 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
11708 contribute).</p>
11709
11710 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
11711 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
11712 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
11713 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
11714 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
11715 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
11716 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
11717 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
11718 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
11719 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
11720
11721 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
11722
11723 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
11724
11725 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
11726 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
11727 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
11728
11729 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
11730 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
11731 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
11732 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
11733
11734 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
11735 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
11736 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
11737 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
11738 whiteboard.</p>
11739
11740 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
11741
11742 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
11743 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
11744
11745 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
11746 enrol people.</p>
11747
11748       </div>
11749       <div class="tags">
11750
11751
11752         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>.
11753
11754
11755       </div>
11756     </div>
11757     <div class="padding"></div>
11758
11759     <div class="entry">
11760       <div class="title">
11761         <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>
11762       </div>
11763       <div class="date">
11764          1st June 2012
11765       </div>
11766       <div class="body">
11767         <p>A few years ago I wrote
11768 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
11769 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
11770 I have learned from colleges here at the
11771 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
11772 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
11773 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
11774 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
11775 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
11776
11777 <p><pre>
11778 use strict;
11779 use warnings;
11780 use SOAP::Lite;
11781 use Data::Dumper;
11782 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
11783 my $App = 'test';
11784 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
11785 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
11786 my $s = SOAP::Lite
11787     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
11788     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
11789     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
11790     ;
11791 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
11792     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
11793     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
11794     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
11795 );
11796 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
11797 </pre></p>
11798
11799 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
11800
11801 <p><pre>
11802 $VAR1 = {
11803           'Asset' => {
11804                      'Entitlements' => {
11805                                        'EntitlementData' => [
11806                                                             {
11807                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
11808                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
11809                                                               'Provider' => '',
11810                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
11811                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
11812                                                             },
11813                                                             {
11814                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
11815                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
11816                                                               'Provider' => '',
11817                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
11818                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
11819                                                             },
11820                                                             {
11821                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
11822                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
11823                                                               'Provider' => '',
11824                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
11825                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
11826                                                             }
11827                                                           ]
11828                                      },
11829                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
11830                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
11831                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
11832                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
11833                                           'Buid' => '2323',
11834                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
11835                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
11836                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
11837                                         }
11838                    }
11839         };
11840 </pre></p>
11841
11842 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
11843 service outside the
11844 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
11845 documentation</a>, and according to
11846 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
11847 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
11848 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
11849
11850 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
11851 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
11852
11853       </div>
11854       <div class="tags">
11855
11856
11857         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>.
11858
11859
11860       </div>
11861     </div>
11862     <div class="padding"></div>
11863
11864     <div class="entry">
11865       <div class="title">
11866         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
11867       </div>
11868       <div class="date">
11869         31st May 2012
11870       </div>
11871       <div class="body">
11872         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
11873 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
11874 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
11875 running Debian Squeeze, where
11876 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
11877 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
11878 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
11879 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
11880 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
11881 another day.</p>
11882
11883 <p>After calibration, I get a
11884 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
11885 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
11886 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
11887 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
11888 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
11889 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
11890 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
11891 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
11892 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
11893 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
11894 and a simple</p>
11895
11896 <p><pre>
11897 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
11898 </pre></p>
11899
11900 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
11901 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
11902 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
11903 enough for now.</p>
11904
11905       </div>
11906       <div class="tags">
11907
11908
11909         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11910
11911
11912       </div>
11913     </div>
11914     <div class="padding"></div>
11915
11916     <div class="entry">
11917       <div class="title">
11918         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
11919       </div>
11920       <div class="date">
11921         27th May 2012
11922       </div>
11923       <div class="body">
11924         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
11925 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
11926 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
11927 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
11928 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
11929 since then, helping to make sure the
11930 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
11931 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
11932
11933 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
11934
11935 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
11936 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
11937 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
11938 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
11939 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
11940 our computer network.</p>
11941
11942 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
11943 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
11944 (4 months).</p>
11945
11946 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
11947 project?</strong></p>
11948
11949 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
11950 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
11951 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
11952 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
11953 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
11954 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
11955 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
11956 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
11957 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
11958 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
11959 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
11960 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
11961 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
11962 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
11963
11964 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11965 Edu?</strong></p>
11966
11967 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
11968 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
11969 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
11970 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
11971 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
11972 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
11973 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
11974 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
11975
11976 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
11977 Edu?</strong></p>
11978
11979 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
11980 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
11981 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
11982 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
11983 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
11984 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
11985 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
11986 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
11987 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
11988 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
11989 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
11990 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
11991
11992 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
11993
11994 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
11995 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
11996 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
11997
11998 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
11999 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12000
12001 <p><ol>
12002
12003 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
12004 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
12005 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
12006 developing.</li>
12007
12008 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
12009 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
12010 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
12011 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
12012 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
12013
12014 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
12015 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
12016 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
12017
12018 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
12019 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
12020 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
12021 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
12022
12023 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
12024 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
12025 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
12026
12027 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
12028
12029 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
12030 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
12031 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
12032 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
12033
12034 </ol></p>
12035
12036       </div>
12037       <div class="tags">
12038
12039
12040         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>.
12041
12042
12043       </div>
12044     </div>
12045     <div class="padding"></div>
12046
12047     <div class="entry">
12048       <div class="title">
12049         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
12050       </div>
12051       <div class="date">
12052         26th May 2012
12053       </div>
12054       <div class="body">
12055         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
12056 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
12057 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
12058 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
12059 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
12060
12061 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
12062 <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>
12063 comment:</p>
12064
12065 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
12066 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
12067 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
12068 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
12069 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
12070 </blockquote></p>
12071
12072 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
12073 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
12074 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
12075 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
12076 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
12077 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
12078 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
12079 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
12080 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
12081 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
12082 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
12083 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
12084 of wasted effort.</p>
12085
12086 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
12087 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
12088 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
12089
12090 <p>See
12091 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
12092 and
12093 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
12094 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
12095 </blockquote></p>
12096
12097       </div>
12098       <div class="tags">
12099
12100
12101         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>.
12102
12103
12104       </div>
12105     </div>
12106     <div class="padding"></div>
12107
12108     <div class="entry">
12109       <div class="title">
12110         <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>
12111       </div>
12112       <div class="date">
12113         18th May 2012
12114       </div>
12115       <div class="body">
12116         <p>In january, I
12117 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
12118 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
12119 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
12120 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
12121 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
12122 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
12123 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
12124 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
12125 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
12126 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
12127
12128 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
12129 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
12130 drivers. :)</p>
12131
12132       </div>
12133       <div class="tags">
12134
12135
12136         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12137
12138
12139       </div>
12140     </div>
12141     <div class="padding"></div>
12142
12143     <div class="entry">
12144       <div class="title">
12145         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
12146       </div>
12147       <div class="date">
12148         13th May 2012
12149       </div>
12150       <div class="body">
12151         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
12152 publish another interview with the people behind
12153 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
12154 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
12155 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
12156 details get right before release.
12157
12158 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12159
12160 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
12161 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
12162 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
12163 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
12164 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
12165 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
12166 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
12167 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
12168
12169 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
12170 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
12171 home since 2006.</p>
12172
12173 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
12174 project?</strong></p>
12175
12176 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
12177 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
12178 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
12179 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
12180 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
12181 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
12182
12183 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
12184 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
12185 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
12186 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
12187 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
12188 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
12189 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
12190 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
12191 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
12192 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
12193 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
12194 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
12195 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
12196 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
12197 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
12198 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
12199
12200 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12201 Edu?</strong></p>
12202
12203 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
12204 for me as today.</p>
12205
12206 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
12207
12208 <p><ul>
12209
12210 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
12211 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
12212
12213 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
12214 cost.</li>
12215
12216 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
12217 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
12218 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
12219 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
12220 server</li>
12221
12222 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
12223 school.</li>
12224
12225 </ul></p>
12226
12227 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
12228 came up in this way:</p>
12229
12230 <p><ul>
12231
12232 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
12233 now.</li>
12234
12235 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
12236 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
12237 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
12238
12239 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
12240 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
12241 interfaces used in the past.</li>
12242
12243 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
12244 different needs.</li>
12245
12246 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
12247
12248 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
12249 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
12250 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
12251
12252 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
12253 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
12254
12255 </ul></p>
12256
12257 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12258 Edu?</strong></p>
12259
12260 <p><ul>
12261
12262 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
12263 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
12264 whole municipality areas.</li>
12265
12266 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
12267 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
12268 politicians.</li>
12269
12270 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
12271
12272 </ul></p>
12273
12274 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12275
12276 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
12277 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
12278 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
12279 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
12280 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
12281 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
12282
12283 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
12284 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
12285 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
12286 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
12287 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
12288
12289 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12290 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12291
12292 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
12293 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
12294 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
12295
12296       </div>
12297       <div class="tags">
12298
12299
12300         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>.
12301
12302
12303       </div>
12304     </div>
12305     <div class="padding"></div>
12306
12307     <div class="entry">
12308       <div class="title">
12309         <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>
12310       </div>
12311       <div class="date">
12312         30th April 2012
12313       </div>
12314       <div class="body">
12315         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
12316 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
12317
12318 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
12319 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
12320 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
12321 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
12322 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
12323 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
12324 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
12325 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
12326 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
12327 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
12328 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
12329 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
12330 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
12331 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
12332 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
12333 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
12334
12335 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
12336 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
12337 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
12338 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
12339 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
12340 finally found a Danish supplier
12341 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
12342 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
12343 days ago.</p>
12344
12345 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
12346 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
12347 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
12348 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
12349 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
12350 toys.</p>
12351
12352       </div>
12353       <div class="tags">
12354
12355
12356         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12357
12358
12359       </div>
12360     </div>
12361     <div class="padding"></div>
12362
12363     <div class="entry">
12364       <div class="title">
12365         <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>
12366       </div>
12367       <div class="date">
12368         26th April 2012
12369       </div>
12370       <div class="body">
12371         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
12372 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
12373 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
12374 that the video editor application included with
12375 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
12376 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
12377 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
12378
12379 <p><blockquote>
12380 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
12381 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
12382 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
12383 </blockquote></p>
12384
12385 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
12386
12387 <p><blockquote>
12388 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
12389 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
12390 </blockquote></p>
12391
12392 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
12393 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
12394 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
12395 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
12396 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
12397 video.  AMR is
12398 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
12399 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
12400 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
12401 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
12402 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
12403 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
12404 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
12405
12406 <p>I know why I prefer
12407 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
12408 standards</a> also for video.</p>
12409
12410       </div>
12411       <div class="tags">
12412
12413
12414         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>.
12415
12416
12417       </div>
12418     </div>
12419     <div class="padding"></div>
12420
12421     <div class="entry">
12422       <div class="title">
12423         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
12424       </div>
12425       <div class="date">
12426         19th April 2012
12427       </div>
12428       <div class="body">
12429         <p>Here in Norway, the
12430 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
12431 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
12432 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
12433 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
12434 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
12435 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
12436 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
12437 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
12438 on the same level.</p>
12439
12440 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
12441 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
12442 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
12443 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
12444 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
12445 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
12446 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
12447 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
12448 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
12449 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
12450 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
12451 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
12452 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
12453 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
12454 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
12455 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
12456 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
12457 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
12458
12459 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
12460 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
12461 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
12462 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
12463 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
12464 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
12465 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
12466 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
12467
12468 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
12469 from Simon Phipps
12470 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
12471 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
12472
12473 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
12474 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
12475 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
12476 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
12477 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
12478 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
12479 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
12480 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
12481 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
12482
12483       </div>
12484       <div class="tags">
12485
12486
12487         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>.
12488
12489
12490       </div>
12491     </div>
12492     <div class="padding"></div>
12493
12494     <div class="entry">
12495       <div class="title">
12496         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
12497       </div>
12498       <div class="date">
12499         15th April 2012
12500       </div>
12501       <div class="body">
12502         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
12503 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
12504 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
12505 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
12506 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
12507 up in the recently released
12508 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
12509 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
12510
12511 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12512
12513 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
12514 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
12515 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
12516 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
12517 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
12518 information technology and science/technology.</p>
12519
12520 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
12521 project?</strong></p>
12522
12523 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
12524 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
12525 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
12526 contributing.</p>
12527
12528 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12529 Edu?</strong></p>
12530
12531 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
12532 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
12533 Debian Project!</p>
12534
12535 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12536 Edu?</strong></p>
12537
12538 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
12539 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
12540 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
12541 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
12542 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
12543 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
12544 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
12545
12546 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
12547 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
12548
12549 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12550
12551 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
12552 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
12553 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
12554 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
12555
12556 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12557 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12558
12559 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
12560 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
12561 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
12562 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
12563 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
12564 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
12565 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
12566
12567 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
12568 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
12569 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
12570 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
12571 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
12572 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
12573 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
12574 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
12575
12576       </div>
12577       <div class="tags">
12578
12579
12580         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>.
12581
12582
12583       </div>
12584     </div>
12585     <div class="padding"></div>
12586
12587     <div class="entry">
12588       <div class="title">
12589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
12590       </div>
12591       <div class="date">
12592          8th April 2012
12593       </div>
12594       <div class="body">
12595         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
12596 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
12597 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
12598 contributor to the
12599 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
12600 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
12601
12602 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12603
12604 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
12605 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
12606
12607 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
12608 project?</strong></p>
12609
12610 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
12611 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
12612 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
12613 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
12614 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
12615 "localisation".</p>
12616
12617 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12618 Edu?</strong></p>
12619
12620 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12621 Edu?</strong></p>
12622
12623 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
12624 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
12625 education system.</p>
12626
12627 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
12628 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
12629 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
12630 money on the latest hardware.</p>
12631
12632 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12633
12634 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
12635 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
12636 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
12637
12638 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12639 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12640
12641 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
12642 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
12643 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
12644
12645       </div>
12646       <div class="tags">
12647
12648
12649         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>.
12650
12651
12652       </div>
12653     </div>
12654     <div class="padding"></div>
12655
12656     <div class="entry">
12657       <div class="title">
12658         <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>
12659       </div>
12660       <div class="date">
12661          6th April 2012
12662       </div>
12663       <div class="body">
12664         <p>Recently I have spent time with
12665 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
12666 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
12667 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
12668 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
12669 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
12670 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
12671 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
12672 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
12673
12674 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
12675 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
12676 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
12677 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
12678 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
12679 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
12680 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
12681 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
12682
12683 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
12684 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
12685 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
12686 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
12687 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
12688 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
12689 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
12690 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
12691
12692 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
12693 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
12694 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
12695 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
12696 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
12697 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
12698 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
12699 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
12700 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
12701 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
12702
12703 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
12704 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
12705 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
12706 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
12707
12708 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
12709 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
12710
12711       </div>
12712       <div class="tags">
12713
12714
12715         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>.
12716
12717
12718       </div>
12719     </div>
12720     <div class="padding"></div>
12721
12722     <div class="entry">
12723       <div class="title">
12724         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
12725       </div>
12726       <div class="date">
12727          5th April 2012
12728       </div>
12729       <div class="body">
12730         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
12731 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
12732 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
12733 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
12734 for schools.  Check out his article
12735 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
12736 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
12737
12738       </div>
12739       <div class="tags">
12740
12741
12742         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>.
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/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
12752       </div>
12753       <div class="date">
12754          1st April 2012
12755       </div>
12756       <div class="body">
12757         <p>Germany is a core area for the
12758 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
12759 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
12760 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
12761
12762 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12763
12764 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
12765 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
12766 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
12767 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
12768 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
12769 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
12770 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
12771 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
12772
12773 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
12774 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
12775 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
12776 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
12777 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
12778 the end of April this year.</p>
12779
12780 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
12781 project?</strong></p>
12782
12783 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
12784 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
12785 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
12786 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
12787 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
12788 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
12789 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
12790 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
12791 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
12792 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
12793 Skolelinux.</p>
12794
12795 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
12796 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
12797 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
12798 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
12799 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
12800 the admin teachers.</p>
12801
12802 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12803 Edu?</strong></p>
12804
12805 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
12806 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
12807 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
12808
12809 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
12810 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
12811 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
12812 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
12813 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
12814
12815 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12816 Edu?</strong></p>
12817
12818 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
12819
12820 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12821
12822 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
12823 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
12824 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
12825 LibreOffice.</p>
12826
12827 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12828 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12829
12830 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
12831 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
12832 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
12833
12834       </div>
12835       <div class="tags">
12836
12837
12838         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>.
12839
12840
12841       </div>
12842     </div>
12843     <div class="padding"></div>
12844
12845     <div class="entry">
12846       <div class="title">
12847         <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>
12848       </div>
12849       <div class="date">
12850         25th March 2012
12851       </div>
12852       <div class="body">
12853         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
12854
12855 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
12856 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
12857 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
12858 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
12859 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
12860 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
12861 and download as a
12862 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
12863 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
12864
12865 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
12866   <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"' />
12867     <p>Download video as
12868       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
12869 </video></p>
12870
12871       </div>
12872       <div class="tags">
12873
12874
12875         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>.
12876
12877
12878       </div>
12879     </div>
12880     <div class="padding"></div>
12881
12882     <div class="entry">
12883       <div class="title">
12884         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
12885       </div>
12886       <div class="date">
12887         19th March 2012
12888       </div>
12889       <div class="body">
12890         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
12891 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
12892 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
12893 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
12894 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
12895
12896 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
12897
12898 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
12899 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
12900 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
12901 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
12902 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
12903 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
12904 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
12905 installations.</p>
12906
12907 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
12908 project?</strong></p>
12909
12910 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
12911 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
12912 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
12913 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
12914 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
12915 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
12916 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
12917 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
12918 these things we decided to try it.</p>
12919
12920 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12921 Edu?</strong></p>
12922
12923 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
12924 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
12925 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
12926 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
12927 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
12928 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
12929 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
12930 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
12931
12932 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
12933 Edu?</strong></p>
12934
12935 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
12936 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
12937 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
12938 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
12939 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
12940
12941 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
12942
12943 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
12944 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
12945 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
12946 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
12947 that counts...)</p>
12948
12949 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
12950 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
12951
12952 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
12953 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
12954 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
12955 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
12956 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
12957 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
12958 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
12959 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
12960 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
12961 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
12962 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
12963
12964 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
12965 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
12966 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
12967
12968       </div>
12969       <div class="tags">
12970
12971
12972         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>.
12973
12974
12975       </div>
12976     </div>
12977     <div class="padding"></div>
12978
12979     <div class="entry">
12980       <div class="title">
12981         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
12982       </div>
12983       <div class="date">
12984         16th March 2012
12985       </div>
12986       <div class="body">
12987         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
12988 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
12989 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
12990 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
12991
12992 <ol>
12993
12994 <li>The documentation is written in a
12995 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
12996 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
12997 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
12998 docbook XML.</li>
12999
13000 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
13001 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
13002 with the translated text.</li>
13003
13004 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
13005 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
13006 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
13007 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
13008 images.</li>
13009
13010 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
13011 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
13012
13013 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
13014 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
13015
13016 </ol>
13017
13018 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
13019 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
13020 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
13021 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
13022 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
13023
13024 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
13025 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
13026 package</a>.</p>
13027
13028       </div>
13029       <div class="tags">
13030
13031
13032         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>.
13033
13034
13035       </div>
13036     </div>
13037     <div class="padding"></div>
13038
13039     <div class="entry">
13040       <div class="title">
13041         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
13042       </div>
13043       <div class="date">
13044         11th March 2012
13045       </div>
13046       <div class="body">
13047         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
13048 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
13049 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
13050 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
13051 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
13052 you have not done so already.</p>
13053
13054 <p>I plan to present the new version at
13055 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
13056 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
13057 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
13058
13059       </div>
13060       <div class="tags">
13061
13062
13063         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>.
