blog/tags/debian/index.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Entries Tagged debian</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9     <link rel="alternate" title="RSS Feed" href="debian.rss" type="application/rss+xml" />
  10   </head>
  11   <body>
  12     <div class="title">
  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         17th July 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Today I switched to
  32 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
  33 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
  34 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
  35 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
  36 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
  37 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
  38 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
  39 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
  40 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
  41 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
  42 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
  43 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
  44 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
  45 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
  46 station from now on.</p>
  47
  48 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
  49 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
  50 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
  51 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
  52 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
  53 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
  54 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
  55 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
  56 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
  57 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
  58 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
  59 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
  60
  61 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
  62 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
  63 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
  64 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
  65 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
  66 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
  67 parameters are tuned:</p>
  68
  69 <ul>
  70
  71 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
  72     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
  73
  74 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
  75     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
  76     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
  77
  78 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
  79     systems.</li>
  80
  81 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
  82     /etc/fstab.</li>
  83
  84 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
  85
  86 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
  87     cron.daily).</li>
  88
  89 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
  90     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
  91
  92 </ul>
  93
  94 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
  95 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
  96 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
  97 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
  98 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
  99 from getting the data on the disk (see
 100 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
 101 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
 102 right thing to do.</p>
 103
 104 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
 105 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
 106 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
 107
 108 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
 109 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
 110 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
 111 instead of during my work.</p>
 112
 113 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
 114 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
 115
 116 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
 117 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
 118 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
 119
 120 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
 121 there.</p>
 122
 123 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
 124 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
 125 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
 126 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
 127 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
 128 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
 129 back.</p>
 130
 131       </div>
 132       <div class="tags">
 133
 134
 135         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 136
 137
 138       </div>
 139     </div>
 140     <div class="padding"></div>
 141
 142     <div class="entry">
 143       <div class="title">
 144         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
 145       </div>
 146       <div class="date">
 147         10th July 2013
 148       </div>
 149       <div class="body">
 150         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
 151 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
 152 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
 153 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
 154 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
 155 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
 156 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
 157 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
 158
 159 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
 160 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
 161 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
 162 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
 163 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
 164 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
 165 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
 166 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
 167 lock up when I download a new
 168 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
 169 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
 170 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
 171
 172 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 173 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
 174 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 175 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
 176 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 177 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 178
 179 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 180 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
 181 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 182 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
 183 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 184 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 185
 186 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
 187 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
 188 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
 189 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
 190 exist).</p>
 191
 192       </div>
 193       <div class="tags">
 194
 195
 196         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 197
 198
 199       </div>
 200     </div>
 201     <div class="padding"></div>
 202
 203     <div class="entry">
 204       <div class="title">
 205         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
 206       </div>
 207       <div class="date">
 208          9th July 2013
 209       </div>
 210       <div class="body">
 211         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
 212 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
 213 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
 214 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
 215 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 216 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
 217 Bitraf</a>.</p>
 218
 219 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
 220 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
 221 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
 222 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
 223 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
 224
 225       </div>
 226       <div class="tags">
 227
 228
 229         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
 230
 231
 232       </div>
 233     </div>
 234     <div class="padding"></div>
 235
 236     <div class="entry">
 237       <div class="title">
 238         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
 239       </div>
 240       <div class="date">
 241          5th July 2013
 242       </div>
 243       <div class="body">
 244         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
 245 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
 246 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
 247 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
 248 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
 249 ended up picking a
 250 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
 251 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
 252 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
 253 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
 254 on that below.</p>
 255
 256 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 257 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 258 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 259 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 260 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 261 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
 262 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
 263 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
 264 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
 265
 266 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
 267 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
 268 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
 269 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
 270 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
 271 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
 272 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
 273
 274 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
 275 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
 276
 277 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
 278 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
 279 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
 280 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
 281 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
 282 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
 283 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
 284 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
 285 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
 286 kernel developers as
 287 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
 288 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
 289 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
 290 Lenovo forums, both for
 291 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
 292 2012-11-10</a> and for
 293 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
 294 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
 295 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
 296 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
 297 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
 298 There is even a
 299 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
 300 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
 301 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
 302
 303 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
 304 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
 305 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
 306 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
 307 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
 308 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
 309 fixed. :)</p>
 310
 311       </div>
 312       <div class="tags">
 313
 314
 315         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 316
 317
 318       </div>
 319     </div>
 320     <div class="padding"></div>
 321
 322     <div class="entry">
 323       <div class="title">
 324         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
 325       </div>
 326       <div class="date">
 327          4th July 2013
 328       </div>
 329       <div class="body">
 330         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
 331 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
 332 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
 333 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
 334 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
 335 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
 336 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
 337 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
 338 with an expencive door stop.</p>
 339
 340 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 341 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 342 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 343 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 344 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 345 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
 346 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
 347
 348 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
 349 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
 350 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
 351 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
 352 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
 353 new laptop now. :)</p>
 354
 355 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
 356
 357       </div>
 358       <div class="tags">
 359
 360
 361         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 362
 363
 364       </div>
 365     </div>
 366     <div class="padding"></div>
 367
 368     <div class="entry">
 369       <div class="title">
 370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
 371       </div>
 372       <div class="date">
 373         25th June 2013
 374       </div>
 375       <div class="body">
 376         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
 377 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
 378 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
 379 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
 380 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
 381 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
 382 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
 383 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
 384 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
 385 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
 386 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
 387
 388 <p><pre>
 389 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 390 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
 391 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
 392 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
 393 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
 394 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
 395 firmware-ipw2x00
 396 firmware-ipw2x00
 397 Preconfiguring packages ...
 398 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
 399 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
 400 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
 401 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
 402 #
 403 </pre></p>
 404
 405 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
 406 printed instead:</p>
 407
 408 <p><pre>
 409 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 410 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 411 #
 412 </pre></p>
 413
 414 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
 415 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
 416
 417 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
 418 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
 419 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
 420 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
 421 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
 422 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
 423 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
 424 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
 425 machine.</p>
 426
 427 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
 428 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
 429 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
 430 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
 431 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
 432 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
 433
 434       </div>
 435       <div class="tags">
 436
 437
 438         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>.
 439
 440
 441       </div>
 442     </div>
 443     <div class="padding"></div>
 444
 445     <div class="entry">
 446       <div class="title">
 447         <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>
 448       </div>
 449       <div class="date">
 450         11th June 2013
 451       </div>
 452       <div class="body">
 453         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
 454 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
 455 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
 456 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
 457 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
 458 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
 459 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
 460 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
 461 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
 462 i915 driver used by the
 463 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 464 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
 465
 466 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
 467 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
 468 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
 469 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
 470 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
 471
 472 <pre>
 473 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
 474 update-initramfs -u -k all
 475 </pre>
 476
 477 <p>Since March 2012 there is
 478 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
 479 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
 480 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
 481 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
 482 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
 483 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
 484 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
 485 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
 486 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
 487 number.</p>
 488
 489 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
 490 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
 491
 492 <p><pre>
 493 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
 494     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
 495     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 496  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
 497  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
 498     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 499  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
 500     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 501  Latency: 0
 502  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
 503  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
 504  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 505  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
 506  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
 507  Capabilities: <access denied>
 508  Kernel driver in use: i915
 509 </pre></p>
 510
 511 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
 512
 513 <p><pre>
 514 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
 515        ...
 516         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
 517         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
 518        ...
 519 }
 520 </pre></p>
 521
 522 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
 523 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
 524 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
 525 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
 526 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
 527 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
 528 yet shown up in
 529 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
 530 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
 531 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
 532 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
 533 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
 534 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
 535
 536 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
 537 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
 538 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
 539 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
 540 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
 541 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
 542 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
 543 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
 544 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
 545 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
 546 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
 547 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
 548
 549 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
 550 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
 551 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
 552 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
 553 backlight.</p>
 554
 555       </div>
 556       <div class="tags">
 557
 558
 559         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>.
 560
 561
 562       </div>
 563     </div>
 564     <div class="padding"></div>
 565
 566     <div class="entry">
 567       <div class="title">
 568         <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>
 569       </div>
 570       <div class="date">
 571         27th May 2013
 572       </div>
 573       <div class="body">
 574         <p>Two days ago, I asked
 575 <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
 576 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
 577 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
 578 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
 579 and Windows 8.</p>
 580
 581 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
 582 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
 583 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
 584 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
 585 enough to tell.</p>
 586
 587 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
 588 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
 589 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
 590 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
 591 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
 592 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
 593 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
 594 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
 595 to follow.</p>
 596
 597 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
 598 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
 599 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
 600 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
 601 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
 602 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
 603 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
 604 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
 605
 606 <p>I've updated the
 607 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
 608 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
 609 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
 610 machine.</p>
 611
 612 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
 613 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
 614
 615       </div>
 616       <div class="tags">
 617
 618
 619         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>.
 620
 621
 622       </div>
 623     </div>
 624     <div class="padding"></div>
 625
 626     <div class="entry">
 627       <div class="title">
 628         <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>
 629       </div>
 630       <div class="date">
 631         25th May 2013
 632       </div>
 633       <div class="body">
 634         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
 635 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
 636 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
 637 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
 638 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
 639 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
 640
 641 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
 642 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
 643 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
 644 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
 645 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
 646 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
 647 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
 648 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
 649 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
 650 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
 651
 652 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
 653 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 654 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
 655 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
 656 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
 657 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
 658
 659 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
 660 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
 661 on new Laptops?</p>
 662
 663       </div>
 664       <div class="tags">
 665
 666
 667         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>.
 668
 669
 670       </div>
 671     </div>
 672     <div class="padding"></div>
 673
 674     <div class="entry">
 675       <div class="title">
 676         <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>
 677       </div>
 678       <div class="date">
 679         17th May 2013
 680       </div>
 681       <div class="body">
 682         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
 683 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
 684 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
 685 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
 686 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
 687 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
 688 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
 689 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
 690 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
 691 donate some money</a>.
 692
 693 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
 694 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
 695 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
 696 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
 697 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
 698
 699 <p>The script,
 700 <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/>
 701 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
 702 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
 703 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
 704
 705 <ol>
 706
 707 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
 708 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
 709 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
 710     our configuration.</li>
 711 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
 712     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
 713     according to the profile specified in the config above,
 714     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
 715 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
 716     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
 717 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
 718
 719 </ol>
 720
 721 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
 722 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
 723 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
 724 the needed packages.</p>
 725
 726 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
 727 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
 728 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
 729 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
 730 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
 731 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
 732
 733 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
 734 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
 735 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
 736
 737 <p><pre>
 738 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
 739 DESKTOP="lxde"
 740 </pre></p>
 741
 742 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
 743 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
 744 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
 745 boot.</p>
 746
 747       </div>
 748       <div class="tags">
 749
 750
 751         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>.