13064
13065
13066       </div>
13067     </div>
13068     <div class="padding"></div>
13069
13070     <div class="entry">
13071       <div class="title">
13072         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
13073       </div>
13074       <div class="date">
13075          9th March 2012
13076       </div>
13077       <div class="body">
13078         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
13079 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
13080 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
13081 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
13082 more international audience.</p>
13083
13084 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
13085 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
13086 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
13087 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
13088 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
13089 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
13090 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
13091
13092
13093 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
13094
13095 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
13096 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
13097 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
13098 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
13099 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
13100 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
13101 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
13102 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
13103 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
13104 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
13105 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
13106
13107 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
13108 project?</strong></p>
13109
13110 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
13111 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
13112 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
13113 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
13114 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
13115 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
13116 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
13117 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
13118 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
13119 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
13120 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
13121 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
13122 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
13123
13124 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
13125 Edu?</strong></p>
13126
13127 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
13128 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
13129 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
13130 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
13131 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
13132 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
13133 Japan.</p>
13134
13135 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
13136 Edu?</strong></p>
13137
13138 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
13139 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
13140 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
13141 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
13142 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
13143 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
13144 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
13145 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
13146 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
13147 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
13148 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
13149 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
13150 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
13151 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
13152 help.</p>
13153
13154 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
13155
13156 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
13157 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
13158 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
13159 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
13160 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
13161 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
13162 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
13163 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
13164 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
13165 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
13166 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
13167
13168 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
13169 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
13170
13171 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
13172 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
13173 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
13174 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
13175 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
13176 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
13177 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
13178 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
13179 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
13180 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
13181 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
13182 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
13183
13184       </div>
13185       <div class="tags">
13186
13187
13188         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>.
13189
13190
13191       </div>
13192     </div>
13193     <div class="padding"></div>
13194
13195     <div class="entry">
13196       <div class="title">
13197         <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>
13198       </div>
13199       <div class="date">
13200          7th March 2012
13201       </div>
13202       <div class="body">
13203         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
13204
13205 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
13206 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
13207 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
13208 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
13209 download as a
13210 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
13211 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
13212
13213 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
13214   <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"' />
13215     <p>Download video as
13216       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
13217 </video></p>
13218
13219       </div>
13220       <div class="tags">
13221
13222
13223         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>.
13224
13225
13226       </div>
13227     </div>
13228     <div class="padding"></div>
13229
13230     <div class="entry">
13231       <div class="title">
13232         <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>
13233       </div>
13234       <div class="date">
13235          4th March 2012
13236       </div>
13237       <div class="body">
13238         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
13239 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
13240 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
13241 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
13242 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
13243 need a software solution for your school.</p>
13244
13245       </div>
13246       <div class="tags">
13247
13248
13249         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>.
13250
13251
13252       </div>
13253     </div>
13254     <div class="padding"></div>
13255
13256     <div class="entry">
13257       <div class="title">
13258         <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>
13259       </div>
13260       <div class="date">
13261          3rd March 2012
13262       </div>
13263       <div class="body">
13264         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
13265 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
13266 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
13267 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
13268 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
13269 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
13270 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
13271 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
13272 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
13273 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
13274 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
13275 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
13276 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
13277 year...</p>
13278
13279 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
13280 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
13281 name,
13282 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
13283 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
13284 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
13285 mean). I've been following
13286 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
13287 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
13288 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
13289 Check it out. :)</p>
13290
13291       </div>
13292       <div class="tags">
13293
13294
13295         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>.
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/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
13305       </div>
13306       <div class="date">
13307         27th February 2012
13308       </div>
13309       <div class="body">
13310         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
13311 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
13312 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
13313 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
13314 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
13315 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
13316 need a software solution for your school.</p>
13317
13318       </div>
13319       <div class="tags">
13320
13321
13322         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>.
13323
13324
13325       </div>
13326     </div>
13327     <div class="padding"></div>
13328
13329     <div class="entry">
13330       <div class="title">
13331         <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>
13332       </div>
13333       <div class="date">
13334         19th February 2012
13335       </div>
13336       <div class="body">
13337         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
13338 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
13339 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
13340 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
13341 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
13342 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
13343 solution for your school.</p>
13344
13345       </div>
13346       <div class="tags">
13347
13348
13349         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>.
13350
13351
13352       </div>
13353     </div>
13354     <div class="padding"></div>
13355
13356     <div class="entry">
13357       <div class="title">
13358         <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>
13359       </div>
13360       <div class="date">
13361         14th February 2012
13362       </div>
13363       <div class="body">
13364         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
13365 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
13366 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
13367 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
13368 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
13369 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
13370 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
13371 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
13372 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
13373
13374 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
13375 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
13376 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
13377 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
13378 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
13379
13380 <blockquote><pre>
13381 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
13382 do
13383     printf "Failed disk $d: "
13384     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
13385 done
13386 </blockquote></pre>
13387
13388 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
13389 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
13390
13391 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
13392
13393 <blockquote><pre>
13394 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
13395 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
13396 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
13397 </blockquote></pre>
13398
13399 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
13400 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
13401 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
13402 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
13403 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
13404 mounted inside my box.</p>
13405
13406 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
13407 Software RAID in the
13408 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
13409 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
13410 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
13411 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
13412 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
13413 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
13414
13415       </div>
13416       <div class="tags">
13417
13418
13419         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>.
13420
13421
13422       </div>
13423     </div>
13424     <div class="padding"></div>
13425
13426     <div class="entry">
13427       <div class="title">
13428         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
13429       </div>
13430       <div class="date">
13431         13th February 2012
13432       </div>
13433       <div class="body">
13434         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
13435 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
13436 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
13437 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
13438 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
13439 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
13440 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
13441 change the global proxy setting by editing
13442 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
13443 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
13444
13445 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
13446 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
13447 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
13448
13449 <blockquote><pre>
13450 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
13451 {
13452    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
13453        isPlainHostName(host) ||
13454        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
13455       return "DIRECT";
13456    else
13457       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
13458 }
13459 </pre></blockquote>
13460
13461 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
13462
13463 <blockquote><pre>
13464 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
13465 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
13466 </pre></blockquote>
13467
13468 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
13469 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
13470 would be used for
13471 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
13472 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
13473 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
13474 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
13475 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
13476 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
13477 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
13478 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
13479 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
13480 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
13481
13482 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
13483 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
13484 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
13485 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
13486 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
13487 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
13488
13489 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
13490 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
13491 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
13492 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
13493 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
13494 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
13495 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
13496 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
13497 the network setup changes.</p>
13498
13499 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
13500 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
13501 draft</a> and a
13502 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
13503 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
13504
13505       </div>
13506       <div class="tags">
13507
13508
13509         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>.
13510
13511
13512       </div>
13513     </div>
13514     <div class="padding"></div>
13515
13516     <div class="entry">
13517       <div class="title">
13518         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html">Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</a>
13519       </div>
13520       <div class="date">
13521          5th February 2012
13522       </div>
13523       <div class="body">
13524         <p>Since the Lenny version of
13525 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
13526 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
13527 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
13528 in the morning.  This is done using the
13529 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
13530
13531 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
13532 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
13533 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
13534 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
13535 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
13536 the
13537 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
13538 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
13539 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
13540 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
13541 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
13542
13543 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
13544 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
13545 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
13546 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
13547 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
13548 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
13549 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
13550
13551 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
13552 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
13553 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
13554 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
13555 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
13556
13557       </div>
13558       <div class="tags">
13559
13560
13561         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>.
13562
13563
13564       </div>
13565     </div>
13566     <div class="padding"></div>
13567
13568     <div class="entry">
13569       <div class="title">
13570         <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>
13571       </div>
13572       <div class="date">
13573          4th February 2012
13574       </div>
13575       <div class="body">
13576         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
13577 publish the third beta version of
13578 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
13579 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
13580 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
13581 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
13582 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
13583 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
13584 on the project announcement list.</p>
13585
13586 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
13587 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
13588
13589 <ul>
13590
13591 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
13592   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
13593   the installation.</li>
13594
13595 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
13596   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
13597
13598 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
13599   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
13600   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
13601
13602 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
13603   for the local system administrator is created during installation
13604   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
13605   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
13606   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
13607   up to date on the system.</li>
13608
13609 </ul>
13610
13611 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
13612 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
13613 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
13614 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
13615
13616 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
13617 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
13618 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
13619 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
13620 will see you there?</p>
13621
13622       </div>
13623       <div class="tags">
13624
13625
13626         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>.
13627
13628
13629       </div>
13630     </div>
13631     <div class="padding"></div>
13632
13633     <div class="entry">
13634       <div class="title">
13635         <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>
13636       </div>
13637       <div class="date">
13638         27th January 2012
13639       </div>
13640       <div class="body">
13641         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
13642 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
13643 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
13644 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
13645 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
13646 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
13647 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
13648
13649 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
13650 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
13651 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
13652 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
13653 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
13654 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
13655 not taken care of by this.</p>
13656
13657 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
13658 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
13659 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
13660 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
13661 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
13662 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
13663 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
13664 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
13665 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
13666 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
13667 firmware packages.</p>
13668
13669 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
13670 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
13671 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
13672 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
13673 initrd with extra firmware, the
13674 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
13675 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
13676 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
13677
13678 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
13679 network cards working.  For this,
13680 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
13681 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
13682 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
13683
13684 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
13685 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
13686 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
13687
13688 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
13689 try.</p>
13690
13691       </div>
13692       <div class="tags">
13693
13694
13695         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>.
13696
13697
13698       </div>
13699     </div>
13700     <div class="padding"></div>
13701
13702     <div class="entry">
13703       <div class="title">
13704         <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>
13705       </div>
13706       <div class="date">
13707         25th January 2012
13708       </div>
13709       <div class="body">
13710         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
13711 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
13712 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
13713 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
13714 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
13715
13716 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
13717 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
13718 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
13719 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
13720 this is done, log on to the central server and run
13721 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
13722 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
13723 will look similar to this:</p>
13724
13725 <p><blockquote><pre>
13726 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
13727 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
13728 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.
13729
13730 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
13731
13732 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13733 enter password: *******
13734 %
13735 </pre></blockquote></p>
13736
13737 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
13738 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
13739 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
13740 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
13741 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
13742 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
13743 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
13744 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
13745 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
13746 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
13747 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
13748 automatically.</p>
13749
13750 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
13751 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
13752
13753 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
13754 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
13755 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
13756
13757       </div>
13758       <div class="tags">
13759
13760
13761         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>.
13762
13763
13764       </div>
13765     </div>
13766     <div class="padding"></div>
13767
13768     <div class="entry">
13769       <div class="title">
13770         <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>
13771       </div>
13772       <div class="date">
13773         10th January 2012
13774       </div>
13775       <div class="body">
13776         <p>In the Squeeze version of
13777 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
13778 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
13779 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
13780 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
13781 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
13782 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
13783 first time.</p>
13784
13785 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
13786 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
13787 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
13788 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
13789
13790 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
13791 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
13792 new setting.</p>
13793
13794 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
13795 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
13796 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
13797
13798       </div>
13799       <div class="tags">
13800
13801
13802         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>.
13803
13804
13805       </div>
13806     </div>
13807     <div class="padding"></div>
13808
13809     <div class="entry">
13810       <div class="title">
13811         <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>
13812       </div>
13813       <div class="date">
13814          7th January 2012
13815       </div>
13816       <div class="body">
13817         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
13818 the second beta version of
13819 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
13820 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
13821 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
13822 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
13823 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
13824 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
13825 on the project announcement list.</p>
13826
13827       </div>
13828       <div class="tags">
13829
13830
13831         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>.
13832
13833
13834       </div>
13835     </div>
13836     <div class="padding"></div>
13837
13838     <div class="entry">
13839       <div class="title">
13840         <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>
13841       </div>
13842       <div class="date">
13843          3rd January 2012
13844       </div>
13845       <div class="body">
13846         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
13847 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
13848 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
13849 interesting.</p>
13850
13851 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
13852 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
13853 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
13854 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
13855 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
13856 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
13857 wrap up its tasks.</p>
13858
13859 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
13860 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
13861 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
13862 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
13863 because I was typing.</P>
13864
13865 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
13866 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
13867 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
13868 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
13869 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
13870 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
13871 generate entropy.</p>
13872
13873 <p>The fix is in
13874 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
13875 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
13876 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
13877 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
13878
13879       </div>
13880       <div class="tags">
13881
13882
13883         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>.
13884
13885
13886       </div>
13887     </div>
13888     <div class="padding"></div>
13889
13890     <div class="entry">
13891       <div class="title">
13892         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
13893       </div>
13894       <div class="date">
13895         21st November 2011
13896       </div>
13897       <div class="body">
13898         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
13899 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
13900 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
13901 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
13902 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
13903 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
13904 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
13905 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
13906 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
13907 the tools to do so.</p>
13908
13909 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
13910 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
13911 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
13912 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
13913
13914 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
13915 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
13916 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
13917 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
13918 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
13919 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
13920 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
13921 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
13922
13923 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
13924 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
13925 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
13926
13927 <p><pre>
13928 #!/usr/bin/perl
13929 use strict;
13930 use warnings;
13931 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
13932 BEGIN {
13933     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
13934     my %rhelmodules = (
13935         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
13936         );
13937     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
13938         eval "use $module;";
13939         if ($@) {
13940             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
13941             system("yum install -y $pkg");
13942             eval "use $module;";
13943         }
13944     }
13945 }
13946 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
13947
13948 upgrade_dell();
13949
13950 exit 0;
13951
13952 sub run_firmware_script {
13953     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
13954     unless ($script) {
13955         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
13956         exit 1
13957     }
13958     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
13959
13960     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
13961         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
13962     } else {
13963         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
13964     }
13965 }
13966
13967 sub run_firmware_scripts {
13968     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
13969     # Run firmware packages
13970     for my $dir (@dirs) {
13971         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
13972         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
13973         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
13974             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
13975             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
13976         }
13977         closedir $dh;
13978     }
13979 }
13980
13981 sub download {
13982     my $url = shift;
13983     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
13984     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
13985 }
13986
13987 sub upgrade_dell {
13988     my @dirs;
13989     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
13990     chomp $product;
13991
13992     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
13993
13994         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
13995         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
13996
13997         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
13998             CLEANUP => 1
13999             );
14000         chdir($tmpdir);
14001         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
14002         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
14003         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
14004         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
14005         my $fwopts = "-q";
14006         if (@paths) {
14007             for my $url (@paths) {
14008                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
14009             }
14010             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
14011         } else {
14012             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
14013             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
14014         }
14015         chdir('/');
14016     } else {
14017         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
14018         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
14019     }
14020 }
14021
14022 sub fetch_dell_fw {
14023     my $path = shift;
14024     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
14025     download($url);
14026 }
14027
14028 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
14029 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
14030 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
14031 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
14032     my $filename = shift;
14033
14034     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
14035     chomp $product;
14036     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
14037
14038     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
14039
14040     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
14041     my @paths;
14042     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
14043         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
14044         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
14045         my $oscode;
14046         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
14047             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
14048         } else {
14049             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
14050         }
14051         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
14052         {
14053             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
14054         }
14055     }
14056     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
14057         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
14058
14059         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
14060         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
14061
14062         my $cpath = $component->{path};
14063         for my $path (@paths) {
14064             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
14065                 push(@paths, $cpath);
14066             }
14067         }
14068     }
14069     return @paths;
14070 }
14071 </pre>
14072
14073 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
14074 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
14075 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
14076 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
14077 outdated.</p>
14078
14079       </div>
14080       <div class="tags">
14081
14082
14083         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>.
14084
14085
14086       </div>
14087     </div>
14088     <div class="padding"></div>
14089
14090     <div class="entry">
14091       <div class="title">
14092         <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>
14093       </div>
14094       <div class="date">
14095          7th October 2011
14096       </div>
14097       <div class="body">
14098         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
14099 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
14100 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
14101 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
14102 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
14103 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
14104 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
14105 models.</p>
14106
14107 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
14108 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
14109 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
14110 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
14111
14112 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
14113 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
14114 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
14115 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
14116 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
14117 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
14118 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
14119 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
14120 distributed.</p>
14121
14122 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
14123
14124 <ul>
14125
14126 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
14127   other relevant equipment.</li>
14128
14129 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
14130
14131 </ul>
14132
14133 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
14134 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
14135 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
14136 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
14137 books available.</p>
14138
14139 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
14140 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
14141 libraries. :)</p>
14142
14143       </div>
14144       <div class="tags">
14145
14146
14147         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>.
14148
14149
14150       </div>
14151     </div>
14152     <div class="padding"></div>
14153
14154     <div class="entry">
14155       <div class="title">
14156         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
14157       </div>
14158       <div class="date">
14159         17th September 2011
14160       </div>
14161       <div class="body">
14162         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
14163 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
14164 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
14165 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
14166 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
14167 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
14168 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
14169 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
14170
14171 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
14172
14173 <blockquote><pre>
14174 #!/bin/sh
14175 # apt-get install lsdvd
14176 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
14177 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
14178 </pre></blockquote>
14179
14180 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
14181 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
14182 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
14183 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
14184
14185 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
14186 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
14187 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
14188 back as an ISO.
14189
14190 <blockquote><pre>
14191 #!/bin/sh
14192 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
14193 set -e
14194 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
14195 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
14196 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
14197 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
14198 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
14199 </pre></blockquote>
14200
14201 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
14202
14203 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
14204 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
14205 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
14206 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
14207 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
14208
14209 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
14210 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
14211 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
14212 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
14213 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
14214 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
14215
14216       </div>
14217       <div class="tags">
14218
14219
14220         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>.
14221
14222
14223       </div>
14224     </div>
14225     <div class="padding"></div>
14226
14227     <div class="entry">
14228       <div class="title">
14229         <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>
14230       </div>
14231       <div class="date">
14232          4th August 2011
14233       </div>
14234       <div class="body">
14235         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
14236 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
14237 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
14238 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
14239 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
14240 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
14241 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
14242 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
14243 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
14244
14245 <p><blockquote>
14246 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
14247 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
14248 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
14249 </blockquote></p>
14250
14251 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
14252 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
14253 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
14254 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
14255 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
14256 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
14257 hard to explain.</p>
14258
14259 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
14260 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
14261 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
14262 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
14263 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
14264 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
14265 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
14266 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
14267 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
14268 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
14269 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
14270 mode).</p>
14271
14272 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
14273 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
14274 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
14275 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
14276 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
14277 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
14278 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
14279 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
14280 after visiting single user mode.</p>
14281
14282 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
14283 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
14284 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
14285 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
14286 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
14287 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
14288 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
14289 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
14290
14291 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
14292 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
14293 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
14294
14295       </div>
14296       <div class="tags">
14297
14298
14299         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>.
14300
14301
14302       </div>
14303     </div>
14304     <div class="padding"></div>
14305
14306     <div class="entry">
14307       <div class="title">
14308         <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>
14309       </div>
14310       <div class="date">
14311         30th July 2011
14312       </div>
14313       <div class="body">
14314         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
14315 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
14316 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
14317 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
14318 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
14319 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
14320 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
14321 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
14322 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
14323 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
14324 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
14325 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
14326 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
14327
14328 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
14329 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
14330 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
14331 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
14332 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
14333 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
14334 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
14335 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
14336 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
14337
14338 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
14339 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
14340 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
14341 is presented.</p>
14342
14343 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
14344 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
14345 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
14346 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
14347 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
14348 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
14349 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
14350 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
14351 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
14352 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
14353 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
14354 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
14355 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
14356 find time to push this forward.</p>
14357
14358       </div>
14359       <div class="tags">
14360
14361
14362         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>.