 752
 753
 754       </div>
 755     </div>
 756     <div class="padding"></div>
 757
 758     <div class="entry">
 759       <div class="title">
 760         <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>
 761       </div>
 762       <div class="date">
 763         11th May 2013
 764       </div>
 765       <div class="body">
 766         <P>In January,
 767 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
 768 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
 769 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
 770 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
 771 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
 772 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
 773 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
 774 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
 775 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
 776 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
 777 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
 778 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
 779
 780 <p><table>
 781 <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>
 782 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
 783 <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>
 784 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
 785 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
 786 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
 787 <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>
 788 <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>
 789 <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>
 790 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
 791 </table></p>
 792
 793 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
 794 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
 795 available in experimental.</p>
 796
 797 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
 798 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
 799 for LEGO designers.</p>
 800
 801       </div>
 802       <div class="tags">
 803
 804
 805         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>.
 806
 807
 808       </div>
 809     </div>
 810     <div class="padding"></div>
 811
 812     <div class="entry">
 813       <div class="title">
 814         <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>
 815       </div>
 816       <div class="date">
 817          5th May 2013
 818       </div>
 819       <div class="body">
 820         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
 821 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
 822 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
 823 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
 824 soon.</p>
 825
 826 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
 827 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
 828 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
 829 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
 830 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
 831 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
 832 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
 833 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
 834 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
 835 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
 836 Edu.</a>
 837
 838 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
 839 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
 840 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
 841 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
 842 follow.<p>
 843
 844       </div>
 845       <div class="tags">
 846
 847
 848         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>.
 849
 850
 851       </div>
 852     </div>
 853     <div class="padding"></div>
 854
 855     <div class="entry">
 856       <div class="title">
 857         <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>
 858       </div>
 859       <div class="date">
 860          3rd April 2013
 861       </div>
 862       <div class="body">
 863         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
 864 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
 865 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
 866 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
 867
 868 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
 869 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
 870 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
 871 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
 872 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
 873 BTS. :)</p>
 874
 875       </div>
 876       <div class="tags">
 877
 878
 879         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>.
 880
 881
 882       </div>
 883     </div>
 884     <div class="padding"></div>
 885
 886     <div class="entry">
 887       <div class="title">
 888         <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>
 889       </div>
 890       <div class="date">
 891          2nd February 2013
 892       </div>
 893       <div class="body">
 894         <p>My
 895 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
 896 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
 897 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
 898 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
 899 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
 900 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
 901 version too.</p>
 902
 903 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
 904 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
 905 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
 906 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
 907 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
 908 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
 909 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
 910 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
 911
 912 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
 913 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
 914 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
 915 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
 916 it. :)</p>
 917
 918 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 919 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 920 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 921
 922       </div>
 923       <div class="tags">
 924
 925
 926         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>.
 927
 928
 929       </div>
 930     </div>
 931     <div class="padding"></div>
 932
 933     <div class="entry">
 934       <div class="title">
 935         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
 936       </div>
 937       <div class="date">
 938         22nd January 2013
 939       </div>
 940       <div class="body">
 941         <p>Yesterday, I
 942 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
 943 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
 944 pluggable hardware devices, which I
 945 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
 946 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
 947 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
 948 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
 949 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
 950 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
 951 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
 952 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
 953 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
 954 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
 955
 956 <pre>
 957 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
 958 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
 959 </pre>
 960
 961 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
 962 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
 963 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
 964 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
 965
 966 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
 967 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
 968 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
 969 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
 970 word.</p>
 971
 972 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
 973 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
 974 process.</p>
 975
 976 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
 977 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
 978
 979       </div>
 980       <div class="tags">
 981
 982
 983         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>.
 984
 985
 986       </div>
 987     </div>
 988     <div class="padding"></div>
 989
 990     <div class="entry">
 991       <div class="title">
 992         <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>
 993       </div>
 994       <div class="date">
 995         21st January 2013
 996       </div>
 997       <div class="body">
 998         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
 999 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
1000 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
1001 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
1002 it, fetch the
1003 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
1004 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
1005 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
1006 autostart script.</p>
1007
1008 <p>The design is simple:</p>
1009
1010 <ul>
1011
1012 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
1013 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
1014
1015 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
1016 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
1017 initially did.</li>
1018
1019 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
1020 the APT database, a database
1021 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
1022 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
1023
1024 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
1025 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
1026 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
1027 package or packages.</li>
1028
1029 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
1030 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
1031
1032 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
1033 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
1034
1035 </ul>
1036
1037 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
1038 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
1039 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
1040 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
1041
1042 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
1043 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
1044 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
1045 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
1046 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
1047
1048 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
1049 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
1050 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
1051 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
1052 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
1053 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
1054 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
1055 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
1056
1057 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
1058 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
1059 '<tt>svn checkout
1060 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
1061 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
1062 devscripts package.</p>
1063
1064 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
1065 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
1066 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
1067 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
1068 instructions</a> for details.</p>
1069
1070       </div>
1071       <div class="tags">
1072
1073
1074         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>.
1075
1076
1077       </div>
1078     </div>
1079     <div class="padding"></div>
1080
1081     <div class="entry">
1082       <div class="title">
1083         <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>
1084       </div>
1085       <div class="date">
1086         19th January 2013
1087       </div>
1088       <div class="body">
1089         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
1090 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
1091 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
1092 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
1093 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
1094 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
1095 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
1096 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
1097 not a durable solution.
1098
1099 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
1100 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
1101
1102 <ul>
1103
1104 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
1105   than A4).</li>
1106 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
1107 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
1108 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
1109 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
1110 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
1111 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
1112 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
1113 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
1114 size).</li>
1115 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
1116   X.org packages.</li>
1117 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
1118   the time).
1119
1120 </ul>
1121
1122 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
1123 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
1124 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
1125 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
1126 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
1127 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
1128 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
1129 still be useful.</p>
1130
1131 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
1132 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
1133 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
1134 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
1135 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
1136 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
1137
1138       </div>
1139       <div class="tags">
1140
1141
1142         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>.
1143
1144
1145       </div>
1146     </div>
1147     <div class="padding"></div>
1148
1149     <div class="entry">
1150       <div class="title">
1151         <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>
1152       </div>
1153       <div class="date">
1154         18th January 2013
1155       </div>
1156       <div class="body">
1157         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
1158 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
1159 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
1160 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
1161 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
1162 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
1163 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
1164
1165 <pre>
1166 #!/usr/bin/python
1167 import sys
1168 import apt
1169 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1170     cache = apt.Cache()
1171     cache.open(None)
1172     thepkgs = []
1173     for pkg in cache:
1174         version = pkg.candidate
1175         if version is None:
1176             version = pkg.installed
1177         if version is None:
1178             continue
1179         record = version.record
1180         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
1181             continue
1182         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
1183         for t in mime_types:
1184             t = t.rstrip().strip()
1185             if t == mimetype:
1186                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
1187     return thepkgs
1188 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
1189 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
1190     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
1191 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
1192 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
1193     print "  %s" %pkg
1194 </pre>
1195
1196 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
1197
1198 <pre>
1199 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
1200 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
1201   gecko-mediaplayer
1202 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
1203 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
1204   browser-plugin-gnash
1205 %
1206 </pre>
1207
1208 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
1209 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
1210 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
1211 anyone working on adding it?</p>
1212
1213 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
1214 request for icweasel support for this feature is
1215 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
1216 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
1217 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
1218 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
1219
1220       </div>
1221       <div class="tags">
1222
1223
1224         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>.
1225
1226
1227       </div>
1228     </div>
1229     <div class="padding"></div>
1230
1231     <div class="entry">
1232       <div class="title">
1233         <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>
1234       </div>
1235       <div class="date">
1236         16th January 2013
1237       </div>
1238       <div class="body">
1239         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
1240 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
1241 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
1242 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
1243 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
1244 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
1245 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
1246 downloaded by the browser.</p>
1247
1248 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
1249 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
1250 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
1251 can be found on the
1252 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
1253 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
1254 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
1255 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
1256 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
1257
1258 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
1259
1260 <pre>
1261   count MIME type
1262   ----- -----------------------
1263      32 text/plain
1264      30 audio/mpeg
1265      29 image/png
1266      28 image/jpeg
1267      27 application/ogg
1268      26 audio/x-mp3
1269      25 image/tiff
1270      25 image/gif
1271      22 image/bmp
1272      22 audio/x-wav
1273      20 audio/x-flac
1274      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1275      18 video/x-ms-asf
1276      18 audio/x-musepack
1277      18 audio/x-mpeg
1278      18 application/x-ogg
1279      17 video/mpeg
1280      17 audio/x-scpls
1281      17 audio/ogg
1282      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1283 </pre>
1284
1285 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
1286
1287 <pre>
1288   count MIME type
1289   ----- -----------------------
1290      33 text/plain
1291      32 image/png
1292      32 image/jpeg
1293      29 audio/mpeg
1294      27 image/gif
1295      26 image/tiff
1296      26 application/ogg
1297      25 audio/x-mp3
1298      22 image/bmp
1299      21 audio/x-wav
1300      19 audio/x-mpegurl
1301      19 audio/x-mpeg
1302      18 video/mpeg
1303      18 audio/x-scpls
1304      18 audio/x-flac
1305      18 application/x-ogg
1306      17 video/x-ms-asf
1307      17 text/html
1308      17 audio/x-musepack
1309      16 image/x-xbitmap
1310 </pre>
1311
1312 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
1313
1314 <pre>
1315   count MIME type
1316   ----- -----------------------
1317      31 text/plain
1318      31 image/png
1319      31 image/jpeg
1320      29 audio/mpeg
1321      28 application/ogg
1322      27 image/gif
1323      26 image/tiff
1324      26 audio/x-mp3
1325      23 audio/x-wav
1326      22 image/bmp
1327      21 audio/x-flac
1328      20 audio/x-mpegurl
1329      19 audio/x-mpeg
1330      18 video/x-ms-asf
1331      18 video/mpeg
1332      18 audio/x-scpls
1333      18 application/x-ogg
1334      17 audio/x-musepack
1335      16 video/x-ms-wmv
1336      16 video/x-msvideo
1337 </pre>
1338
1339 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
1340 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
1341 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
1342 issues.</p>
1343
1344 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
1345 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
1346
1347       </div>
1348       <div class="tags">
1349
1350
1351         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>.