14363
14364
14365       </div>
14366     </div>
14367     <div class="padding"></div>
14368
14369     <div class="entry">
14370       <div class="title">
14371         <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>
14372       </div>
14373       <div class="date">
14374         29th July 2011
14375       </div>
14376       <div class="body">
14377         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
14378 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
14379 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
14380 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
14381 issues.</p>
14382
14383 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
14384 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
14385 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
14386
14387 <ol>
14388
14389 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
14390 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
14391 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
14392 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
14393 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
14394 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
14395 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
14396 Debian.</li>
14397
14398 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
14399 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
14400 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
14401 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
14402 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
14403 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
14404 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
14405 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
14406 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
14407 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
14408 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
14409 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
14410 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
14411
14412 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
14413 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
14414 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
14415 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
14416 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
14417 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
14418 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
14419 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
14420 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
14421 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
14422
14423 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
14424 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
14425 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
14426 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
14427 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
14428 latter behaviour.</li>
14429
14430 </ol>
14431
14432 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
14433 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
14434 it do not matter much.</p>
14435
14436 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
14437 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
14438 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
14439
14440       </div>
14441       <div class="tags">
14442
14443
14444         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>.
14445
14446
14447       </div>
14448     </div>
14449     <div class="padding"></div>
14450
14451     <div class="entry">
14452       <div class="title">
14453         <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>
14454       </div>
14455       <div class="date">
14456         26th July 2011
14457       </div>
14458       <div class="body">
14459         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
14460 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
14461 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
14462 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
14463 security support for a few years.</p>
14464
14465 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
14466 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
14467 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
14468 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
14469 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
14470 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
14471 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
14472 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
14473 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
14474 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
14475 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
14476 easier in the future.</p>
14477
14478 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
14479 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
14480 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
14481 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
14482 do not have time for.</p>
14483
14484       </div>
14485       <div class="tags">
14486
14487
14488         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>.
14489
14490
14491       </div>
14492     </div>
14493     <div class="padding"></div>
14494
14495     <div class="entry">
14496       <div class="title">
14497         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
14498       </div>
14499       <div class="date">
14500         20th June 2011
14501       </div>
14502       <div class="body">
14503         <p>Reading
14504 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
14505 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
14506 parts of the
14507 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
14508 and
14509 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
14510 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
14511 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
14512 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
14513
14514       </div>
14515       <div class="tags">
14516
14517
14518         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>.
14519
14520
14521       </div>
14522     </div>
14523     <div class="padding"></div>
14524
14525     <div class="entry">
14526       <div class="title">
14527         <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>
14528       </div>
14529       <div class="date">
14530         30th April 2011
14531       </div>
14532       <div class="body">
14533         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
14534 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
14535 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
14536 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
14537 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
14538 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
14539 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
14540 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
14541 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
14542 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
14543
14544 <p>Where is it?  Visit
14545 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
14546 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
14547 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
14548 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
14549
14550       </div>
14551       <div class="tags">
14552
14553
14554         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>.
14555
14556
14557       </div>
14558     </div>
14559     <div class="padding"></div>
14560
14561     <div class="entry">
14562       <div class="title">
14563         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html">Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</a>
14564       </div>
14565       <div class="date">
14566         29th April 2011
14567       </div>
14568       <div class="body">
14569         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
14570 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
14571 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
14572 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
14573 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
14574 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
14575 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
14576 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
14577 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
14578 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
14579 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
14580 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
14581 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
14582
14583 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
14584 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
14585 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
14586 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
14587 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
14588 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
14589 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
14590 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
14591 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
14592 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
14593 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
14594 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
14595 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
14596
14597 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
14598 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
14599 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
14600 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
14601 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
14602 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
14603 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
14604 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
14605 it.</p>
14606
14607 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
14608 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
14609 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
14610 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
14611 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
14612 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
14613 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
14614
14615 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
14616 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
14617 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
14618 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
14619 and range= options.</p>
14620
14621 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
14622 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
14623 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
14624 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
14625 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
14626 to best handle this.  I've noticed
14627 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
14628 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
14629 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
14630 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
14631
14632 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
14633 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
14634 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
14635 discussions instead of only
14636 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
14637 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
14638 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
14639 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
14640 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
14641 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
14642
14643       </div>
14644       <div class="tags">
14645
14646
14647         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>.
14648
14649
14650       </div>
14651     </div>
14652     <div class="padding"></div>
14653
14654     <div class="entry">
14655       <div class="title">
14656         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
14657       </div>
14658       <div class="date">
14659          6th April 2011
14660       </div>
14661       <div class="body">
14662         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
14663 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
14664 A few days ago the project
14665 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
14666 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
14667 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
14668 into Gnash.</p>
14669
14670       </div>
14671       <div class="tags">
14672
14673
14674         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>.
14675
14676
14677       </div>
14678     </div>
14679     <div class="padding"></div>
14680
14681     <div class="entry">
14682       <div class="title">
14683         <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>
14684       </div>
14685       <div class="date">
14686          3rd April 2011
14687       </div>
14688       <div class="body">
14689         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
14690 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
14691 update in English.</p>
14692
14693 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
14694 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
14695 of the British service
14696 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
14697 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
14698 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
14699 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
14700 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
14701 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
14702 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
14703 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
14704 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
14705 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
14706 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
14707 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
14708 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
14709
14710 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
14711 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
14712 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
14713 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
14714 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
14715 public infrastructure.</p>
14716
14717 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
14718 such service?</p>
14719
14720       </div>
14721       <div class="tags">
14722
14723
14724         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>.
14725
14726
14727       </div>
14728     </div>
14729     <div class="padding"></div>
14730
14731     <div class="entry">
14732       <div class="title">
14733         <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>
14734       </div>
14735       <div class="date">
14736         28th January 2011
14737       </div>
14738       <div class="body">
14739         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
14740 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
14741 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
14742 available on the Internet, and check our locally
14743 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
14744 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
14745 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
14746 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
14747 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
14748 out which security holes were present in our free software
14749 collection.</p>
14750
14751 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
14752 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
14753 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
14754 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
14755 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
14756 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
14757 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
14758 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
14759 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
14760 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
14761 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
14762 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
14763 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
14764 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
14765 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
14766 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
14767
14768 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
14769 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
14770 check out, one could look up
14771 <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
14772 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
14773 The most recent one is
14774 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
14775 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
14776 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
14777
14778 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
14779 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
14780 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
14781 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
14782 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
14783 security issues out.</p>
14784
14785 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
14786 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
14787 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
14788 RHEL is providing
14789 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
14790 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
14791 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
14792
14793 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
14794 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
14795 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
14796 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
14797 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
14798 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
14799 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
14800 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
14801 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
14802 established soon.</p>
14803
14804 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
14805 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
14806 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
14807 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
14808 for their packages.</p>
14809
14810       </div>
14811       <div class="tags">
14812
14813
14814         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>.
14815
14816
14817       </div>
14818     </div>
14819     <div class="padding"></div>
14820
14821     <div class="entry">
14822       <div class="title">
14823         <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>
14824       </div>
14825       <div class="date">
14826         23rd January 2011
14827       </div>
14828       <div class="body">
14829         <p>In the
14830 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
14831 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
14832 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
14833 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
14834 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
14835 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
14836 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
14837 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
14838 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
14839 one of my machines like this:</p>
14840
14841 <pre>
14842 loaded modules:
14843 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
14844 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
14845 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
14846 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
14847 10de:03ec pata_amd
14848 10de:03f6 sata_nv
14849 1022:1103 k8temp
14850 109e:036e bttv
14851 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
14852 11ab:4364 sky2
14853 </pre>
14854
14855 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
14856 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
14857
14858 <pre>
14859 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
14860     echo loaded pci modules:
14861     (
14862         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
14863         for address in * ; do
14864             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
14865                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
14866                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
14867                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
14868                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
14869                     echo "$id $module"
14870                 fi
14871             fi
14872         done
14873     )
14874     echo
14875 fi
14876 </pre>
14877
14878 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
14879 mappings:</p>
14880
14881 <pre>
14882 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
14883     echo loaded usb modules:
14884     (
14885         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
14886         for address in * ; do
14887             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
14888                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
14889                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
14890                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
14891                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
14892                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
14893                         echo "$id $module"
14894                     fi
14895                 fi
14896             fi
14897         done
14898     )
14899     echo
14900 fi
14901 </pre>
14902
14903 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
14904 well.</p>
14905
14906       </div>
14907       <div class="tags">
14908
14909
14910         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>.
14911
14912
14913       </div>
14914     </div>
14915     <div class="padding"></div>
14916
14917     <div class="entry">
14918       <div class="title">
14919         <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>
14920       </div>
14921       <div class="date">
14922         16th January 2011
14923       </div>
14924       <div class="body">
14925         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
14926 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
14927 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
14928 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
14929 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
14930 the Wikipedia article on
14931 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
14932 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
14933 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
14934 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
14935 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
14936 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
14937 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
14938 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
14939 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
14940 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
14941 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
14942 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
14943
14944 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
14945 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
14946 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
14947 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
14948 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
14949 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
14950 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
14951 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
14952 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
14953 from last week</a>.</p>
14954
14955 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
14956 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
14957 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
14958 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
14959 was without royalties and license terms, check out
14960 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
14961 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
14962
14963 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
14964 available from
14965 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
14966 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
14967 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
14968
14969 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
14970 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
14971 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
14972 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
14973
14974       </div>
14975       <div class="tags">
14976
14977
14978         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>.
14979
14980
14981       </div>
14982     </div>
14983     <div class="padding"></div>
14984
14985     <div class="entry">
14986       <div class="title">
14987         <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>
14988       </div>
14989       <div class="date">
14990         12th January 2011
14991       </div>
14992       <div class="body">
14993         <p>Today I discovered
14994 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
14995 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
14996 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
14997 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
14998 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
14999 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
15000 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
15001 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
15002 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
15003 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
15004 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
15005 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
15006 on the Google announcement is available from
15007 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
15008 A good read. :)</p>
15009
15010 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
15011 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
15012 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
15013 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
15014 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
15015 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
15016 browsers support H.264, and others support
15017 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
15018 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
15019 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
15020 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
15021 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
15022 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
15023 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
15024 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
15025
15026 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
15027 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
15028 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
15029 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
15030 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
15031 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
15032 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
15033
15034 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
15035 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
15036 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
15037 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
15038 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
15039 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
15040 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
15041
15042 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
15043 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
15044 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
15045 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
15046 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
15047 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
15048 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
15049
15050 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
15051 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
15052 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
15053 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
15054 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
15055 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
15056 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
15057 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
15058 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
15059 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
15060 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
15061 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
15062 I guess time will tell.</p>
15063
15064 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
15065 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
15066 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
15067
15068       </div>
15069       <div class="tags">
15070
15071
15072         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>.
15073
15074
15075       </div>
15076     </div>
15077     <div class="padding"></div>
15078
15079     <div class="entry">
15080       <div class="title">
15081         <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>
15082       </div>
15083       <div class="date">
15084         30th December 2010
15085       </div>
15086       <div class="body">
15087         <p>After trying to
15088 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
15089 Ogg Theora</a> to
15090 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
15091 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
15092 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
15093 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
15094 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
15095 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
15096 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
15097
15098 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
15099 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
15100 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
15101 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
15102 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
15103 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
15104 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
15105
15106 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
15107 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
15108
15109       </div>
15110       <div class="tags">
15111
15112
15113         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>.
15114
15115
15116       </div>
15117     </div>
15118     <div class="padding"></div>
15119
15120     <div class="entry">
15121       <div class="title">
15122         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
15123       </div>
15124       <div class="date">
15125         27th December 2010
15126       </div>
15127       <div class="body">
15128         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
15129 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
15130 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
15131 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
15132 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
15133 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
15134 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
15135 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
15136
15137 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
15138 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
15139 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
15140 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
15141 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
15142 page</a>.</p>
15143
15144 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
15145 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
15146 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
15147 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
15148 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
15149 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
15150 specification on equal terms.</p>
15151
15152 <blockquote>
15153
15154 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
15155 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
15156 open standard:</p>
15157
15158 <ul>
15159
15160 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
15161 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
15162 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
15163 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
15164
15165 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
15166 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
15167 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
15168 nominal fee.</li>
15169
15170 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
15171 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
15172 free basis.</li>
15173
15174 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
15175
15176 </ul>
15177 </blockquote>
15178
15179 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
15180 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
15181 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
15182 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
15183 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
15184 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
15185 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
15186
15187 <blockquote>
15188
15189 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
15190
15191 <ol>
15192
15193 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
15194 tilgængelig.</li>
15195
15196 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
15197 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
15198
15199 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
15200 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
15201
15202 </ol>
15203
15204 </blockquote>
15205
15206 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
15207 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
15208
15209 <blockquote>
15210
15211 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
15212
15213 <ol>
15214
15215 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
15216 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
15217
15218 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
15219 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
15220 Standard themselves;</li>
15221
15222 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
15223 any party or in any business model;</li>
15224
15225 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
15226 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
15227 parties;</li>
15228
15229 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
15230 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
15231 parties.</li>
15232
15233 </ol>
15234
15235 </blockquote>
15236
15237 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
15238 its
15239 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
15240 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
15241
15242 <blockquote>
15243 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
15244
15245 <ul>
15246
15247 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
15248   democratic:
15249
15250          <ul>
15251
15252          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
15253             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
15254             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
15255             and managed.</li>
15256
15257          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
15258             method, can be changed through input from all
15259             participants.</li>
15260
15261          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
15262             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
15263
15264          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
15265             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
15266
15267          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
15268             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
15269             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
15270
15271          </ul>
15272
15273 </li>
15274
15275 </ul>
15276
15277 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
15278 <ul>
15279
15280 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
15281   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
15282   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
15283   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
15284   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
15285
15286 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
15287   a technical or economic barriers</li>
15288
15289 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
15290   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
15291   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
15292   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
15293   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
15294   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
15295   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
15296   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
15297   intended to function.</li>
15298
15299 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
15300   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
15301   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
15302
15303 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
15304   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
15305   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
15306   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
15307   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
15308   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
15309   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
15310   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
15311
15312       <ul>
15313
15314       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
15315         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
15316         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
15317
15318       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
15319         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
15320         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
15321         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
15322
15323       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
15324         licensor</li>
15325
15326       </ul>
15327 </li>
15328
15329 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
15330   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
15331   or restricted licensing terms</li>
15332
15333 </ul>
15334
15335 </blockquote>
15336
15337 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
15338 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
15339 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
15340 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
15341 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
15342 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
15343 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
15344 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
15345 Standards.</p>
15346
15347       </div>
15348       <div class="tags">
15349
15350
15351         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>.
15352
15353
15354       </div>
15355     </div>
15356     <div class="padding"></div>
15357
15358     <div class="entry">
15359       <div class="title">
15360         <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>
15361       </div>
15362       <div class="date">
15363         25th December 2010
15364       </div>
15365       <div class="body">
15366         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
15367 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
15368
15369 <blockquote>
15370
15371 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
15372 as follows:</p>
15373
15374 <ol>
15375
15376 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
15377 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
15378 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
15379
15380 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
15381 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
15382 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
15383 parties.</li>
15384
15385 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
15386 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
15387 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
15388
15389 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
15390 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
15391
15392 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
15393
15394 </ol>
15395
15396 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
15397 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
15398 products based on the standard.</p>
15399 </blockquote>
15400
15401 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
15402 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
15403 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
15404 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
15405 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
15406 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
15407 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
15408 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
15409
15410 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
15411
15412 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
15413 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
15414 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
15415 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
15416 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
15417 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
15418 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
15419 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
15420 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
15421 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
15422 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
15423 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
15424 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
15425 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
15426
15427 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
15428
15429 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
15430 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
15431 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
15432 documentation indicating this.</p>
15433
15434 <p>According to
15435 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
15436 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
15437 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
15438 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
15439 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
15440 report is correct.</p>
15441
15442 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
15443
15444 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
15445 container format</a> and both the
15446 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
15447 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
15448 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
15449
15450 <blockquote>
15451
15452 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
15453 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
15454 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
15455 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
15456 specification compliance.
15457
15458 </blockquote>
15459
15460 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
15461 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
15462 this is the term:<p>
15463
15464 <blockquote>
15465
15466 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
15467 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
15468 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
15469 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
15470 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
15471 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
15472 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
15473 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
15474 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
15475 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
15476 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
15477 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
15478
15479 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
15480 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
15481 </blockquote>
15482
15483 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
15484 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
15485 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
15486 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
15487 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
15488
15489 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
15490
15491 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
15492 Theora format.
15493 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
15494 and
15495 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
15496 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
15497 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
15498 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
15499 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
15500 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
15501 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
15502 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
15503
15504 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
15505
15506 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
15507
15508 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
15509
15510 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
15511 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
15512 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
15513 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
15514 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
15515 this.</p>
15516
15517 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
15518 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
15519
15520       </div>
15521       <div class="tags">
15522
15523
15524         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>.
15525
15526
15527       </div>
15528     </div>
15529     <div class="padding"></div>
15530
15531     <div class="entry">
15532       <div class="title">
15533         <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>
15534       </div>
15535       <div class="date">
15536         25th December 2010
15537       </div>
15538       <div class="body">
15539         <p>A few days ago
15540 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
15541 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
15542 2.0 of
15543 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
15544 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
15545 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
15546 Nothing very surprising there, given
15547 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
15548 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
15549 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
15550 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
15551 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
15552 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
15553 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
15554 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
15555 standard definition from its content.</p>
15556
15557 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
15558 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
15559 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
15560 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
15561 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
15562 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
15563 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
15564 background information about that story is available in
15565 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
15566 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
15567
15568 <blockquote>
15569 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
15570 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
15571 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
15572
15573 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
15574
15575 <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>
15576
15577 <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>
15578
15579 <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>
15580
15581 <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>
15582
15583 <p>
15584 <ul>
15585 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
15586 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
15587 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
15588 </ul>
15589 </p>
15590
15591 <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>
15592
15593 <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>
15594
15595 <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>
15596
15597 <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>
15598
15599 <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>
15600
15601
15602 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
15603 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
15604 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
15605 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
15606 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
15607 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
15608
15609 </p>
15610
15611 <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>
15612
15613 <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>
15614
15615 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
15616
15617 <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>
15618
15619 <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>
15620
15621 <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>
15622
15623 <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>
15624
15625 <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>
15626
15627 <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>
15628
15629 <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>
15630
15631 <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>
15632
15633 <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>
15634
15635 <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>
15636
15637 <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>
15638
15639 <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>
15640
15641 <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>
15642
15643 <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>
15644
15645 <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>
15646
15647 <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>
15648
15649 <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>
15650
15651 <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>
15652
15653 <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>
15654
15655 <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>
15656
15657 <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>
15658
15659 <p>On security:</p>
15660
15661 <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>
15662
15663 <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>
15664
15665 <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>
15666
15667 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
15668
15669 <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>
15670
15671 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
15672
15673 <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>
15674
15675 <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>
15676
15677 <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>
15678
15679 <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>
15680
15681 <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>
15682
15683 <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>
15684
15685 <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>
15686
15687 <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>
15688
15689 <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>
15690
15691 <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>
15692
15693 <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>
15694
15695 <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>
15696
15697 <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>
15698
15699 <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>
15700
15701 <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>
15702
15703 <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>
15704
15705 <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>
15706
15707 <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>
15708
15709 <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>
15710
15711 <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>
15712
15713 <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>
15714
15715 <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>
15716
15717 <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>
15718
15719 <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>
15720
15721 <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>
15722
15723 <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>
15724
15725 <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>
15726
15727 <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>
15728
15729 <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>
15730
15731 <p>Cordially,<br>
15732 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
15733 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
15734 </blockquote>
15735
15736       </div>
15737       <div class="tags">
15738
15739
15740         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>.
15741
15742
15743       </div>
15744     </div>
15745     <div class="padding"></div>
15746
15747     <div class="entry">
15748       <div class="title">
15749         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
15750       </div>
15751       <div class="date">
15752         25th December 2010
15753       </div>
15754       <div class="body">
15755         <p>Half a year ago I
15756 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
15757 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
15758 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
15759 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
15760
15761 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
15762 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
15763 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
15764 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
15765 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
15766 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
15767 got such a great test tool available.</p>
15768
15769       </div>
15770       <div class="tags">
15771
15772
15773         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>.