1352
1353
1354       </div>
1355     </div>
1356     <div class="padding"></div>
1357
1358     <div class="entry">
1359       <div class="title">
1360         <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>
1361       </div>
1362       <div class="date">
1363         15th January 2013
1364       </div>
1365       <div class="body">
1366         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
1367 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
1368 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
1369 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
1370 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
1371 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
1372 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
1373 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
1374 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
1375 packages.</p>
1376
1377 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
1378 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
1379 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
1380 modalias.</p>
1381
1382 <p><blockquote>
1383 Package: package-name
1384 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
1385 </blockquote></p>
1386
1387 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
1388 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
1389
1390 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
1391 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
1392
1393 <p><blockquote>
1394 Package: cheese
1395 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
1396 </blockquote></p>
1397
1398 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
1399 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
1400
1401 <p><blockquote>
1402 Package: pcmciautils
1403 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
1404 </blockquote></p>
1405
1406 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
1407 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
1408
1409 <p><blockquote>
1410 Package: colorhug-client
1411 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
1412 </blockquote></p>
1413
1414 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
1415 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
1416 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
1417
1418 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
1419 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
1420 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
1421 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
1422 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
1423 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
1424 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
1425 Raring.</p>
1426
1427 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
1428 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
1429 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
1430 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
1431 try the
1432 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
1433 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
1434 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
1435 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
1436
1437 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
1438 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
1439
1440 <p><blockquote>
1441 % ./hw-support-lookup
1442 <br>yubikey-personalization
1443 <br>%
1444 </blockquote></p>
1445
1446 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
1447 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
1448
1449 <p><blockquote>
1450 % ./hw-support-lookup
1451 <br>pcmciautils
1452 <br>%
1453 </blockquote></p>
1454
1455 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
1456 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
1457 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
1458
1459 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
1460 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
1461 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
1462 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
1463 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
1464 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
1465 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
1466 see if it work.</p>
1467
1468 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1469 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1470 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1471 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1472
1473       </div>
1474       <div class="tags">
1475
1476
1477         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>.
1478
1479
1480       </div>
1481     </div>
1482     <div class="padding"></div>
1483
1484     <div class="entry">
1485       <div class="title">
1486         <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>
1487       </div>
1488       <div class="date">
1489         14th January 2013
1490       </div>
1491       <div class="body">
1492         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
1493 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
1494 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
1495 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
1496 in
1497 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1498 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
1499
1500 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
1501
1502 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
1503 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
1504 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
1505 &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;,
1506 &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
1507 &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;.
1508
1509 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
1510 this shell script:</p>
1511
1512 <pre>
1513 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
1514 </pre>
1515
1516 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
1517 using modinfo:</p>
1518
1519 <pre>
1520 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
1521 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
1522 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
1523 %
1524 </pre>
1525
1526 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
1527
1528 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
1529 Bridge memory controller:</p>
1530
1531 <p><blockquote>
1532 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
1533 </blockquote></p>
1534
1535 <p>This represent these values:</p>
1536
1537 <pre>
1538  v   00008086  (vendor)
1539  d   00002770  (device)
1540  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
1541  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
1542  bc  06        (bus class)
1543  sc  00        (bus subclass)
1544  i   00        (interface)
1545 </pre>
1546
1547 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
1548 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
1549 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
1550 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
1551
1552 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
1553 means.</p>
1554
1555 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
1556
1557 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
1558 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
1559
1560 <p><blockquote>
1561 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
1562 </blockquote></p>
1563
1564 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
1565
1566 <pre>
1567  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
1568  p    0001  (device product)
1569  d    0206  (bcddevice)
1570  dc     09  (device class)
1571  dsc    00  (device subclass)
1572  dp     00  (device protocol)
1573  ic     09  (interface class)
1574  isc    00  (interface subclass)
1575  ip     00  (interface protocol)
1576 </pre>
1577
1578 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
1579 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
1580 these alias entries show up:</p>
1581
1582 <p><blockquote>
1583 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
1584 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
1585 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
1586 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
1587 </blockquote></p>
1588
1589 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
1590 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
1591 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
1592
1593 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
1594
1595 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
1596 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
1597
1598 <p><blockquote>
1599 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1600 </blockquote></p>
1601
1602 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
1603
1604 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
1605
1606 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
1607 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
1608 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
1609
1610 <p><blockquote>
1611 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
1612 </blockquote></p>
1613
1614 <p>The values present are</p>
1615
1616 <pre>
1617  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
1618  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
1619  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
1620  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
1621  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
1622  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
1623  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
1624  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
1625  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
1626  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
1627  ct   10             (chassis type)
1628  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
1629 </pre>
1630
1631 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
1632 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
1633
1634 <pre>
1635   3 Desktop
1636   4 Low Profile Desktop
1637   5 Pizza Box
1638   6 Mini Tower
1639   7 Tower
1640   8 Portable
1641   9 Laptop
1642  10 Notebook
1643  11 Hand Held
1644  12 Docking Station
1645  13 All In One
1646  14 Sub Notebook
1647  15 Space-saving
1648  16 Lunch Box
1649  17 Main Server Chassis
1650  18 Expansion Chassis
1651  19 Sub Chassis
1652  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
1653  21 Peripheral Chassis
1654  22 RAID Chassis
1655  23 Rack Mount Chassis
1656  24 Sealed-case PC
1657  25 Multi-system
1658  26 CompactPCI
1659  27 AdvancedTCA
1660  28 Blade
1661  29 Blade Enclosing
1662 </pre>
1663
1664 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
1665 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
1666 claim it is a desktop.</p>
1667
1668 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
1669
1670 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
1671 test machine:</p>
1672
1673 <p><blockquote>
1674 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
1675 </blockquote></p>
1676
1677 <p>The values present are</p>
1678
1679 <pre>
1680   ty  01  (type)
1681   pr  00  (prototype)
1682   id  00  (id)
1683   ex  00  (extra)
1684 </pre>
1685
1686 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
1687 the valid values are.</p>
1688
1689 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
1690
1691 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
1692 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
1693 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
1694 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
1695 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
1696 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
1697 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
1698
1699 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
1700
1701 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
1702 one can use the following shell script:</p>
1703
1704 <pre>
1705   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
1706     echo "$id" ; \
1707     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
1708   done
1709 </pre>
1710
1711 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
1712 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
1713
1714 <pre>
1715   acpi:ACPI0003:
1716     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
1717   acpi:device:
1718   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
1719   acpi:IBM0068:
1720     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
1721     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
1722     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
1723     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
1724   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1725     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
1726     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
1727     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
1728   [...]
1729 </pre>
1730
1731 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1732 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1733 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1734 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
1735
1736 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
1737 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
1738 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
1739
1740       </div>
1741       <div class="tags">
1742
1743
1744         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>.
1745
1746
1747       </div>
1748     </div>
1749     <div class="padding"></div>
1750
1751     <div class="entry">
1752       <div class="title">
1753         <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>
1754       </div>
1755       <div class="date">
1756         10th January 2013
1757       </div>
1758       <div class="body">
1759         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
1760 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
1761 Launcher and updated the Debian package
1762 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
1763 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
1764 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
1765 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
1766 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
1767 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
1768 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
1769 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
1770 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
1771 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
1772 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
1773 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
1774 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
1775 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
1776 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
1777
1778       </div>
1779       <div class="tags">
1780
1781
1782         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>.
1783
1784
1785       </div>
1786     </div>
1787     <div class="padding"></div>
1788
1789     <div class="entry">
1790       <div class="title">
1791         <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>
1792       </div>
1793       <div class="date">
1794          9th January 2013
1795       </div>
1796       <div class="body">
1797         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
1798 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
1799 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
1800 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
1801 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
1802 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
1803 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
1804 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
1805 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
1806 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
1807 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
1808
1809 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
1810 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
1811 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
1812 simple:
1813
1814 <ul>
1815
1816 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
1817   starting when a user log in.</li>
1818
1819 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
1820   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
1821
1822 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
1823   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
1824   packages.</li>
1825
1826 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
1827   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
1828
1829 </ul>
1830
1831 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
1832 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
1833 discover database to find packages and
1834 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
1835 packages.</p>
1836
1837 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
1838 draft package is now checked into
1839 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1840 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
1841 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
1842 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
1843 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
1844 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
1845 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
1846 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
1847 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
1848 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
1849 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
1850 because of the freeze).</p>
1851
1852 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
1853 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
1854 inserted):</p>
1855
1856 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
1857
1858 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
1859 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
1860 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
1861
1862 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
1863 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
1864 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
1865 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
1866 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
1867 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
1868 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
1869
1870 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
1871 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
1872 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
1873 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
1874 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
1875 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
1876 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
1877 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
1878 not be installed?</p>
1879
1880 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
1881 please send me an email. :)</p>
1882
1883       </div>
1884       <div class="tags">
1885
1886
1887         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>.
1888
1889
1890       </div>
1891     </div>
1892     <div class="padding"></div>
1893
1894     <div class="entry">
1895       <div class="title">
1896         <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>
1897       </div>
1898       <div class="date">
1899          2nd January 2013
1900       </div>
1901       <div class="body">
1902         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
1903 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
1904 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
1905 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
1906 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
1907 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
1908 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
1909 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
1910 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
1911 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
1912
1913 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
1914 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
1915 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
1916
1917       </div>
1918       <div class="tags">
1919
1920
1921         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>.
1922
1923
1924       </div>
1925     </div>
1926     <div class="padding"></div>
1927
1928     <div class="entry">
1929       <div class="title">
1930         <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>
1931       </div>
1932       <div class="date">
1933         25th December 2012
1934       </div>
1935       <div class="body">
1936         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
1937 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
1938
1939 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
1940 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
1941 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
1942 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
1943 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
1944 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
1945 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
1946 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
1947 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
1948 name.</p>
1949
1950 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
1951 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
1952 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
1953
1954 <blockquote><pre>
1955 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
1956 cd bitcoin
1957 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
1958 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
1959 </pre></blockquote>
1960
1961 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
1962 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
1963 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
1964 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
1965 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
1966 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
1967 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
1968 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
1969 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
1970
1971 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1972 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1973 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1974
1975       </div>
1976       <div class="tags">
1977
1978
1979         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>.