15774
15775
15776       </div>
15777     </div>
15778     <div class="padding"></div>
15779
15780     <div class="entry">
15781       <div class="title">
15782         <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>
15783       </div>
15784       <div class="date">
15785         22nd December 2010
15786       </div>
15787       <div class="body">
15788         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
15789 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
15790 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
15791 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
15792 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
15793 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
15794 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
15795 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
15796 university.</p>
15797
15798 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
15799 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
15800 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
15801 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
15802 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
15803 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
15804 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
15805 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
15806
15807 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
15808 I perform on a new model.</p>
15809
15810 <ul>
15811
15812 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
15813 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
15814 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
15815
15816 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
15817 installation, X.org is working.</li>
15818
15819 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
15820 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
15821 reported by the program.</li>
15822
15823 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
15824 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
15825 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
15826 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
15827 normally test this by playing
15828 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
15829 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
15830
15831 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
15832 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
15833
15834 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
15835 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
15836
15837 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
15838 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
15839
15840 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
15841 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
15842 few.</li>
15843
15844 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
15845 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
15846 notice this.</li>
15847
15848 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
15849 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
15850 resume.</li>
15851
15852 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
15853 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
15854 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
15855 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
15856 not.</li>
15857
15858 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
15859 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
15860 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
15861 existence.</li>
15862
15863 </ul>
15864
15865 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
15866 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
15867 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
15868 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
15869 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
15870 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
15871 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
15872 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
15873
15874       </div>
15875       <div class="tags">
15876
15877
15878         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>.
15879
15880
15881       </div>
15882     </div>
15883     <div class="padding"></div>
15884
15885     <div class="entry">
15886       <div class="title">
15887         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
15888       </div>
15889       <div class="date">
15890         11th December 2010
15891       </div>
15892       <div class="body">
15893         <p>As I continue to explore
15894 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
15895 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
15896 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
15897
15898 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
15899 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
15900 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
15901 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
15902 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
15903 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
15904 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
15905 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
15906 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
15907 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
15908 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
15909 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
15910 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
15911 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
15912 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
15913 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
15914 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
15915 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
15916 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
15917 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
15918
15919 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
15920 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
15921 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
15922 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
15923 If the Skolelinux foundation
15924 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
15925 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
15926 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
15927 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
15928 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
15929 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
15930 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
15931 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
15932
15933 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
15934 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
15935 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
15936 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
15937 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
15938 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
15939 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
15940 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
15941 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
15942 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
15943 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
15944 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
15945 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
15946 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
15947 currencies.</p>
15948
15949 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
15950 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
15951 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
15952 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
15953 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
15954 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
15955 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
15956 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
15957 BitCoins.  Check out
15958 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
15959 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
15960 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
15961 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
15962 yet.</p>
15963
15964 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
15965 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
15966 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
15967 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
15968 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
15969
15970       </div>
15971       <div class="tags">
15972
15973
15974         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>.
15975
15976
15977       </div>
15978     </div>
15979     <div class="padding"></div>
15980
15981     <div class="entry">
15982       <div class="title">
15983         <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>
15984       </div>
15985       <div class="date">
15986         10th December 2010
15987       </div>
15988       <div class="body">
15989         <p>With this weeks lawless
15990 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
15991 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
15992 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
15993 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
15994 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
15995 A blog post from
15996 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
15997 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
15998 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
15999 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
16000 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
16001 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
16002 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
16003
16004 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
16005 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
16006 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
16007 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
16008 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
16009 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
16010 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
16011 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
16012 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
16013 Debian</a> soon.</p>
16014
16015 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
16016 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
16017 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
16018 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
16019 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
16020 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
16021 you can even get
16022 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
16023 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
16024 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
16025 on the current exchange rates.</p>
16026
16027 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
16028 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
16029 donations to the address
16030 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
16031
16032       </div>
16033       <div class="tags">
16034
16035
16036         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>.
16037
16038
16039       </div>
16040     </div>
16041     <div class="padding"></div>
16042
16043     <div class="entry">
16044       <div class="title">
16045         <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>
16046       </div>
16047       <div class="date">
16048          9th December 2010
16049       </div>
16050       <div class="body">
16051         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
16052 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
16053 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
16054 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
16055 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
16056 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
16057 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
16058 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
16059 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
16060 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
16061 operational.</p>
16062
16063 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
16064 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
16065 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
16066 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
16067 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
16068 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
16069 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
16070
16071       </div>
16072       <div class="tags">
16073
16074
16075         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>.
16076
16077
16078       </div>
16079     </div>
16080     <div class="padding"></div>
16081
16082     <div class="entry">
16083       <div class="title">
16084         <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>
16085       </div>
16086       <div class="date">
16087         29th November 2010
16088       </div>
16089       <div class="body">
16090         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
16091 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
16092 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
16093 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
16094 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
16095 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
16096
16097 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
16098 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
16099 will hold its
16100 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
16101 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
16102 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
16103 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
16104 vote this year.</p>
16105
16106       </div>
16107       <div class="tags">
16108
16109
16110         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>.
16111
16112
16113       </div>
16114     </div>
16115     <div class="padding"></div>
16116
16117     <div class="entry">
16118       <div class="title">
16119         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
16120       </div>
16121       <div class="date">
16122         27th November 2010
16123       </div>
16124       <div class="body">
16125         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
16126 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
16127 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
16128 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
16129 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
16130 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
16131 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
16132 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
16133
16134 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
16135 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
16136 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
16137 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
16138 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
16139 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
16140 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
16141 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
16142 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
16143 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
16144 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
16145
16146 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
16147 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
16148 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
16149 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
16150 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
16151 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
16152 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
16153 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
16154 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
16155 what is going on.</p>
16156
16157       </div>
16158       <div class="tags">
16159
16160
16161         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>.
16162
16163
16164       </div>
16165     </div>
16166     <div class="padding"></div>
16167
16168     <div class="entry">
16169       <div class="title">
16170         <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>
16171       </div>
16172       <div class="date">
16173         22nd November 2010
16174       </div>
16175       <div class="body">
16176         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
16177 upgrade testing of the
16178 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
16179 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
16180 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
16181 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
16182
16183 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
16184
16185 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
16186
16187 <blockquote><p>
16188   apache2.2-bin
16189   aptdaemon
16190   baobab
16191   binfmt-support
16192   browser-plugin-gnash
16193   cheese-common
16194   cli-common
16195   cups-pk-helper
16196   dmz-cursor-theme
16197   empathy
16198   empathy-common
16199   freedesktop-sound-theme
16200   freeglut3
16201   gconf-defaults-service
16202   gdm-themes
16203   gedit-plugins
16204   geoclue
16205   geoclue-hostip
16206   geoclue-localnet
16207   geoclue-manual
16208   geoclue-yahoo
16209   gnash
16210   gnash-common
16211   gnome
16212   gnome-backgrounds
16213   gnome-cards-data
16214   gnome-codec-install
16215   gnome-core
16216   gnome-desktop-environment
16217   gnome-disk-utility
16218   gnome-screenshot
16219   gnome-search-tool
16220   gnome-session-canberra
16221   gnome-system-log
16222   gnome-themes-extras
16223   gnome-themes-more
16224   gnome-user-share
16225   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
16226   gstreamer0.10-tools
16227   gtk2-engines
16228   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
16229   gtk2-engines-smooth
16230   hamster-applet
16231   libapache2-mod-dnssd
16232   libapr1
16233   libaprutil1
16234   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
16235   libaprutil1-ldap
16236   libart2.0-cil
16237   libboost-date-time1.42.0
16238   libboost-python1.42.0
16239   libboost-thread1.42.0
16240   libchamplain-0.4-0
16241   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
16242   libcheese-gtk18
16243   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
16244   libcryptui0
16245   libdiscid0
16246   libelf1
16247   libepc-1.0-2
16248   libepc-common
16249   libepc-ui-1.0-2
16250   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
16251   libfreerdp0
16252   libgconf2.0-cil
16253   libgdata-common
16254   libgdata7
16255   libgdu-gtk0
16256   libgee2
16257   libgeoclue0
16258   libgexiv2-0
16259   libgif4
16260   libglade2.0-cil
16261   libglib2.0-cil
16262   libgmime2.4-cil
16263   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
16264   libgnome2.24-cil
16265   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
16266   libgpod-common
16267   libgpod4
16268   libgtk2.0-cil
16269   libgtkglext1
16270   libgtksourceview2.0-common
16271   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
16272   libmono-addins0.2-cil
16273   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
16274   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
16275   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
16276   libmono-posix2.0-cil
16277   libmono-security2.0-cil
16278   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
16279   libmono-system2.0-cil
16280   libmtp8
16281   libmusicbrainz3-6
16282   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
16283   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
16284   libopal3.6.8
16285   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
16286   libpt2.6.7
16287   libpython2.6
16288   librpm1
16289   librpmio1
16290   libsdl1.2debian
16291   libsrtp0
16292   libssh-4
16293   libtelepathy-farsight0
16294   libtelepathy-glib0
16295   libtidy-0.99-0
16296   media-player-info
16297   mesa-utils
16298   mono-2.0-gac
16299   mono-gac
16300   mono-runtime
16301   nautilus-sendto
16302   nautilus-sendto-empathy
16303   p7zip-full
16304   pkg-config
16305   python-aptdaemon
16306   python-aptdaemon-gtk
16307   python-axiom
16308   python-beautifulsoup
16309   python-bugbuddy
16310   python-clientform
16311   python-coherence
16312   python-configobj
16313   python-crypto
16314   python-cupshelpers
16315   python-elementtree
16316   python-epsilon
16317   python-evolution
16318   python-feedparser
16319   python-gdata
16320   python-gdbm
16321   python-gst0.10
16322   python-gtkglext1
16323   python-gtksourceview2
16324   python-httplib2
16325   python-louie
16326   python-mako
16327   python-markupsafe
16328   python-mechanize
16329   python-nevow
16330   python-notify
16331   python-opengl
16332   python-openssl
16333   python-pam
16334   python-pkg-resources
16335   python-pyasn1
16336   python-pysqlite2
16337   python-rdflib
16338   python-serial
16339   python-tagpy
16340   python-twisted-bin
16341   python-twisted-conch
16342   python-twisted-core
16343   python-twisted-web
16344   python-utidylib
16345   python-webkit
16346   python-xdg
16347   python-zope.interface
16348   remmina
16349   remmina-plugin-data
16350   remmina-plugin-rdp
16351   remmina-plugin-vnc
16352   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
16353   rhythmbox-plugins
16354   rpm-common
16355   rpm2cpio
16356   seahorse-plugins
16357   shotwell
16358   software-center
16359   system-config-printer-udev
16360   telepathy-gabble
16361   telepathy-mission-control-5
16362   telepathy-salut
16363   tomboy
16364   totem
16365   totem-coherence
16366   totem-mozilla
16367   totem-plugins
16368   transmission-common
16369   xdg-user-dirs
16370   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
16371   xserver-xephyr
16372 </p></blockquote>
16373
16374 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
16375
16376 <blockquote><p>
16377   cheese
16378   ekiga
16379   eog
16380   epiphany-extensions
16381   evolution-exchange
16382   fast-user-switch-applet
16383   file-roller
16384   gcalctool
16385   gconf-editor
16386   gdm
16387   gedit
16388   gedit-common
16389   gnome-games
16390   gnome-games-data
16391   gnome-nettool
16392   gnome-system-tools
16393   gnome-themes
16394   gnuchess
16395   gucharmap
16396   guile-1.8-libs
16397   libavahi-ui0
16398   libdmx1
16399   libgalago3
16400   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
16401   libgtksourceview2.0-0
16402   liblircclient0
16403   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
16404   libspeexdsp1
16405   libsvga1
16406   rhythmbox
16407   seahorse
16408   sound-juicer
16409   system-config-printer
16410   totem-common
16411   transmission-gtk
16412   vinagre
16413   vino
16414 </p></blockquote>
16415
16416 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
16417
16418 <blockquote><p>
16419   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
16420 </p></blockquote>
16421
16422 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
16423
16424 <blockquote><p>
16425 [nothing]
16426 </p></blockquote>
16427
16428 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
16429
16430 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
16431
16432 <blockquote><p>
16433   ksmserver
16434 </p></blockquote>
16435
16436 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
16437
16438 <blockquote><p>
16439   kwin
16440   network-manager-kde
16441 </p></blockquote>
16442
16443 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
16444
16445 <blockquote><p>
16446   arts
16447   dolphin
16448   freespacenotifier
16449   google-gadgets-gst
16450   google-gadgets-xul
16451   kappfinder
16452   kcalc
16453   kcharselect
16454   kde-core
16455   kde-plasma-desktop
16456   kde-standard
16457   kde-window-manager
16458   kdeartwork
16459   kdeartwork-emoticons
16460   kdeartwork-style
16461   kdeartwork-theme-icon
16462   kdebase
16463   kdebase-apps
16464   kdebase-workspace
16465   kdebase-workspace-bin
16466   kdebase-workspace-data
16467   kdeeject
16468   kdelibs
16469   kdeplasma-addons
16470   kdeutils
16471   kdewallpapers
16472   kdf
16473   kfloppy
16474   kgpg
16475   khelpcenter4
16476   kinfocenter
16477   konq-plugins-l10n
16478   konqueror-nsplugins
16479   kscreensaver
16480   kscreensaver-xsavers
16481   ktimer
16482   kwrite
16483   libgle3
16484   libkde4-ruby1.8
16485   libkonq5
16486   libkonq5-templates
16487   libnetpbm10
16488   libplasma-ruby
16489   libplasma-ruby1.8
16490   libqt4-ruby1.8
16491   marble-data
16492   marble-plugins
16493   netpbm
16494   nuvola-icon-theme
16495   plasma-dataengines-workspace
16496   plasma-desktop
16497   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
16498   plasma-runners-addons
16499   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
16500   plasma-scriptengine-python
16501   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
16502   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
16503   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
16504   plasma-scriptengines
16505   plasma-wallpapers-addons
16506   plasma-widget-folderview
16507   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
16508   ruby
16509   sweeper
16510   update-notifier-kde
16511   xscreensaver-data-extra
16512   xscreensaver-gl
16513   xscreensaver-gl-extra
16514   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
16515 </p></blockquote>
16516
16517 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
16518
16519 <blockquote><p>
16520   ark
16521   google-gadgets-common
16522   google-gadgets-qt
16523   htdig
16524   kate
16525   kdebase-bin
16526   kdebase-data
16527   kdepasswd
16528   kfind
16529   klipper
16530   konq-plugins
16531   konqueror
16532   ksysguard
16533   ksysguardd
16534   libarchive1
16535   libcln6
16536   libeet1
16537   libeina-svn-06
16538   libggadget-1.0-0b
16539   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
16540   libgps19
16541   libkdecorations4
16542   libkephal4
16543   libkonq4
16544   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
16545   libkscreensaver5
16546   libksgrd4
16547   libksignalplotter4
16548   libkunitconversion4
16549   libkwineffects1a
16550   libmarblewidget4
16551   libntrack-qt4-1
16552   libntrack0
16553   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
16554   libplasmaclock4a
16555   libplasmagenericshell4
16556   libprocesscore4a
16557   libprocessui4a
16558   libqalculate5
16559   libqedje0a
16560   libqtruby4shared2
16561   libqzion0a
16562   libruby1.8
16563   libscim8c2a
16564   libsmokekdecore4-3
16565   libsmokekdeui4-3
16566   libsmokekfile3
16567   libsmokekhtml3
16568   libsmokekio3
16569   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
16570   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
16571   libsmokekparts3
16572   libsmokektexteditor3
16573   libsmokekutils3
16574   libsmokenepomuk3
16575   libsmokephonon3
16576   libsmokeplasma3
16577   libsmokeqtcore4-3
16578   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
16579   libsmokeqtgui4-3
16580   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
16581   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
16582   libsmokeqtscript4-3
16583   libsmokeqtsql4-3
16584   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
16585   libsmokeqttest4-3
16586   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
16587   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
16588   libsmokeqtxml4-3
16589   libsmokesolid3
16590   libsmokesoprano3
16591   libtaskmanager4a
16592   libtidy-0.99-0
16593   libweather-ion4a
16594   libxklavier16
16595   libxxf86misc1
16596   okteta
16597   oxygencursors
16598   plasma-dataengines-addons
16599   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
16600   plasma-widget-lancelot
16601   plasma-widgets-addons
16602   plasma-widgets-workspace
16603   polkit-kde-1
16604   ruby1.8
16605   systemsettings
16606   update-notifier-common
16607 </p></blockquote>
16608
16609 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
16610 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
16611 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
16612 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
16613
16614       </div>
16615       <div class="tags">
16616
16617
16618         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>.
16619
16620
16621       </div>
16622     </div>
16623     <div class="padding"></div>
16624
16625     <div class="entry">
16626       <div class="title">
16627         <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>
16628       </div>
16629       <div class="date">
16630         22nd November 2010
16631       </div>
16632       <div class="body">
16633         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
16634 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
16635 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
16636 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
16637 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
16638 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
16639 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
16640 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
16641 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
16642
16643 <p>I found
16644 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
16645 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
16646 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
16647 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
16648 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
16649 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
16650
16651 <pre>
16652 #!/bin/sh
16653
16654 # Based on
16655 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
16656
16657 set -e
16658 set -x
16659
16660 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
16661     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
16662     exit 1
16663 else
16664     host="$1"
16665 fi
16666
16667 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
16668     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
16669     exit 1
16670 fi
16671
16672 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
16673 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
16674 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
16675 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
16676
16677 img=$host.img
16678 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
16679 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
16680
16681 parted $img mklabel msdos
16682 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
16683 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
16684 parted $img set 1 boot on
16685
16686 modprobe dm-mod
16687 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
16688 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
16689
16690 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
16691 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
16692 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
16693
16694 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
16695 losetup -d /dev/loop0
16696 </pre>
16697
16698 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
16699 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
16700
16701 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
16702 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
16703 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
16704 seem to work just fine.</p>
16705
16706       </div>
16707       <div class="tags">
16708
16709
16710         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>.
16711
16712
16713       </div>
16714     </div>
16715     <div class="padding"></div>
16716
16717     <div class="entry">
16718       <div class="title">
16719         <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>
16720       </div>
16721       <div class="date">
16722         20th November 2010
16723       </div>
16724       <div class="body">
16725         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
16726 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
16727 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
16728 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
16729
16730 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
16731 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
16732 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
16733
16734 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
16735
16736 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
16737
16738 <blockquote><p>
16739   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
16740   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
16741   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
16742   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
16743   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
16744   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
16745   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
16746   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
16747   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
16748   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
16749   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
16750   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
16751   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
16752   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
16753   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
16754   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
16755   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
16756   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
16757   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
16758   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
16759   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
16760   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
16761   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
16762   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
16763   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
16764   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
16765   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
16766   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
16767   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
16768   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
16769   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
16770   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
16771   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
16772   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
16773   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
16774   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
16775   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
16776   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
16777   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
16778   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
16779   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
16780   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
16781   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
16782   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
16783   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
16784   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
16785   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
16786   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
16787   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
16788   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
16789   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
16790   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
16791   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
16792   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
16793   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
16794   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
16795   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
16796   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
16797   zip
16798 </p></blockquote>
16799
16800 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
16801
16802 <blockquote><p>
16803   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
16804   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
16805   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
16806   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
16807   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
16808   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
16809   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
16810   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
16811   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
16812   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
16813   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
16814   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
16815   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
16816   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
16817   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
16818   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
16819   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
16820   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
16821   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
16822   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
16823   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
16824   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
16825   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
16826   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
16827   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
16828   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
16829   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
16830   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
16831   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
16832 </p></blockquote>
16833
16834 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
16835
16836 <blockquote><p>
16837   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
16838 </p></blockquote>
16839
16840 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
16841
16842 <blockquote><p>
16843 [nothing]
16844 </p></blockquote>
16845
16846 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
16847
16848 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
16849
16850 <blockquote><p>
16851   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
16852   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
16853   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
16854   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
16855   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
16856   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
16857   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
16858   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
16859   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
16860   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
16861   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
16862   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
16863   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
16864   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
16865   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
16866   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
16867   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
16868   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
16869   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
16870   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
16871   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
16872   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
16873   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
16874   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
16875   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
16876   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
16877   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
16878   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
16879   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
16880   ttf-sazanami-gothic
16881 </p></blockquote>
16882
16883 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
16884
16885 <blockquote><p>
16886   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
16887   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
16888   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
16889   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
16890   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
16891   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
16892   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
16893   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
16894   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
16895   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
16896   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
16897   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
16898   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
16899   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
16900   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
16901   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
16902   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
16903   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
16904   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
16905   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
16906   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
16907   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
16908   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
16909   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
16910   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
16911   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
16912   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
16913   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
16914   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
16915   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
16916   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
16917   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
16918   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
16919 </p></blockquote>
16920
16921 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
16922
16923 <blockquote><p>
16924   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
16925   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
16926   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
16927   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
16928   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
16929   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
16930   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
16931 </p></blockquote>
16932
16933 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
16934
16935 <blockquote><p>
16936   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
16937 </p></blockquote>
16938
16939       </div>
16940       <div class="tags">
16941
16942
16943         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>.