1980
1981
1982       </div>
1983     </div>
1984     <div class="padding"></div>
1985
1986     <div class="entry">
1987       <div class="title">
1988         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
1989       </div>
1990       <div class="date">
1991         21st December 2012
1992       </div>
1993       <div class="body">
1994         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
1995 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
1996 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
1997 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
1998 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
1999 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
2000 is now maintained by a
2001 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
2002 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
2003 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
2004 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
2005 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
2006 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
2007 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
2008 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
2009 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
2010 Corallo in a
2011 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
2012 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
2013 Debian package.</p>
2014
2015 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
2016 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
2017 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
2018 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
2019 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
2020 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
2021 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
2022 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
2023 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
2024 new version to unstable.
2025
2026 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
2027 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
2028 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
2029 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
2030 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
2031 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
2032 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
2033 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
2034 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
2035 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
2036 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
2037 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
2038 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
2039 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
2040 have not tested them.</p>
2041
2042 <p>My
2043 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
2044 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
2045 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
2046 years ago, as can be
2047 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
2048 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
2049 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
2050 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
2051 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
2052 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
2053 the same address as last time,
2054 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2055
2056       </div>
2057       <div class="tags">
2058
2059
2060         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>.
2061
2062
2063       </div>
2064     </div>
2065     <div class="padding"></div>
2066
2067     <div class="entry">
2068       <div class="title">
2069         <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>
2070       </div>
2071       <div class="date">
2072          7th September 2012
2073       </div>
2074       <div class="body">
2075         <p>As I
2076 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
2077 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2078 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2079 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
2080 repository for the project</a>.</p>
2081
2082 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2083 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2084 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2085 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
2086
2087 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2088 PostScript formats at
2089 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
2090 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
2091
2092       </div>
2093       <div class="tags">
2094
2095
2096         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>.
2097
2098
2099       </div>
2100     </div>
2101     <div class="padding"></div>
2102
2103     <div class="entry">
2104       <div class="title">
2105         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
2106       </div>
2107       <div class="date">
2108         16th August 2012
2109       </div>
2110       <div class="body">
2111         <p>I dag fyller
2112 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
2113 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
2114 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
2115
2116       </div>
2117       <div class="tags">
2118
2119
2120         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
2121
2122
2123       </div>
2124     </div>
2125     <div class="padding"></div>
2126
2127     <div class="entry">
2128       <div class="title">
2129         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
2130       </div>
2131       <div class="date">
2132         24th June 2012
2133       </div>
2134       <div class="body">
2135         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
2136 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
2137 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
2138 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
2139 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
2140 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
2141 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
2142 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
2143 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
2144 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
2145 missing in my book.</p>
2146
2147 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
2148 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
2149 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
2150 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
2151 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
2152 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
2153 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
2154
2155       </div>
2156       <div class="tags">
2157
2158
2159         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>.
2160
2161
2162       </div>
2163     </div>
2164     <div class="padding"></div>
2165
2166     <div class="entry">
2167       <div class="title">
2168         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
2169       </div>
2170       <div class="date">
2171         21st November 2011
2172       </div>
2173       <div class="body">
2174         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
2175 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
2176 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
2177 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
2178 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
2179 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
2180 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
2181 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
2182 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
2183 the tools to do so.</p>
2184
2185 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
2186 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
2187 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
2188 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
2189
2190 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
2191 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
2192 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
2193 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
2194 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
2195 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
2196 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
2197 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
2198
2199 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
2200 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
2201 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
2202
2203 <p><pre>
2204 #!/usr/bin/perl
2205 use strict;
2206 use warnings;
2207 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
2208 BEGIN {
2209     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
2210     my %rhelmodules = (
2211         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
2212         );
2213     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
2214         eval "use $module;";
2215         if ($@) {
2216             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
2217             system("yum install -y $pkg");
2218             eval "use $module;";
2219         }
2220     }
2221 }
2222 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
2223
2224 upgrade_dell();
2225
2226 exit 0;
2227
2228 sub run_firmware_script {
2229     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
2230     unless ($script) {
2231         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
2232         exit 1
2233     }
2234     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
2235
2236     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
2237         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
2238     } else {
2239         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
2240     }
2241 }
2242
2243 sub run_firmware_scripts {
2244     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
2245     # Run firmware packages
2246     for my $dir (@dirs) {
2247         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
2248         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
2249         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
2250             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
2251             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
2252         }
2253         closedir $dh;
2254     }
2255 }
2256
2257 sub download {
2258     my $url = shift;
2259     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
2260     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
2261 }
2262
2263 sub upgrade_dell {
2264     my @dirs;
2265     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2266     chomp $product;
2267
2268     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
2269
2270         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
2271         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
2272
2273         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
2274             CLEANUP => 1
2275             );
2276         chdir($tmpdir);
2277         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
2278         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
2279         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
2280         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
2281         my $fwopts = "-q";
2282         if (@paths) {
2283             for my $url (@paths) {
2284                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
2285             }
2286             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
2287         } else {
2288             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2289             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2290         }
2291         chdir('/');
2292     } else {
2293         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
2294         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
2295     }
2296 }
2297
2298 sub fetch_dell_fw {
2299     my $path = shift;
2300     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
2301     download($url);
2302 }
2303
2304 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
2305 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
2306 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
2307 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
2308     my $filename = shift;
2309
2310     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
2311     chomp $product;
2312     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
2313
2314     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
2315
2316     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
2317     my @paths;
2318     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
2319         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
2320         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
2321         my $oscode;
2322         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
2323             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
2324         } else {
2325             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
2326         }
2327         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
2328         {
2329             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
2330         }
2331     }
2332     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
2333         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
2334
2335         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
2336         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
2337
2338         my $cpath = $component->{path};
2339         for my $path (@paths) {
2340             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
2341                 push(@paths, $cpath);
2342             }
2343         }
2344     }
2345     return @paths;
2346 }
2347 </pre>
2348
2349 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
2350 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
2351 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
2352 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
2353 outdated.</p>
2354
2355       </div>
2356       <div class="tags">
2357
2358
2359         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>.