16944
16945
16946       </div>
16947     </div>
16948     <div class="padding"></div>
16949
16950     <div class="entry">
16951       <div class="title">
16952         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
16953       </div>
16954       <div class="date">
16955         20th November 2010
16956       </div>
16957       <div class="body">
16958         <p>Answering
16959 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
16960 call from the Gnash project</a> for
16961 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
16962 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
16963 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
16964 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
16965 releases out more often.</p>
16966
16967 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
16968 I have considered setting up a <a
16969 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
16970 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
16971 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
16972 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
16973 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
16974 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
16975 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
16976 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
16977 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
16978 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
16979 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
16980 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
16981
16982       </div>
16983       <div class="tags">
16984
16985
16986         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>.
16987
16988
16989       </div>
16990     </div>
16991     <div class="padding"></div>
16992
16993     <div class="entry">
16994       <div class="title">
16995         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
16996       </div>
16997       <div class="date">
16998          9th November 2010
16999       </div>
17000       <div class="body">
17001         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
17002
17003 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
17004 3D linked in from
17005 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
17006 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
17007
17008       </div>
17009       <div class="tags">
17010
17011
17012         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>.
17013
17014
17015       </div>
17016     </div>
17017     <div class="padding"></div>
17018
17019     <div class="entry">
17020       <div class="title">
17021         <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>
17022       </div>
17023       <div class="date">
17024          7th November 2010
17025       </div>
17026       <div class="body">
17027         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
17028 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
17029 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
17030 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
17031 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
17032 working using this DVD.</p>
17033
17034 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
17035 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
17036 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
17037 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
17038 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
17039 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
17040 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
17041
17042 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
17043 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
17044 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
17045 Debian archive.</p>
17046
17047 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
17048 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
17049 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
17050 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
17051 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
17052 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
17053 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
17054 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
17055 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
17056 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
17057 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
17058 free X driver should work.</p>
17059
17060 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
17061 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
17062 DVD more useful again.</p>
17063
17064       </div>
17065       <div class="tags">
17066
17067
17068         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>.
17069
17070
17071       </div>
17072     </div>
17073     <div class="padding"></div>
17074
17075     <div class="entry">
17076       <div class="title">
17077         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
17078       </div>
17079       <div class="date">
17080         24th October 2010
17081       </div>
17082       <div class="body">
17083         <p>Some updates.</p>
17084
17085 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
17086 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
17087 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
17088 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
17089 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
17090 :)</p>
17091
17092 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
17093 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
17094 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
17095 It is called
17096 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
17097 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
17098 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
17099 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
17100 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
17101 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
17102
17103 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
17104 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
17105 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
17106 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
17107 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
17108 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
17109 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
17110 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
17111 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
17112 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
17113
17114       </div>
17115       <div class="tags">
17116
17117
17118         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>.
17119
17120
17121       </div>
17122     </div>
17123     <div class="padding"></div>
17124
17125     <div class="entry">
17126       <div class="title">
17127         <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>
17128       </div>
17129       <div class="date">
17130         19th October 2010
17131       </div>
17132       <div class="body">
17133         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
17134 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
17135 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
17136 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
17137 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
17138 AVM2 flash files.</p>
17139
17140 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
17141 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
17142 following text:</P>
17143
17144 <p><blockquote>
17145
17146   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
17147   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
17148
17149   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
17150
17151   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
17152
17153   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
17154   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
17155   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
17156   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
17157   days. The project web page is available from
17158   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
17159   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
17160   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
17161
17162   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
17163   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
17164   to get this to happen.</p>
17165
17166   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
17167   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
17168
17169 </blockquote></p>
17170
17171 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
17172 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
17173 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
17174 :)</p>
17175
17176       </div>
17177       <div class="tags">
17178
17179
17180         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>.
17181
17182
17183       </div>
17184     </div>
17185     <div class="padding"></div>
17186
17187     <div class="entry">
17188       <div class="title">
17189         <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>
17190       </div>
17191       <div class="date">
17192          9th October 2010
17193       </div>
17194       <div class="body">
17195         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
17196 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
17197 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
17198 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
17199 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
17200 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
17201 robots.</p>
17202
17203 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
17204 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
17205 a few less important features too.</p>
17206
17207 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
17208 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
17209 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
17210 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
17211
17212 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
17213 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
17214 source or binary package:</p>
17215
17216 <p><ul>
17217 <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>
17218 <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>
17219 <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>
17220 </ul></p>
17221
17222 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
17223 please let me know.</p>
17224
17225       </div>
17226       <div class="tags">
17227
17228
17229         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>.
17230
17231
17232       </div>
17233     </div>
17234     <div class="padding"></div>
17235
17236     <div class="entry">
17237       <div class="title">
17238         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
17239       </div>
17240       <div class="date">
17241          3rd October 2010
17242       </div>
17243       <div class="body">
17244         <p><ul>
17245
17246 <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
17247 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
17248
17249 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
17250 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
17251 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
17252
17253 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
17254 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
17255 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
17256 simple setup.
17257
17258 </ul></p>
17259
17260       </div>
17261       <div class="tags">
17262
17263
17264         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>.
17265
17266
17267       </div>
17268     </div>
17269     <div class="padding"></div>
17270
17271     <div class="entry">
17272       <div class="title">
17273         <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>
17274       </div>
17275       <div class="date">
17276          9th September 2010
17277       </div>
17278       <div class="body">
17279         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
17280 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
17281 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
17282 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
17283 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
17284 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
17285 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
17286 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
17287 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
17288
17289 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
17290 written:</p>
17291
17292 <blockquote>
17293 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
17294 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
17295 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
17296 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
17297 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
17298
17299 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
17300 standard.</p>
17301 </blockquote>
17302
17303 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
17304 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
17305 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
17306 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
17307
17308 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
17309 read
17310 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
17311 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
17312 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
17313 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
17314 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
17315 the issue.  The solution is to support the
17316 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
17317 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
17318 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
17319
17320       </div>
17321       <div class="tags">
17322
17323
17324         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>.
17325
17326
17327       </div>
17328     </div>
17329     <div class="padding"></div>
17330
17331     <div class="entry">
17332       <div class="title">
17333         <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>
17334       </div>
17335       <div class="date">
17336          4th September 2010
17337       </div>
17338       <div class="body">
17339         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
17340 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
17341 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
17342 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
17343 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
17344 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
17345 installed.</p>
17346
17347 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
17348 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
17349 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
17350 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
17351 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
17352 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
17353 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
17354 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
17355 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
17356
17357 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
17358 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
17359 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
17360 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
17361 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
17362 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
17363 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
17364 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
17365 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
17366 pages they want to visit.</p>
17367
17368 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
17369 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
17370 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
17371 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
17372 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
17373 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
17374 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
17375 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
17376 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
17377 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
17378 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
17379
17380       </div>
17381       <div class="tags">
17382
17383
17384         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>.
17385
17386
17387       </div>
17388     </div>
17389     <div class="padding"></div>
17390
17391     <div class="entry">
17392       <div class="title">
17393         <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>
17394       </div>
17395       <div class="date">
17396          1st September 2010
17397       </div>
17398       <div class="body">
17399         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
17400 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
17401 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
17402 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
17403 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
17404 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
17405 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
17406 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
17407 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
17408 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
17409 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
17410 drive around.</p>
17411
17412 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
17413 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
17414
17415 <p><pre>
17416 use Spykee;
17417 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
17418 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
17419 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
17420 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
17421 $spykee->left();
17422 sleep 2;
17423 $spykee->right();
17424 sleep 2;
17425 $spykee->forward();
17426 sleep 2;
17427 $spykee->back();
17428 sleep 2;
17429 $spykee->stop();
17430 </pre></p>
17431
17432 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
17433 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
17434 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
17435 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
17436 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
17437 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
17438 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
17439 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
17440 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
17441 going. :).</p>
17442
17443 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
17444 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
17445 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
17446 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
17447
17448       </div>
17449       <div class="tags">
17450
17451
17452         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>.
17453
17454
17455       </div>
17456     </div>
17457     <div class="padding"></div>
17458
17459     <div class="entry">
17460       <div class="title">
17461         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
17462       </div>
17463       <div class="date">
17464         30th August 2010
17465       </div>
17466       <div class="body">
17467         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
17468 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
17469 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
17470 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
17471 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
17472 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
17473 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
17474
17475 <pre>
17476 % ln foo bar
17477 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
17478 %
17479 </pre>
17480
17481 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
17482 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
17483 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
17484 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
17485 nevertheless. :)</p>
17486
17487 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
17488 git from
17489 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
17490
17491       </div>
17492       <div class="tags">
17493
17494
17495         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>.
17496
17497
17498       </div>
17499     </div>
17500     <div class="padding"></div>
17501
17502     <div class="entry">
17503       <div class="title">
17504         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
17505       </div>
17506       <div class="date">
17507         26th August 2010
17508       </div>
17509       <div class="body">
17510         <p>My file system sematics program
17511 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
17512 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
17513 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
17514 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
17515 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
17516 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
17517 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
17518 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
17519 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
17520 script:</p>
17521
17522 <pre>
17523 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
17524   mode_t retval = 0;
17525   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
17526   if (-1 != fd) {
17527     unlink(name);
17528     struct stat statbuf;
17529     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
17530       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
17531     }
17532     close(fd);
17533   }
17534   return retval;
17535 }
17536
17537 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
17538 int test_umask(void) {
17539   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
17540
17541   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
17542   mode_t newmode;
17543   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
17544     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
17545            newmode);
17546   }
17547   umask(007);
17548   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
17549     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
17550            newmode);
17551   }
17552
17553   umask (orig_umask);
17554   return 0;
17555 }
17556
17557 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
17558   [...]
17559   test_umask();
17560   return 0;
17561 }
17562 </pre>
17563
17564 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
17565
17566 <pre>
17567 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
17568 info: testing symlink creation
17569 info: testing subdirectory creation
17570 info: testing fcntl locking
17571   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17572   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17573   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
17574   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17575   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17576   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
17577 info: testing umask effect on file creation
17578 </pre>
17579
17580 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
17581 result:</p>
17582
17583 <pre>
17584 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
17585 info: testing symlink creation
17586 info: testing subdirectory creation
17587 info: testing fcntl locking
17588   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17589   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17590   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
17591   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17592   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17593   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
17594 info: testing umask effect on file creation
17595   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
17596   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
17597 </pre>
17598
17599 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
17600 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
17601 directory.</p>
17602
17603 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
17604 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
17605
17606 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
17607 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
17608 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
17609
17610       </div>
17611       <div class="tags">
17612
17613
17614         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>.
17615
17616
17617       </div>
17618     </div>
17619     <div class="padding"></div>
17620
17621     <div class="entry">
17622       <div class="title">
17623         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
17624       </div>
17625       <div class="date">
17626         15th August 2010
17627       </div>
17628       <div class="body">
17629         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
17630 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
17631 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
17632 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
17633 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
17634 long time.</p>
17635
17636       </div>
17637       <div class="tags">
17638
17639
17640         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>.
17641
17642
17643       </div>
17644     </div>
17645     <div class="padding"></div>
17646
17647     <div class="entry">
17648       <div class="title">
17649         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
17650       </div>
17651       <div class="date">
17652          9th August 2010
17653       </div>
17654       <div class="body">
17655         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
17656 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
17657 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
17658 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
17659 generated configuration.</p>
17660
17661 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
17662 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
17663 without any manual configuration.</p>
17664
17665 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
17666 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
17667 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
17668 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
17669 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
17670 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
17671 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
17672 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
17673 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
17674 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
17675 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
17676 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
17677 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
17678 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
17679 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
17680 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
17681 use.</p>
17682
17683 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
17684 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
17685 working properly out of the box:</p>
17686
17687 <ul>
17688 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
17689 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
17690 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
17691 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
17692 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
17693 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
17694 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
17695 </ul>
17696
17697 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
17698
17699 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
17700 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
17701 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
17702 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
17703 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
17704
17705 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
17706 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
17707 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
17708 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
17709 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
17710 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
17711 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
17712 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
17713
17714 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
17715 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
17716 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
17717 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
17718 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
17719 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
17720 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
17721 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
17722 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
17723 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
17724 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
17725 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
17726 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
17727 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
17728 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
17729 current DNS domain is used.</p>
17730
17731 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
17732 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
17733 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
17734 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
17735 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
17736 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
17737 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
17738 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
17739 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
17740 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
17741 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
17742 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
17743 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
17744
17745 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
17746 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
17747 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
17748 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
17749 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
17750 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
17751 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
17752 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
17753 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
17754 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
17755 do for now. :)</p>
17756
17757 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
17758 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
17759 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
17760 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
17761 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
17762 yet.</p>
17763
17764 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
17765 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
17766
17767 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
17768 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
17769 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
17770 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
17771
17772       </div>
17773       <div class="tags">
17774
17775
17776         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>.
17777
17778
17779       </div>
17780     </div>
17781     <div class="padding"></div>
17782
17783     <div class="entry">
17784       <div class="title">
17785         <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>
17786       </div>
17787       <div class="date">
17788          8th August 2010
17789       </div>
17790       <div class="body">
17791         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
17792 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
17793 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
17794 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
17795 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
17796 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
17797 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
17798
17799 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
17800 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
17801 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
17802 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
17803 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
17804 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
17805 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
17806
17807 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
17808 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
17809 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
17810 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
17811 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
17812
17813 <pre>
17814 /*
17815  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
17816  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
17817  * directory.
17818  * License: GPL v2 or later
17819  *
17820  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
17821  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
17822 */
17823
17824 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
17825 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
17826 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
17827
17828 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
17829
17830 #include &lt;errno.h>
17831 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
17832 #include &lt;stdio.h>
17833 #include &lt;string.h>
17834 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
17835 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
17836 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
17837 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
17838 #include &lt;unistd.h>
17839
17840 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
17841 /*
17842  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
17843  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
17844  * below.
17845  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
17846  */
17847 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
17848 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
17849   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
17850 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
17851   char *zErrMsg;
17852   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
17853   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
17854   unlink(name);
17855   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
17856   if( rc ){
17857     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
17858     sqlite3_close(db);
17859     return -1;
17860   }
17861
17862   /* create tables */
17863   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
17864   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
17865     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
17866     sqlite3_close(db);
17867     return -1;
17868   }
17869   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
17870   sqlite3_close(db);
17871   return 0;
17872 }
17873 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
17874
17875 /*
17876  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
17877  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
17878  * done in the sqlite3 library.
17879  * See also
17880  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
17881  * POSIX specification
17882  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
17883  */
17884 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
17885   struct flock fl;
17886   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
17887   unlink(name);
17888   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
17889   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
17890
17891   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
17892   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
17893   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
17894   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
17895   fl.l_len    = 1;
17896   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
17897   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17898
17899   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
17900   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
17901   fl.l_len    = 510;
17902   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
17903   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17904
17905   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
17906   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
17907   fl.l_len    = 1;
17908   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
17909   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17910
17911   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
17912   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
17913   fl.l_len    = 1;
17914   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
17915   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17916
17917   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
17918   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
17919   fl.l_len    = 510;
17920   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17921
17922   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
17923   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
17924   fl.l_len    = 2;
17925   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
17926   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
17927
17928   close(fd);
17929   return 0;
17930 }
17931
17932 /*
17933  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
17934  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
17935  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
17936  * slowing down file operations.
17937  */
17938 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
17939 #define LEVELS 5
17940   char *path = strdup("test");
17941   char *dirs[LEVELS];
17942   int level;
17943   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
17944   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
17945     char *newpath = NULL;
17946     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
17947       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
17948              path, strerror(errno));
17949       break;
17950     }
17951     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
17952     free(path);
17953     path = newpath;
17954   }
17955   return 0;
17956 }
17957
17958 /*
17959  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
17960  * KDE.
17961  */
17962 int test_symlinks(void) {
17963   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
17964   unlink("symlink");
17965   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
17966     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
17967   return 0;
17968 }
17969
17970 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
17971   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
17972   test_symlinks();
17973   test_subdirectory_creation();
17974 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
17975   test_sqlite_open();
17976 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
17977   test_gcompris_locking();
17978   return 0;
17979 }
17980 </pre>
17981
17982 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
17983 this:</p>
17984
17985 <pre>
17986 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
17987 info: testing symlink creation
17988 info: testing subdirectory creation
17989 info: sqlite worked
17990 info: testing fcntl locking
17991   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17992   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17993   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
17994   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
17995   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
17996   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
17997 </pre>
17998
17999 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
18000 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
18001 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
18002 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
18003 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
18004 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
18005 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
18006 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
18007
18008 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
18009 it. :)</p>
18010
18011 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
18012 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
18013 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
18014
18015       </div>
18016       <div class="tags">
18017
18018
18019         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>.
18020
18021
18022       </div>
18023     </div>
18024     <div class="padding"></div>
18025
18026     <div class="entry">
18027       <div class="title">
18028         <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>
18029       </div>
18030       <div class="date">
18031          7th August 2010
18032       </div>
18033       <div class="body">
18034         <p>A few days ago, I
18035 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
18036 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
18037 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
18038 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
18039 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
18040 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
18041 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
18042 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
18043 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
18044
18045 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
18046 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
18047 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
18048 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
18049 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
18050 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
18051 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
18052 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
18053 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
18054 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
18055 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
18056 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
18057 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
18058 gave it a IP address.</p>
18059
18060 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
18061 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
18062 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
18063 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
18064 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
18065 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
18066 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
18067 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
18068
18069 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
18070 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
18071 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
18072 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
18073 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
18074 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
18075
18076 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
18077 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
18078 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
18079 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
18080 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
18081 with UID and GID values.</p>
18082
18083 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
18084 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
18085
18086       </div>
18087       <div class="tags">
18088
18089
18090         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>.
18091
18092
18093       </div>
18094     </div>
18095     <div class="padding"></div>
18096
18097     <div class="entry">
18098       <div class="title">
18099         <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>
18100       </div>
18101       <div class="date">
18102          3rd August 2010
18103       </div>
18104       <div class="body">
18105         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
18106 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
18107 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
18108 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
18109 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
18110 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
18111 servers.</p>
18112
18113 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
18114 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
18115 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
18116 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
18117 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
18118 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
18119 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
18120 .uio.no.</p>
18121
18122 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
18123 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
18124 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
18125 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
18126 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
18127 university servers.</p>
18128
18129 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
18130 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
18131 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
18132 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
18133 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
18134 uses.</p>
18135
18136       </div>
18137       <div class="tags">
18138
18139
18140         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>.
18141
18142
18143       </div>
18144     </div>
18145     <div class="padding"></div>
18146
18147     <div class="entry">
18148       <div class="title">
18149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
18150       </div>
18151       <div class="date">
18152         27th July 2010
18153       </div>
18154       <div class="body">
18155         <p>I discovered this while doing
18156 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
18157 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
18158 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
18159 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
18160 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
18161
18162 <p>An example is from todays
18163 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
18164 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
18165 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
18166 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
18167 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
18168 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
18169 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
18170
18171 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
18172
18173 <blockquote><pre>
18174 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
18175  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
18176   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
18177 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
18178  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
18179 </pre></blockquote>
18180
18181 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
18182 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
18183 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
18184 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
18185 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
18186 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
18187 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
18188 of dependency loops.</p>
18189
18190 <p>Thanks to
18191 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
18192 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
18193 dependencies
18194 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
18195 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
18196
18197 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
18198 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
18199 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
18200 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
18201 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
18202 it.</p>
18203
18204       </div>
18205       <div class="tags">
18206
18207
18208         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>.
18209
18210
18211       </div>
18212     </div>
18213     <div class="padding"></div>
18214
18215     <div class="entry">
18216       <div class="title">
18217         <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>
18218       </div>
18219       <div class="date">
18220         27th July 2010
18221       </div>
18222       <div class="body">
18223         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
18224 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
18225 completed.</p>
18226
18227 <blockquote>
18228 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
18229 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
18230 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
18231 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
18232 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
18233 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
18234 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
18235 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
18236
18237 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
18238 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
18239 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
18240
18241 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
18242 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
18243 much.</p>
18244
18245 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
18246
18247 <ul>
18248 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
18249 <ul>
18250   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
18251          combination with some new artwork
18252   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
18253   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
18254   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
18255   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
18256   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
18257   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
18258   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
18259   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
18260   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
18261 </ul></li>
18262 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
18263     Enabled for:
18264 <ul>
18265   <li>PAM
18266   <li>LDAP
18267   <li>IMAP
18268   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
18269 </ul>
18270 </li>
18271 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
18272 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
18273     fetched from LDAP.</li>
18274 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
18275 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
18276 </ul>
18277 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
18278
18279 <ul>
18280 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
18281     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
18282     for testing.</li>
18283 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
18284     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
18285     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
18286 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
18287 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
18288 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
18289 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
18290     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
18291 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
18292     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
18293     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
18294 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
18295     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
18296     and help out with translations.</li>
18297 </ul>
18298
18299 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
18300
18301 <ul>
18302 <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>
18303 <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>
18304 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
18305 </ul>
18306 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
18307
18308 <ul>
18309 <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>
18310 <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>
18311 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
18312 </ul>
18313
18314 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
18315 get closer to the final release.</p>
18316
18317 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
18318
18319 <ul>
18320 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
18321 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
18322 </ul>
18323
18324 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
18325 <ul>
18326 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
18327 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
18328 </ul>
18329 <p>How to report bugs:
18330 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
18331
18332 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
18333 </blockquote>
18334
18335       </div>
18336       <div class="tags">
18337
18338
18339         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>.
18340
18341
18342       </div>
18343     </div>
18344     <div class="padding"></div>
18345
18346     <div class="entry">
18347       <div class="title">
18348         <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>
18349       </div>
18350       <div class="date">
18351         25th July 2010
18352       </div>
18353       <div class="body">
18354         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
18355 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
18356 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
18357 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
18358 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
18359
18360 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
18361 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
18362 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
18363 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
18364 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
18365 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
18366 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
18367
18368 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
18369 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
18370 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
18371 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
18372 up. :)</p>
18373
18374 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
18375 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
18376 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
18377
18378 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
18379 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
18380 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
18381 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
18382 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
18383 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
18384 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
18385 release another day.</p>
18386
18387 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
18388 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
18389
18390       </div>
18391       <div class="tags">
18392
18393
18394         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>.
18395
18396
18397       </div>
18398     </div>
18399     <div class="padding"></div>
18400
18401     <div class="entry">
18402       <div class="title">
18403         <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>
18404       </div>
18405       <div class="date">
18406         18th July 2010
18407       </div>
18408       <div class="body">
18409         <p>Thanks to
18410 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
18411 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
18412 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
18413 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
18414 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
18415 only available from the development server, until more experience is
18416 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
18417
18418 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
18419 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
18420 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
18421 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
18422 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
18423 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
18424 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
18425
18426       </div>
18427       <div class="tags">
18428
18429
18430         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>.
18431
18432
18433       </div>
18434     </div>
18435     <div class="padding"></div>
18436
18437     <div class="entry">
18438       <div class="title">
18439         <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>
18440       </div>
18441       <div class="date">
18442         17th July 2010
18443       </div>
18444       <div class="body">
18445         <p>This is a
18446 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
18447 on my
18448 <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
18449 work</a> on
18450 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
18451 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
18452
18453 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
18454 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
18455 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
18456 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
18457
18458 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
18459 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
18460 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
18461
18462 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
18463
18464 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
18465 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
18466 the web.
18467
18468 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
18469 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
18470 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
18471 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
18472 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
18473 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
18474
18475 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
18476 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
18477 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
18478 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
18479 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
18480 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
18481 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
18482 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
18483 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
18484 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
18485 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
18486 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
18487 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
18488 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
18489 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
18490 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
18491
18492 <blockquote><pre>
18493 ldapsearch -h ldap \
18494   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
18495   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
18496   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
18497   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
18498   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
18499   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
18500
18501 ldapsearch -h ldap \
18502   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
18503   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
18504   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
18505   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
18506   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
18507 </pre></blockquote>
18508
18509 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
18510 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
18511 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
18512 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18513 also exist.</p>
18514
18515 <blockquote><pre>
18516 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18517 objectclass: top
18518 objectclass: dnsdomain
18519 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
18520 dc: tjener
18521 arecord: 10.0.2.2
18522 associateddomain: tjener.intern
18523
18524 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18525 objectclass: top
18526 objectclass: dnsdomain2
18527 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
18528 dc: 2
18529 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
18530 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
18531 </pre></blockquote>
18532
18533 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
18534 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
18535 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
18536 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
18537 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
18538 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
18539 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
18540 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
18541 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
18542 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
18543 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
18544 instead.</p>
18545
18546 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
18547 like this:</p>
18548
18549 <blockquote><pre>
18550 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
18551   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
18552   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
18553   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
18554   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
18555   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
18556
18557 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
18558   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
18559 </pre></blockquote>
18560
18561 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
18562 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
18563 reverse lookups.</p>
18564
18565 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
18566 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
18567 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
18568 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
18569
18570 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
18571 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
18572 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
18573
18574 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
18575 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
18576 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
18577 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
18578 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
18579
18580 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
18581 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
18582 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
18583 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
18584 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
18585
18586 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
18587 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
18588 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
18589 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
18590 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
18591 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
18592
18593 <blockquote><pre>
18594 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
18595     SUP top
18596     AUXILIARY
18597     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
18598           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
18599           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
18600           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
18601           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
18602     ))
18603 </pre></blockquote>
18604
18605 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
18606 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
18607 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
18608 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
18609 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
18610 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
18611
18612 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
18613
18614 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
18615 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
18616 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
18617 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
18618 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
18619
18620 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
18621 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
18622 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
18623 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
18624
18625 <blockquote><pre>
18626 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
18627 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
18628 </pre></blockquote>
18629
18630 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
18631 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
18632 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
18633 search result is this entry:</p>
18634
18635 <blockquote><pre>
18636 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18637 cn: dhcp
18638 objectClass: top
18639 objectClass: dhcpServer
18640 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18641 </pre></blockquote>
18642
18643 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
18644 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
18645 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
18646 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
18647 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
18648 The search result is this entry:</p>
18649
18650 <blockquote><pre>
18651 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18652 cn: DHCP Config
18653 objectClass: top
18654 objectClass: dhcpService
18655 objectClass: dhcpOptions
18656 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18657 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
18658 dhcpStatements: authoritative
18659 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
18660 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
18661 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
18662 </pre></blockquote>
18663
18664 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
18665 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
18666 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
18667 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
18668 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
18669 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
18670 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
18671 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
18672 related computer objects.</p>
18673
18674 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
18675 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
18676 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
18677 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
18678 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
18679 like:</p>
18680
18681 <blockquote><pre>
18682 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18683 cn: hostname
18684 objectClass: top
18685 objectClass: dhcpHost
18686 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
18687 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
18688 </pre></blockquote>
18689
18690 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
18691 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
18692 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
18693 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
18694 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
18695 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
18696 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
18697 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
18698 structural object class.
18699
18700 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
18701
18702 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
18703 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
18704 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
18705 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
18706 in the configuration.</p>
18707
18708 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
18709 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
18710 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
18711 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
18712 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
18713 structure.</p>
18714
18715 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
18716 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
18717
18718 <blockquote><pre>
18719 ou=services
18720   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
18721     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
18722     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
18723       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
18724         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
18725     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
18726       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
18727         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
18728     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
18729       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
18730 </pre></blockquote>
18731
18732 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
18733 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
18734 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
18735 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
18736
18737 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
18738 like this:</p>
18739
18740 <blockquote><pre>
18741 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18742 dc: hostname
18743 objectClass: top
18744 objectClass: dhcpHost
18745 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
18746 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
18747 associateddomain: hostname.intern
18748 arecord: 10.11.12.13
18749 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
18750 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
18751 </pre></blockquote>
18752
18753 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
18754 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
18755 auxiliary object class.</p>
18756
18757       </div>
18758       <div class="tags">
18759
18760
18761         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>.
18762
18763
18764       </div>
18765     </div>
18766     <div class="padding"></div>
18767
18768     <div class="entry">
18769       <div class="title">
18770         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
18771       </div>
18772       <div class="date">
18773         14th July 2010
18774       </div>
18775       <div class="body">
18776         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
18777 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
18778 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
18779 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
18780 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
18781
18782 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
18783 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
18784
18785 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
18786 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
18787 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
18788 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
18789 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
18790 to a slave DNS server.</p>
18791
18792 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
18793 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
18794 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
18795 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
18796 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
18797 seem to work.</p>
18798
18799 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
18800 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
18801 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
18802 this:</p>
18803
18804 <blockquote><pre>
18805   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
18806   cn: hostname
18807   objectClass: dhcphost
18808   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
18809   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
18810   associateddomain: hostname.intern
18811   arecord: 10.11.12.13
18812   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
18813   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
18814   ldapconfigsound: Y
18815 </pre></blockquote>
18816
18817 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
18818 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
18819 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
18820 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
18821
18822 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
18823 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
18824 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
18825 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
18826 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
18827 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
18828 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
18829 might be a good place to put it.</p>
18830
18831 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
18832 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
18833
18834       </div>
18835       <div class="tags">
18836
18837
18838         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>.
18839
18840
18841       </div>
18842     </div>
18843     <div class="padding"></div>
18844
18845     <div class="entry">
18846       <div class="title">
18847         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
18848       </div>
18849       <div class="date">
18850         11th July 2010
18851       </div>
18852       <div class="body">
18853         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
18854 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
18855 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
18856 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
18857
18858 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
18859 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
18860 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
18861 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
18862 LTSP clients.</p>
18863
18864 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
18865 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
18866 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
18867
18868 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
18869 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
18870 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
18871
18872 <blockquote><pre>
18873 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
18874 #
18875 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
18876 #
18877 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
18878 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
18879 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
18880 #
18881 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
18882 # existence of attribute names.
18883 #
18884 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
18885 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
18886 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
18887 #
18888 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
18889 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
18890 #
18891 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
18892 #     SUP top
18893 #     AUXILIARY
18894 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
18895
18896 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
18897 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
18898     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
18899     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
18900         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
18901         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
18902             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
18903             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
18904             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
18905             # bass value on to clients
18906             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
18907         done
18908     done
18909 fi
18910 </pre></blockquote>
18911
18912 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
18913 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
18914 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
18915 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
18916 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
18917
18918 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
18919 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
18920
18921 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
18922 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
18923 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
18924 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
18925 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
18926 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
18927
18928       </div>
18929       <div class="tags">
18930
18931
18932         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>.
18933
18934
18935       </div>
18936     </div>
18937     <div class="padding"></div>
18938
18939     <div class="entry">
18940       <div class="title">
18941         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
18942       </div>
18943       <div class="date">
18944          9th July 2010
18945       </div>
18946       <div class="body">
18947         <p>Since
18948 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
18949 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
18950 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
18951 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
18952 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
18953 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
18954 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
18955 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
18956 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
18957 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
18958 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
18959 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
18960 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
18961
18962       </div>
18963       <div class="tags">
18964
18965
18966         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>.
18967
18968
18969       </div>
18970     </div>
18971     <div class="padding"></div>
18972
18973     <div class="entry">
18974       <div class="title">
18975         <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>
18976       </div>
18977       <div class="date">
18978          3rd July 2010
18979       </div>
18980       <div class="body">
18981         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
18982 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
18983 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
18984 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
18985 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
18986 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
18987 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
18988 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
18989
18990 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
18991 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
18992 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
18993 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
18994 publish the difference.</p>
18995
18996 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
18997
18998 <blockquote><p>
18999   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
19000   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
19001   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
19002   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
19003   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
19004   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
19005   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
19006   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
19007 </p></blockquote>
19008
19009 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
19010
19011 <blockquote><p>
19012   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
19013   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
19014   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
19015   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
19016   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
19017   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
19018   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
19019   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
19020   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
19021   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
19022   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
19023   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
19024   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
19025   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
19026   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
19027   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
19028   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
19029   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
19030   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
19031   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
19032 </p></blockquote>
19033
19034 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
19035
19036 <blockquote><p>
19037   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
19038   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
19039   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
19040   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
19041   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
19042   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
19043   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
19044   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
19045   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
19046   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
19047   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
19048   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
19049   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
19050   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
19051   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
19052   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
19053   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
19054   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
19055   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
19056   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
19057   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
19058 </p></blockquote>
19059
19060 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
19061
19062 <blockquote><p>
19063   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
19064   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
19065   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
19066 </p></blockquote>
19067
19068 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
19069 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
19070 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
19071 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
19072 the difference somewhat.
19073
19074       </div>
19075       <div class="tags">
19076
19077
19078         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>.
19079
19080
19081       </div>
19082     </div>
19083     <div class="padding"></div>
19084
19085     <div class="entry">
19086       <div class="title">
19087         <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>
19088       </div>
19089       <div class="date">
19090          1st July 2010
19091       </div>
19092       <div class="body">
19093         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
19094 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
19095 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
19096 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
19097 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
19098 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
19099 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
19100 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
19101 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
19102
19103 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
19104
19105 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
19106 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
19107 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
19108 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
19109 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
19110 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
19111 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
19112 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
19113 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
19114 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
19115 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
19116 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
19117 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
19118 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
19119 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
19120
19121 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
19122
19123 <blockquote><pre>
19124 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
19125 </pre></blockquote>
19126
19127 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
19128 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
19129 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
19130 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
19131 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
19132 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
19133 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
19134 on how to get this working.</p>
19135
19136 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
19137 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
19138 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
19139 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
19140 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
19141 instructions I found in the
19142 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
19143 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
19144
19145 <blockquote><pre>
19146         debug-level             0
19147         reload-count            unlimited
19148         paranoia                no
19149
19150         enable-cache            passwd          yes
19151         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
19152         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
19153         suggested-size          passwd          211
19154         check-files             passwd          yes
19155         persistent              passwd          yes
19156         shared                  passwd          yes
19157         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
19158         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
19159
19160         enable-cache            group           yes
19161         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
19162         negative-time-to-live   group           20
19163         suggested-size          group           211
19164         check-files             group           yes
19165         persistent              group           yes
19166         shared                  group           yes
19167         max-db-size             group           33554432
19168         auto-propagate          group           yes
19169
19170         enable-cache            hosts           no
19171         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
19172         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
19173         suggested-size          hosts           211
19174         check-files             hosts           yes
19175         persistent              hosts           yes
19176         shared                  hosts           yes
19177         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
19178
19179         enable-cache            services        yes
19180         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
19181         negative-time-to-live   services        20
19182         suggested-size          services        211
19183         check-files             services        yes
19184         persistent              services        yes
19185         shared                  services        yes
19186         max-db-size             services        33554432
19187 </pre></blockquote>
19188
19189 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
19190 automatically like the one provided in
19191 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
19192 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
19193 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
19194 look like this:</p>
19195
19196 <blockquote><pre>
19197 passwd:         files ldap
19198 group:          files ldap
19199 shadow:         files ldap
19200 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
19201 networks:       files
19202 protocols:      files
19203 services:       files
19204 ethers:         files
19205 rpc:            files
19206 netgroup:       files ldap
19207 </pre></blockquote>
19208
19209 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
19210 shadow and netgroup.</p>
19211
19212 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
19213 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
19214 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
19215 attributes cached.
19216
19217 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
19218   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
19219
19220 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
19221 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
19222 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
19223 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
19224 discovered sssd.</p>
19225
19226 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
19227
19228 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
19229 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
19230 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
19231 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
19232 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
19233 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
19234 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
19235 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
19236 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
19237 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
19238 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
19239 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
19240 version 1.2 is now in testing.
19241
19242 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
19243 roaming setup I want</p>
19244
19245 <blockquote><pre>
19246 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
19247 </pre></blockquote>
19248
19249 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
19250 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
19251
19252 <blockquote><pre>
19253 [sssd]
19254 config_file_version = 2
19255 reconnection_retries = 3
19256 sbus_timeout = 30
19257 services = nss, pam
19258 domains = INTERN
19259
19260 [nss]
19261 filter_groups = root
19262 filter_users = root
19263 reconnection_retries = 3
19264
19265 [pam]
19266 reconnection_retries = 3
19267
19268 [domain/INTERN]
19269 enumerate = false
19270 cache_credentials = true
19271
19272 id_provider = ldap
19273 auth_provider = ldap
19274 chpass_provider = ldap
19275
19276 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
19277 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
19278 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
19279 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
19280 </pre></blockquote>
19281
19282 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
19283 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
19284
19285 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
19286 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
19287 modify it manually.</p>
19288
19289 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
19290 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
19291
19292       </div>
19293       <div class="tags">
19294
19295
19296         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>.
19297
19298
19299       </div>
19300     </div>
19301     <div class="padding"></div>
19302
19303     <div class="entry">
19304       <div class="title">
19305         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
19306       </div>
19307       <div class="date">
19308         28th June 2010
19309       </div>
19310       <div class="body">
19311         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
19312 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
19313 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
19314 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
19315 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
19316 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
19317 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
19318 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
19319 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
19320 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
19321
19322 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
19323 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
19324 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
19325 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
19326 released.</p>
19327
19328 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
19329 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
19330 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
19331 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
19332
19333 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
19334 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
19335
19336 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
19337 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
19338 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
19339 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
19340 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
19341
19342       </div>
19343       <div class="tags">
19344
19345
19346         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>.
19347
19348
19349       </div>
19350     </div>
19351     <div class="padding"></div>
19352
19353     <div class="entry">
19354       <div class="title">
19355         <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>
19356       </div>
19357       <div class="date">
19358         24th June 2010
19359       </div>
19360       <div class="body">
19361         <p>A while back, I
19362 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
19363 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
19364 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
19365 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
19366
19367 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
19368 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
19369 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
19370 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
19371
19372 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
19373 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
19374 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
19375 Debian Edu.</p>
19376
19377 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
19378 the
19379 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
19380 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
19381 available today from IETF.</p>
19382
19383 <pre>
19384 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
19385 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
19386 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
19387  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
19388         NAME 'dhcpHost'
19389         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
19390 -       SUP top
19391 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
19392         MUST cn
19393         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
19394         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
19395 </pre>
19396
19397 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
19398 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
19399 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
19400
19401 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
19402 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
19403
19404       </div>
19405       <div class="tags">
19406
19407
19408         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>.
19409
19410
19411       </div>
19412     </div>
19413     <div class="padding"></div>
19414
19415     <div class="entry">
19416       <div class="title">
19417         <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>
19418       </div>
19419       <div class="date">
19420         16th June 2010
19421       </div>
19422       <div class="body">
19423         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
19424 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
19425 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
19426 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
19427 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
19428 this:
19429
19430 <blockquote><pre>
19431 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
19432 tasksel --new-install
19433 </pre></blockquote>
19434
19435 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
19436 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
19437 any output what so ever.
19438
19439 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
19440 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
19441 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
19442 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
19443 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
19444 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
19445 code like this:
19446
19447 <blockquote><pre>
19448 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
19449 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
19450 $cmd
19451 </pre></blockquote>
19452
19453 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
19454 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
19455 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
19456 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
19457 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
19458 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
19459 installation.</p>
19460
19461 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
19462 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
19463 like this.</p>
19464
19465       </div>
19466       <div class="tags">
19467
19468
19469         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>.
19470
19471
19472       </div>
19473     </div>
19474     <div class="padding"></div>
19475
19476     <div class="entry">
19477       <div class="title">
19478         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
19479       </div>
19480       <div class="date">
19481         13th June 2010
19482       </div>
19483       <div class="body">
19484         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
19485 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
19486 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
19487 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
19488 pages.</p>
19489
19490 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
19491 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
19492 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
19493 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
19494 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
19495 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
19496 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
19497 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
19498 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
19499 see how the project is doing.</p>
19500
19501 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
19502 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
19503 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
19504 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
19505 Windows.  This is great.</p>
19506
19507       </div>
19508       <div class="tags">
19509
19510
19511         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>.
19512
19513
19514       </div>
19515     </div>
19516     <div class="padding"></div>
19517
19518     <div class="entry">
19519       <div class="title">
19520         <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>
19521       </div>
19522       <div class="date">
19523         13th June 2010
19524       </div>
19525       <div class="body">
19526         <p>My
19527 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
19528 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
19529 finally made the upgrade logs available from
19530 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
19531 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
19532 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
19533 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
19534
19535 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
19536 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
19537 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
19538 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
19539 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
19540 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
19541 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
19542 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
19543
19544 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
19545 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
19546 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
19547 too surprising.</p>
19548
19549 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
19550 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
19551 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
19552 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
19553 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
19554 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
19555 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
19556 continue.</p>
19557
19558 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
19559 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
19560   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
19561   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
19562   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
19563   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
19564   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
19565   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
19566   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
19567   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
19568   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
19569   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
19570   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
19571   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
19572   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
19573   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
19574   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
19575   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
19576   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
19577   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
19578   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
19579   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
19580   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
19581   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
19582   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
19583   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
19584   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
19585   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
19586   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
19587   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
19588
19589 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
19590
19591 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
19592   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
19593   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
19594   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
19595   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
19596   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
19597   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
19598   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
19599   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
19600   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
19601   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
19602   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
19603   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
19604   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
19605   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
19606   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
19607   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
19608   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
19609   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
19610   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
19611   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
19612   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
19613   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
19614   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
19615   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
19616   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
19617   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
19618   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
19619   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
19620   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
19621   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
19622   zip</p>
19623
19624 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
19625
19626 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
19627   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
19628   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
19629   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
19630   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
19631   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
19632   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
19633   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
19634   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
19635   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
19636   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
19637   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
19638   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
19639   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
19640   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
19641   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
19642   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
19643   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
19644   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
19645   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
19646   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
19647   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
19648   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
19649   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
19650   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
19651   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
19652   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
19653   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
19654
19655 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
19656 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
19657   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
19658   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
19659   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
19660   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
19661   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
19662   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
19663   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
19664   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
19665   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
19666   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
19667   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
19668   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
19669   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
19670   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
19671   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
19672   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
19673   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
19674   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
19675   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
19676   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
19677   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
19678   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
19679   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
19680   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
19681   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
19682   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
19683   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
19684   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
19685   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
19686   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
19687   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
19688   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
19689   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
19690   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
19691   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
19692   xulrunner-1.9</p>
19693
19694
19695       </div>
19696       <div class="tags">
19697
19698
19699         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>.
19700
19701
19702       </div>
19703     </div>
19704     <div class="padding"></div>
19705
19706     <div class="entry">
19707       <div class="title">
19708         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
19709       </div>
19710       <div class="date">
19711         11th June 2010
19712       </div>
19713       <div class="body">
19714         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
19715 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
19716 have been discovered and reported in the process
19717 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
19718 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
19719 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
19720 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
19721 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
19722
19723 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
19724 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
19725 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
19726 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
19727 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
19728 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
19729
19730 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
19731 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
19732 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
19733 is created.  The bug report
19734 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
19735 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
19736 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
19737 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
19738 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
19739 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
19740 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
19741 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
19742 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
19743 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
19744 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
19745 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
19746 Debian Squeeze.</p>
19747
19748 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
19749 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
19750 trick:</p>
19751
19752 <blockquote><pre>
19753 #!/bin/sh
19754 set -ex
19755
19756 if [ "$1" ] ; then
19757     desktop=$1
19758 else
19759     desktop=gnome
19760 fi
19761
19762 from=lenny
19763 to=squeeze
19764
19765 exec &lt; /dev/null
19766 unset LANG
19767 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
19768 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
19769 fuser -mv .
19770 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
19771 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
19772 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
19773 #!/bin/sh
19774 exit 101
19775 EOF
19776 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
19777 exit_cleanup() {
19778     umount $tmpdir/proc
19779 }
19780 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
19781 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
19782 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
19783
19784 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
19785
19786 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
19787 # to return the correct answers.
19788 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
19789     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
19790
19791 # Include the desktop and laptop task
19792 for test in desktop laptop ; do
19793     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
19794 #!/bin/sh
19795 exit 2
19796 EOF
19797     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
19798 done
19799
19800 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
19801 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
19802 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
19803 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
19804
19805 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
19806 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
19807 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
19808 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
19809 fuser -mv
19810 </pre></blockquote>
19811
19812 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
19813 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
19814 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
19815 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
19816 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
19817 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
19818
19819 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
19820 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
19821 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
19822 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
19823 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
19824 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
19825 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
19826
19827 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
19828 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
19829 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
19830 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
19831 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
19832 packages.</p>
19833
19834       </div>
19835       <div class="tags">
19836
19837
19838         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>.
19839
19840
19841       </div>
19842     </div>
19843     <div class="padding"></div>
19844
19845     <div class="entry">
19846       <div class="title">
19847         <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>
19848       </div>
19849       <div class="date">
19850          6th June 2010
19851       </div>
19852       <div class="body">
19853         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
19854 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
19855 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
19856 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
19857 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
19858 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
19859 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
19860
19861 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
19862 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
19863 COLUMNS):</p>
19864
19865 <blockquote><pre>
19866 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
19867 previous=N
19868 PREVLEVEL=
19869 RUNLEVEL=
19870 runlevel=S
19871 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
19872 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
19873 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
19874 </pre></blockquote>
19875
19876 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
19877 script.</p>
19878
19879 <blockquote><pre>
19880 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
19881 previous=N
19882 PREVLEVEL=N
19883 RUNLEVEL=S
19884 runlevel=S
19885 </pre></blockquote>
19886
19887 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
19888 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
19889 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
19890
19891 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
19892 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
19893 choice.</p>
19894
19895       </div>
19896       <div class="tags">
19897
19898
19899         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>.
19900
19901
19902       </div>
19903     </div>
19904     <div class="padding"></div>
19905
19906     <div class="entry">
19907       <div class="title">
19908         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
19909       </div>
19910       <div class="date">
19911          6th June 2010
19912       </div>
19913       <div class="body">
19914         <p>Via the
19915 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
19916 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
19917 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
19918 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
19919 following the standards wars of today.</p>
19920
19921       </div>
19922       <div class="tags">
19923
19924
19925         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>.
19926
19927
19928       </div>
19929     </div>
19930     <div class="padding"></div>
19931
19932     <div class="entry">
19933       <div class="title">
19934         <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>
19935       </div>
19936       <div class="date">
19937          3rd June 2010
19938       </div>
19939       <div class="body">
19940         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
19941 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
19942 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
19943 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
19944 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
19945
19946 <blockquote><pre>
19947 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
19948   vendor                    count
19949   Dell Computer Corporation     1
19950     PowerEdge 1750              1
19951   IBM                           1
19952     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
19953   Intel                         2
19954   [no-dmi-info]                 3
19955 maintainer:~#
19956 </pre></blockquote>
19957
19958 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
19959 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
19960 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
19961 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
19962 option to list the individual machines.</p>
19963
19964 <p>A larger list is
19965 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
19966 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
19967 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
19968 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
19969 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
19970 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
19971 collector.</p>
19972
19973       </div>
19974       <div class="tags">
19975
19976
19977         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>.
19978
19979
19980       </div>
19981     </div>
19982     <div class="padding"></div>
19983
19984     <div class="entry">
19985       <div class="title">
19986         <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>
19987       </div>
19988       <div class="date">
19989          1st June 2010
19990       </div>
19991       <div class="body">
19992         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
19993 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
19994 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
19995 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
19996 wait.</p>
19997
19998 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
19999 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
20000 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
20001 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
20002 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
20003 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
20004
20005 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
20006 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
20007 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
20008 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
20009 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
20010 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
20011 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
20012 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
20013
20014 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
20015
20016       </div>
20017       <div class="tags">
20018
20019
20020         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>.
20021
20022
20023       </div>
20024     </div>
20025     <div class="padding"></div>
20026
20027     <div class="entry">
20028       <div class="title">
20029         <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>
20030       </div>
20031       <div class="date">
20032         27th May 2010
20033       </div>
20034       <div class="body">
20035         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
20036 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
20037 issues are known and should be solved:
20038
20039 <p><ul>
20040
20041 <li>The wicd package seen to
20042 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
20043 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
20044 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
20045 seem to be on the case.</li>
20046
20047 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
20048 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
20049 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
20050 maintainer is on the case.</li>
20051
20052 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
20053 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
20054 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
20055 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
20056 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
20057 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
20058 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
20059 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
20060
20061 </ul></p>
20062
20063 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
20064 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
20065 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
20066 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
20067
20068 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
20069 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
20070 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
20071 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
20072
20073 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
20074
20075       </div>
20076       <div class="tags">
20077
20078
20079         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>.
20080
20081
20082       </div>
20083     </div>
20084     <div class="padding"></div>
20085
20086     <div class="entry">
20087       <div class="title">
20088         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
20089       </div>
20090       <div class="date">
20091         22nd May 2010
20092       </div>
20093       <div class="body">
20094         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
20095 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
20096 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
20097 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
20098
20099 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
20100 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
20101 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
20102 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
20103 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
20104 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
20105 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
20106 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
20107 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
20108 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
20109 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
20110 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
20111 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
20112 going to work.</p>
20113
20114 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
20115 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
20116 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
20117 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
20118 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
20119 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
20120 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
20121 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
20122 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
20123 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
20124 Edu.</p>
20125
20126 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
20127 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
20128 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
20129 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
20130 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
20131 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
20132
20133 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
20134 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
20135
20136       </div>
20137       <div class="tags">
20138
20139
20140         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>.
20141
20142
20143       </div>
20144     </div>
20145     <div class="padding"></div>
20146
20147     <div class="entry">
20148       <div class="title">
20149         <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>
20150       </div>
20151       <div class="date">
20152         19th May 2010
20153       </div>
20154       <div class="body">
20155         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
20156 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
20157 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
20158 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
20159 into unstable.  The
20160 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
20161 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
20162 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
20163 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
20164 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
20165 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
20166 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
20167
20168 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
20169 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
20170 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
20171 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
20172 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
20173 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
20174 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
20175 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
20176
20177 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
20178 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
20179 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
20180 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
20181 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
20182 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
20183 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
20184
20185 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
20186 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
20187 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
20188 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
20189 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
20190 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
20191 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
20192 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
20193 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
20194 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
20195 on the home directory servers.</p>
20196
20197 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
20198 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
20199 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
20200 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
20201 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
20202 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
20203
20204 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
20205 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
20206
20207       </div>
20208       <div class="tags">
20209
20210
20211         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>.
20212
20213
20214       </div>
20215     </div>
20216     <div class="padding"></div>
20217
20218     <div class="entry">
20219       <div class="title">
20220         <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>
20221       </div>
20222       <div class="date">
20223         14th May 2010
20224       </div>
20225       <div class="body">
20226         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
20227 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
20228 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
20229 expected, if I am to believe the
20230 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
20231 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
20232 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
20233 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
20234 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
20235 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
20236 version.</p>
20237
20238 More information about
20239 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
20240 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
20241 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
20242 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
20243
20244 <blockquote><pre>
20245 CONCURRENCY=none
20246 </pre></blockquote>
20247
20248 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
20249 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
20250 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
20251 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
20252
20253       </div>
20254       <div class="tags">
20255
20256
20257         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>.
20258
20259
20260       </div>
20261     </div>
20262     <div class="padding"></div>
20263
20264     <div class="entry">
20265       <div class="title">
20266         <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>
20267       </div>
20268       <div class="date">
20269         14th May 2010
20270       </div>
20271       <div class="body">
20272         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
20273 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
20274 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
20275 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
20276 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
20277 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
20278 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
20279 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
20280
20281 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
20282 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
20283 this on the collector host:</p>
20284
20285 <blockquote><pre>
20286 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
20287 </pre></blockquote>
20288
20289 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
20290 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
20291
20292 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
20293 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
20294 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
20295 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
20296 written yet.</p>
20297
20298       </div>
20299       <div class="tags">
20300
20301
20302         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>.
20303
20304
20305       </div>
20306     </div>
20307     <div class="padding"></div>
20308
20309     <div class="entry">
20310       <div class="title">
20311         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
20312       </div>
20313       <div class="date">
20314         13th May 2010
20315       </div>
20316       <div class="body">
20317         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
20318 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
20319 has been
20320 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
20321
20322 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
20323 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
20324 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
20325 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
20326 based boot system.  Tollef is
20327 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
20328 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
20329 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
20330 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
20331 at the moment do not.</p>
20332
20333 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
20334 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
20335 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
20336 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
20337 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
20338 way forward.</p>
20339
20340 <p>In the mean time, based on the
20341 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
20342 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
20343 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
20344 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
20345 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
20346 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
20347 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
20348 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
20349
20350       </div>
20351       <div class="tags">
20352
20353
20354         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>.
20355
20356
20357       </div>
20358     </div>
20359     <div class="padding"></div>
20360
20361     <div class="entry">
20362       <div class="title">
20363         <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>
20364       </div>
20365       <div class="date">
20366          6th May 2010
20367       </div>
20368       <div class="body">
20369         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
20370 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
20371 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
20372 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
20373 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
20374 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
20375 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
20376
20377 <blockquote><pre>
20378 CONCURRENCY=makefile
20379 </pre></blockquote>
20380
20381 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
20382 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
20383 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
20384 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
20385 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
20386 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
20387 make this happen.</p>
20388
20389 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
20390 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
20391 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
20392 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
20393 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
20394
20395 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
20396 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
20397 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
20398 fix the remaining issues.</p>
20399
20400 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
20401 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
20402 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
20403 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
20404
20405       </div>
20406       <div class="tags">
20407
20408
20409         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>.
20410
20411
20412       </div>
20413     </div>
20414     <div class="padding"></div>
20415
20416     <div class="entry">
20417       <div class="title">
20418         <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>
20419       </div>
20420       <div class="date">
20421          2nd May 2010
20422       </div>
20423       <div class="body">
20424         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
20425 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
20426 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
20427
20428 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
20429 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
20430 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
20431 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
20432 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
20433
20434 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
20435 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
20436
20437 <blockquote><pre>
20438 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
20439 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
20440 Password expires                                        : never
20441 Password inactive                                       : never
20442 Account expires                                         : never
20443 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
20444 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
20445 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
20446 root@tjener:~#
20447 </pre></blockquote>
20448
20449 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
20450 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
20451 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
20452 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
20453 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
20454 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
20455
20456 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
20457 intended:</p>
20458
20459 <blockquote><pre>
20460 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
20461 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
20462 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
20463 Password expires                                        : never
20464 Password inactive                                       : never
20465 Account expires                                         : never
20466 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
20467 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
20468 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
20469 root@tjener:~#
20470 </pre></blockquote>
20471
20472 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
20473 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
20474 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
20475
20476 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
20477 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
20478
20479 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
20480 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
20481
20482 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
20483 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
20484 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
20485 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
20486 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
20487 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
20488 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
20489
20490 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
20491 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
20492 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
20493 change.</p>
20494
20495       </div>
20496       <div class="tags">
20497
20498
20499         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>.
20500
20501
20502       </div>
20503     </div>
20504     <div class="padding"></div>
20505
20506     <div class="entry">
20507       <div class="title">
20508         <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>
20509       </div>
20510       <div class="date">
20511         28th April 2010
20512       </div>
20513       <div class="body">
20514         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
20515 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
20516 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
20517 and go.</p>
20518
20519 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
20520 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
20521 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
20522 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
20523
20524 <ul>
20525
20526  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
20527    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
20528    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
20529    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
20530    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
20531    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
20532    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
20533    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
20534    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
20535    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
20536    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
20537    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
20538
20539  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
20540    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
20541    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
20542    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
20543    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
20544    or the Fedora developed
20545    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
20546    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
20547
20548  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
20549    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
20550    directory, using unison.</li>
20551
20552  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
20553    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
20554    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
20555    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
20556    implemented.</li>
20557
20558  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
20559    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
20560
20561  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
20562    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
20563    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
20564
20565 </ul>
20566
20567 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
20568 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
20569 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
20570 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
20571 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
20572 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
20573 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
20574 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
20575 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
20576
20577 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
20578 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
20579
20580       </div>
20581       <div class="tags">
20582
20583
20584         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>.
20585
20586
20587       </div>
20588     </div>
20589     <div class="padding"></div>
20590
20591     <div class="entry">
20592       <div class="title">
20593         <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>
20594       </div>
20595       <div class="date">
20596         19th April 2010
20597       </div>
20598       <div class="body">
20599         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
20600 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
20601 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
20602 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
20603 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
20604 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
20605 restrictions on the web, for example from
20606 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
20607 epub-version from
20608 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
20609 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
20610 strongly recommend this book.</p>
20611
20612       </div>
20613       <div class="tags">
20614
20615
20616         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>.
20617
20618
20619       </div>
20620     </div>
20621     <div class="padding"></div>
20622
20623     <div class="entry">
20624       <div class="title">
20625         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
20626       </div>
20627       <div class="date">
20628         14th April 2010
20629       </div>
20630       <div class="body">
20631         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
20632 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
20633 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
20634 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
20635 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
20636 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
20637 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
20638 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
20639 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
20640
20641 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
20642 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
20643 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
20644 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
20645 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
20646
20647 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
20648 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
20649
20650 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
20651 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
20652 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
20653 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
20654 to work properly.</p>
20655
20656 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
20657 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
20658 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
20659 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
20660 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
20661 time.</p>
20662
20663 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
20664 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
20665 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
20666 up in a few days.</p>
20667
20668       </div>
20669       <div class="tags">
20670
20671
20672         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>.
20673
20674
20675       </div>
20676     </div>
20677     <div class="padding"></div>
20678
20679     <div class="entry">
20680       <div class="title">
20681         <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>
20682       </div>
20683       <div class="date">
20684          6th March 2010
20685       </div>
20686       <div class="body">
20687         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
20688 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
20689 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
20690 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
20691 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
20692 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
20693
20694 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
20695 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
20696 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
20697 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
20698
20699 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
20700 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
20701 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
20702 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
20703 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
20704 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
20705
20706       </div>
20707       <div class="tags">
20708
20709
20710         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>.
20711
20712
20713       </div>
20714     </div>
20715     <div class="padding"></div>
20716
20717     <div class="entry">
20718       <div class="title">
20719         <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>
20720       </div>
20721       <div class="date">
20722         11th February 2010
20723       </div>
20724       <div class="body">
20725         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
20726 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
20727 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
20728 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
20729 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
20730 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
20731 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
20732
20733 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
20734
20735 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
20736 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
20737 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
20738 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
20739
20740       </div>
20741       <div class="tags">
20742
20743
20744         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>.
20745
20746
20747       </div>
20748     </div>
20749     <div class="padding"></div>
20750
20751     <div class="entry">
20752       <div class="title">
20753         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
20754       </div>
20755       <div class="date">
20756         27th January 2010
20757       </div>
20758       <div class="body">
20759         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
20760 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
20761 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
20762 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
20763 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
20764 further.</p>
20765
20766 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
20767 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
20768 configured to be a server for the
20769 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
20770 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
20771 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
20772 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
20773 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
20774 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
20775 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
20776 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
20777 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
20778 and Nagios configuration.</p>
20779
20780 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
20781 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
20782 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
20783 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
20784
20785 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
20786 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
20787 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
20788 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
20789 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
20790 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
20791 the machine.</p>
20792
20793 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
20794 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
20795 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
20796 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
20797
20798 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
20799 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
20800 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
20801 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
20802 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
20803 everything is taken care of.</p>
20804
20805       </div>
20806       <div class="tags">
20807
20808
20809         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>.
20810
20811
20812       </div>
20813     </div>
20814     <div class="padding"></div>
20815
20816     <div class="entry">
20817       <div class="title">
20818         <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>
20819       </div>
20820       <div class="date">
20821         12th August 2009
20822       </div>
20823       <div class="body">
20824         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
20825 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
20826 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
20827 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
20828
20829 <table>
20830 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
20831 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
20832 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
20833 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
20834 </table>
20835
20836 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
20837 got these numbers:</p>
20838
20839 <table>
20840 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
20841 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
20842 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
20843 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
20844 </table>
20845
20846 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
20847
20848 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
20849 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
20850 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
20851 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
20852 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
20853
20854
20855 <table>
20856 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
20857 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
20858 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
20859 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
20860 </table>
20861
20862 <p>And with 'site:no':
20863
20864 <table>
20865 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
20866 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
20867 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
20868 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
20869 </table>
20870
20871 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
20872 numbers.</p>
20873
20874       </div>
20875       <div class="tags">
20876
20877
20878         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>.
20879
20880
20881       </div>
20882     </div>
20883     <div class="padding"></div>
20884
20885     <div class="entry">
20886       <div class="title">
20887         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
20888       </div>
20889       <div class="date">
20890          8th August 2009
20891       </div>
20892       <div class="body">
20893         <p>According to <a
20894 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
20895 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
20896 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
20897 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
20898 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
20899 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
20900 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
20901 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
20902 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
20903 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
20904
20905 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
20906 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
20907 seminar this autumn.</p>
20908
20909       </div>
20910       <div class="tags">
20911
20912
20913         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>.
20914
20915
20916       </div>
20917     </div>
20918     <div class="padding"></div>
20919
20920     <div class="entry">
20921       <div class="title">
20922         <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>
20923       </div>
20924       <div class="date">
20925         27th July 2009
20926       </div>
20927       <div class="body">
20928         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
20929 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
20930 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
20931 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
20932 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
20933 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
20934 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
20935
20936 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
20937 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
20938 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
20939
20940       </div>
20941       <div class="tags">
20942
20943
20944         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>.
20945
20946
20947       </div>
20948     </div>
20949     <div class="padding"></div>
20950
20951     <div class="entry">
20952       <div class="title">
20953         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
20954       </div>
20955       <div class="date">
20956         22nd July 2009
20957       </div>
20958       <div class="body">
20959         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
20960 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
20961 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
20962 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
20963 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
20964 the package up to date.</p>
20965
20966 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
20967 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
20968 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
20969 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
20970 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
20971 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
20972 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
20973 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
20974 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
20975 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
20976 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
20977 working on the future release.</p>
20978
20979 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
20980 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
20981
20982       </div>
20983       <div class="tags">
20984
20985
20986         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>.
20987
20988
20989       </div>
20990     </div>
20991     <div class="padding"></div>
20992
20993     <div class="entry">
20994       <div class="title">
20995         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
20996       </div>
20997       <div class="date">
20998         24th June 2009
20999       </div>
21000       <div class="body">
21001         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
21002 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
21003 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
21004 funded
21005 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
21006 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
21007 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
21008 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
21009 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
21010 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
21011
21012 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
21013 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
21014 boot:</p>
21015
21016 <ul>
21017
21018 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
21019
21020 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
21021    clock is in UTC.</li>
21022
21023 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
21024    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
21025    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
21026
21027 </ul>
21028
21029 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
21030 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
21031 Villegas</a>.
21032
21033 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
21034 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
21035 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
21036 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
21037 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
21038 using this.</p>
21039
21040 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
21041 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
21042 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
21043 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
21044 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
21045 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
21046 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
21047
21048       </div>
21049       <div class="tags">
21050
21051
21052         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>.
21053
21054
21055       </div>
21056     </div>
21057     <div class="padding"></div>
21058
21059     <div class="entry">
21060       <div class="title">
21061         <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>
21062       </div>
21063       <div class="date">
21064          2nd May 2009
21065       </div>
21066       <div class="body">
21067         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
21068 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
21069 do not yet know them.</p>
21070
21071 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
21072 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
21073 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
21074 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
21075 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
21076 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
21077 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
21078 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
21079 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
21080 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
21081 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
21082
21083 <p>The second one is
21084 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
21085 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
21086 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
21087 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
21088 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
21089 and the company behind it is running
21090 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
21091 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
21092 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
21093 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
21094 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
21095 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
21096 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
21097 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
21098
21099 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
21100 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
21101 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
21102 surrounded by today.</p>
21103
21104       </div>
21105       <div class="tags">
21106
21107
21108         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>.
21109
21110
21111       </div>
21112     </div>
21113     <div class="padding"></div>
21114
21115     <div class="entry">
21116       <div class="title">
21117         <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>
21118       </div>
21119       <div class="date">
21120         28th April 2009
21121       </div>
21122       <div class="body">
21123         <p>Julien Blache
21124 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
21125 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
21126 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
21127 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
21128 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
21129 properties.</p>
21130
21131       </div>
21132       <div class="tags">
21133
21134
21135         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>.
21136
21137
21138       </div>
21139     </div>
21140     <div class="padding"></div>
21141
21142     <div class="entry">
21143       <div class="title">
21144         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
21145       </div>
21146       <div class="date">
21147          5th April 2009
21148       </div>
21149       <div class="body">
21150         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
21151 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
21152 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
21153 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
21154 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
21155 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
21156 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
21157 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
21158
21159 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
21160 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
21161 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
21162   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
21163   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
21164
21165 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
21166 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
21167 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
21168 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
21169
21170 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
21171 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
21172 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
21173 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
21174
21175 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
21176 set -e
21177 URL="$1"
21178 SAVEFILE="$2"
21179 DURATION="$3"
21180 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
21181   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
21182   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
21183 pid=$!
21184 sleep $DURATION
21185 kill $pid
21186 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
21187
21188       </div>
21189       <div class="tags">
21190
21191
21192         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>.
21193
21194
21195       </div>
21196     </div>
21197     <div class="padding"></div>
21198
21199     <div class="entry">
21200       <div class="title">
21201         <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>
21202       </div>
21203       <div class="date">
21204         30th March 2009
21205       </div>
21206       <div class="body">
21207         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
21208 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
21209 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
21210 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
21211 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
21212 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
21213 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
21214 application.</p>
21215
21216 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
21217 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
21218 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
21219 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
21220 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
21221 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
21222 blocked from doing so.</p>
21223
21224 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
21225 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
21226 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
21227 requirements change.</p>
21228
21229 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
21230 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
21231 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
21232
21233       </div>
21234       <div class="tags">
21235
21236
21237         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>.
21238
21239
21240       </div>
21241     </div>
21242     <div class="padding"></div>
21243
21244     <div class="entry">
21245       <div class="title">
21246         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
21247       </div>
21248       <div class="date">
21249         29th March 2009
21250       </div>
21251       <div class="body">
21252         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
21253 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
21254 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
21255 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
21256 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
21257 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
21258 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
21259 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
21260 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
21261 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
21262 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
21263 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
21264 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
21265 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
21266 now. :)</p>
21267
21268       </div>
21269       <div class="tags">
21270
21271
21272         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>.
21273
21274
21275       </div>
21276     </div>
21277     <div class="padding"></div>
21278
21279     <div class="entry">
21280       <div class="title">
21281         <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>
21282       </div>
21283       <div class="date">
21284         29th March 2009
21285       </div>
21286       <div class="body">
21287         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
21288 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
21289 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
21290 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
21291 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
21292 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
21293
21294 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
21295 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
21296 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
21297 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
21298 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
21299 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
21300 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
21301 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
21302 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
21303 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
21304 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
21305 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
21306 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
21307
21308 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
21309 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
21310 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
21311 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
21312
21313 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
21314 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
21315
21316 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
21317 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
21318 new IETF work group?</p>
21319
21320       </div>
21321       <div class="tags">
21322
21323
21324         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>.
21325
21326
21327       </div>
21328     </div>
21329     <div class="padding"></div>
21330
21331     <div class="entry">
21332       <div class="title">
21333         <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>
21334       </div>
21335       <div class="date">
21336         28th February 2009
21337       </div>
21338       <div class="body">
21339         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
21340 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
21341 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
21342 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
21343 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
21344 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
21345 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
21346 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
21347 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
21348 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
21349 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
21350 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
21351 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
21352 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
21353 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
21354 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
21355 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
21356 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
21357 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
21358 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
21359 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
21360 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
21361 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
21362 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
21363 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
21364 machine.</p>
21365
21366 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
21367 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
21368 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
21369 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
21370 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
21371 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
21372 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
21373
21374 <pre>
21375 use LWP::Simple;
21376 use POSIX;
21377 use WWW::Mechanize;
21378 use Date::Parse;
21379 [...]
21380 sub get_support_info {
21381     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
21382     my $str;
21383
21384     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
21385         # fetch website from Dell support
21386         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";
21387         my $webpage = get($url);
21388         return undef unless ($webpage);
21389
21390         my $daysleft = -1;
21391         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
21392         foreach my $line (@lines) {
21393             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
21394             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
21395             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
21396
21397             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
21398             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
21399             my $lastend = "";
21400             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
21401                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
21402
21403                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
21404                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
21405                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
21406                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
21407                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
21408                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
21409                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
21410             }
21411             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
21412             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
21413                 if ($lastend lt $today);
21414         }
21415     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
21416         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
21417         my $url =
21418             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
21419         $mech->get($url);
21420         my $fields = {
21421             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
21422             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
21423             'country' => 'NO',
21424             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
21425             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
21426         };
21427         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
21428                             fields      => $fields );
21429         # Next step is screen scraping
21430         my $content = $mech->content();
21431
21432         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
21433         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
21434         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
21435         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
21436
21437         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
21438
21439         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
21440             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
21441                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
21442             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
21443             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
21444                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
21445             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
21446                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
21447
21448             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
21449
21450             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
21451                 if ($end lt $today);
21452         }
21453     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
21454         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
21455         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
21456         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
21457             my $content =
21458                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
21459             if ($content) {
21460                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
21461                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
21462                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
21463                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
21464
21465                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
21466                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
21467
21468                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
21469
21470                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
21471                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
21472                     if ($end lt $today);
21473             }
21474         }
21475     }
21476     return $str;
21477 }
21478 </pre>
21479
21480 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
21481 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
21482 from dmidecode.</p>
21483
21484 <pre>
21485 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
21486                        "447707-B21");
21487 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
21488 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
21489                        "1234567");
21490 </pre>
21491
21492 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
21493 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
21494
21495 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
21496 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
21497 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
21498 do so.</p>
21499
21500       </div>
21501       <div class="tags">
21502
21503
21504         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>.
21505
21506
21507       </div>
21508     </div>
21509     <div class="padding"></div>
21510
21511     <div class="entry">
21512       <div class="title">
21513         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
21514       </div>
21515       <div class="date">
21516         20th February 2009
21517       </div>
21518       <div class="body">
21519         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
21520 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
21521 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
21522 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
21523 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
21524 the "missing" computer.</p>
21525
21526 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
21527 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
21528 code blocks as defined in the
21529 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
21530 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
21531 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
21532 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
21533 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
21534 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
21535 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
21536 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
21537 codes.</p>
21538
21539 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
21540 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
21541 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
21542 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
21543 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
21544 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
21545
21546 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
21547 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
21548 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
21549 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
21550 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
21551 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
21552 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
21553 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
21554 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
21555 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
21556
21557 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
21558 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
21559 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
21560
21561       </div>
21562       <div class="tags">
21563
21564
21565         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>.
21566
21567
21568       </div>
21569     </div>
21570     <div class="padding"></div>
21571
21572     <div class="entry">
21573       <div class="title">
21574         <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>
21575       </div>
21576       <div class="date">
21577         17th January 2009
21578       </div>
21579       <div class="body">
21580         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
21581 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
21582 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
21583 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
21584 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
21585 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
21586 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
21587 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
21588 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
21589 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
21590 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
21591 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
21592 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
21593 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
21594
21595 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
21596 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
21597 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
21598 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
21599 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
21600 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
21601 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
21602 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
21603 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
21604 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
21605 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
21606 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
21607 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
21608 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
21609 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
21610 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
21611 playing when the download is done.</p>
21612
21613 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
21614 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
21615 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
21616 too.</p>
21617
21618 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
21619 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
21620 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
21621 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
21622
21623       </div>
21624       <div class="tags">
21625
21626
21627         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>.
21628
21629
21630       </div>
21631     </div>
21632     <div class="padding"></div>
21633
21634     <div class="entry">
21635       <div class="title">
21636         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
21637       </div>
21638       <div class="date">
21639         28th December 2008
21640       </div>
21641       <div class="body">
21642         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
21643 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
21644 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
21645 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
21646 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
21647 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
21648 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
21649 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
21650 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
21651 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
21652 source, sink and mixer applications and
21653 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
21654 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
21655 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
21656 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
21657 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
21658 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
21659 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
21660 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
21661 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
21662
21663 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
21664 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
21665 larger stick as well.</p>
21666
21667       </div>
21668       <div class="tags">
21669
21670
21671         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>.
21672
21673
21674       </div>
21675     </div>
21676     <div class="padding"></div>
21677
21678     <div class="entry">
21679       <div class="title">
21680         <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>
21681       </div>
21682       <div class="date">
21683          7th December 2008
21684       </div>
21685       <div class="body">
21686         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
21687 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
21688 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
21689 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
21690 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
21691 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
21692 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
21693 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
21694
21695 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
21696 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
21697 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
21698 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
21699 of these cards.</p>
21700
21701       </div>
21702       <div class="tags">
21703
21704
21705         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>.
21706
21707
21708       </div>
21709     </div>
21710     <div class="padding"></div>
21711
21712     <div class="entry">
21713       <div class="title">
21714         <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>
21715       </div>
21716       <div class="date">
21717         25th November 2008
21718       </div>
21719       <div class="body">
21720         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
21721 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
21722 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
21723 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
21724 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
21725 notes are available on
21726 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
21727 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
21728 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
21729 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
21730 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
21731 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
21732 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
21733 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
21734 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
21735
21736 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
21737 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
21738
21739       </div>
21740       <div class="tags">
21741
21742
21743         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>.
21744
21745
21746       </div>
21747     </div>
21748     <div class="padding"></div>
21749
21750     <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>
21751     <div id="sidebar">
21752
21753
21754
21755 <h2>Archive</h2>
21756 <ul>
21757
21758 <li>2015
21759 <ul>
21760
21761 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
21762
21763 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (4)</a></li>
21764
21765 </ul></li>
21766
21767 <li>2014
21768 <ul>
21769
21770 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
21771
21772 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
21773
21774 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
21775
21776 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
21777
21778 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
21779
21780 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
21781
21782 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
21783
21784 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
21785
21786 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
21787
21788 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
21789
21790 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
21791
21792 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
21793
21794 </ul></li>
21795
21796 <li>2013
21797 <ul>
21798
21799 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
21800
21801 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
21802
21803 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
21804
21805 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
21806
21807 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
21808
21809 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
21810
21811 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
21812
21813 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
21814
21815 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
21816
21817 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
21818
21819 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
21820
21821 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
21822
21823 </ul></li>
21824
21825 <li>2012
21826 <ul>
21827
21828 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
21829
21830 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
21831
21832 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
21833
21834 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
21835
21836 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
21837
21838 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
21839
21840 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
21841
21842 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
21843
21844 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
21845
21846 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
21847
21848 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
21849
21850 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
21851
21852 </ul></li>
21853
21854 <li>2011
21855 <ul>
21856
21857 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
21858
21859 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
21860
21861 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
21862
21863 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
21864
21865 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
21866
21867 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
21868
21869 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
21870
21871 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
21872
21873 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
21874
21875 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
21876
21877 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
21878
21879 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
21880
21881 </ul></li>
21882
21883 <li>2010
21884 <ul>
21885
21886 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
21887
21888 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
21889
21890 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
21891
21892 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
21893
21894 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
21895
21896 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
21897
21898 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
21899
21900 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
21901
21902 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
21903
21904 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
21905
21906 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
21907
21908 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
21909
21910 </ul></li>
21911
21912 <li>2009
21913 <ul>
21914
21915 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
21916
21917 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
21918
21919 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
21920
21921 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
21922
21923 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
21924
21925 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
21926
21927 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
21928
21929 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
21930
21931 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
21932
21933 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
21934
21935 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
21936
21937 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
21938
21939 </ul></li>
21940
21941 <li>2008
21942 <ul>
21943
21944 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
21945
21946 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
21947
21948 </ul></li>
21949
21950 </ul>
21951
21952
21953
21954 <h2>Tags</h2>
21955 <ul>
21956
21957  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
21958
21959  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
21960
21961  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
21962
21963  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
21964
21965  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
21966
21967  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
21968
21969  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
21970
21971  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
21972
21973  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (109)</a></li>
21974
21975  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (151)</a></li>
21976
21977  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
21978
21979  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
21980
21981  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (12)</a></li>
21982
21983  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
21984
21985  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (268)</a></li>
21986
21987  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (22)</a></li>
21988
21989  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
21990
21991  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (14)</a></li>
21992
21993  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
21994
21995  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (12)</a></li>
21996
21997  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (41)</a></li>
21998
21999  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (10)</a></li>
22000
22001  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
22002
22003  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
22004
22005  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
22006
22007  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
22008
22009  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
22010
22011  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
22012
22013  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (32)</a></li>
22014
22015  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (260)</a></li>
22016
22017  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (172)</a></li>
22018
22019  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (15)</a></li>
22020
22021  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
22022
22023  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (51)</a></li>
22024
22025  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (82)</a></li>
22026
22027  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
22028
22029  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
22030
22031  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
22032
22033  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
22034
22035  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
22036
22037  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
22038
22039  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
22040
22041  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
22042
22043  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (41)</a></li>
22044
22045  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
22046
22047  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
22048
22049  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (46)</a></li>
22050
22051  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
22052
22053  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
22054
22055  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (29)</a></li>
22056
22057  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
22058
22059  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
22060
22061  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
22062
22063  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (48)</a></li>
22064
22065  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
22066
22067  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (35)</a></li>
22068
22069 </ul>
22070
22071
22072     </div>
22073     <p style="text-align: right">
22074  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
22075 </p>
22076
22077   </body>
22078 </html>