2360
2361
2362       </div>
2363     </div>
2364     <div class="padding"></div>
2365
2366     <div class="entry">
2367       <div class="title">
2368         <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>
2369       </div>
2370       <div class="date">
2371          4th August 2011
2372       </div>
2373       <div class="body">
2374         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
2375 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
2376 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
2377 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
2378 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
2379 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
2380 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
2381 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
2382 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
2383
2384 <p><blockquote>
2385 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
2386 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
2387 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
2388 </blockquote></p>
2389
2390 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
2391 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
2392 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
2393 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
2394 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
2395 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
2396 hard to explain.</p>
2397
2398 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
2399 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
2400 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
2401 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
2402 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
2403 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
2404 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
2405 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
2406 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
2407 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
2408 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
2409 mode).</p>
2410
2411 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
2412 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
2413 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
2414 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
2415 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
2416 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
2417 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
2418 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
2419 after visiting single user mode.</p>
2420
2421 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
2422 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
2423 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
2424 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
2425 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
2426 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
2427 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
2428 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
2429
2430 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
2431 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
2432 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
2433
2434       </div>
2435       <div class="tags">
2436
2437
2438         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>.
2439
2440
2441       </div>
2442     </div>
2443     <div class="padding"></div>
2444
2445     <div class="entry">
2446       <div class="title">
2447         <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>
2448       </div>
2449       <div class="date">
2450         30th July 2011
2451       </div>
2452       <div class="body">
2453         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
2454 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
2455 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
2456 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
2457 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
2458 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
2459 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
2460 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
2461 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
2462 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
2463 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
2464 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
2465 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
2466
2467 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
2468 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
2469 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
2470 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
2471 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
2472 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
2473 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
2474 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
2475 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
2476
2477 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
2478 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
2479 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
2480 is presented.</p>
2481
2482 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
2483 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
2484 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
2485 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
2486 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
2487 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
2488 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
2489 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
2490 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
2491 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
2492 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
2493 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
2494 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
2495 find time to push this forward.</p>
2496
2497       </div>
2498       <div class="tags">
2499
2500
2501         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>.
2502
2503
2504       </div>
2505     </div>
2506     <div class="padding"></div>
2507
2508     <div class="entry">
2509       <div class="title">
2510         <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>
2511       </div>
2512       <div class="date">
2513         29th July 2011
2514       </div>
2515       <div class="body">
2516         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
2517 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
2518 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
2519 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
2520 issues.</p>
2521
2522 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
2523 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
2524 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
2525
2526 <ol>
2527
2528 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
2529 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
2530 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
2531 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
2532 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
2533 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
2534 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
2535 Debian.</li>
2536
2537 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
2538 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
2539 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
2540 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
2541 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
2542 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
2543 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
2544 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
2545 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
2546 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
2547 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
2548 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
2549 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
2550
2551 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
2552 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
2553 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
2554 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
2555 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
2556 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
2557 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
2558 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
2559 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
2560 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
2561
2562 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
2563 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
2564 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
2565 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
2566 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
2567 latter behaviour.</li>
2568
2569 </ol>
2570
2571 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
2572 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
2573 it do not matter much.</p>
2574
2575 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
2576 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
2577 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
2578
2579       </div>
2580       <div class="tags">
2581
2582
2583         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>.
2584
2585
2586       </div>
2587     </div>
2588     <div class="padding"></div>
2589
2590     <div class="entry">
2591       <div class="title">
2592         <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>
2593       </div>
2594       <div class="date">
2595         26th July 2011
2596       </div>
2597       <div class="body">
2598         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
2599 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
2600 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
2601 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
2602 security support for a few years.</p>
2603
2604 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
2605 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
2606 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
2607 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
2608 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
2609 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
2610 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
2611 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
2612 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
2613 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
2614 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
2615 easier in the future.</p>
2616
2617 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
2618 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
2619 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
2620 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
2621 do not have time for.</p>
2622
2623       </div>
2624       <div class="tags">
2625
2626
2627         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>.
2628
2629
2630       </div>
2631     </div>
2632     <div class="padding"></div>
2633
2634     <div class="entry">
2635       <div class="title">
2636         <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>
2637       </div>
2638       <div class="date">
2639          3rd April 2011
2640       </div>
2641       <div class="body">
2642         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
2643 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
2644 update in English.</p>
2645
2646 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
2647 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
2648 of the British service
2649 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
2650 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
2651 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
2652 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
2653 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
2654 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
2655 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
2656 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
2657 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
2658 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
2659 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
2660 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
2661 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
2662
2663 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
2664 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
2665 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
2666 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
2667 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
2668 public infrastructure.</p>
2669
2670 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
2671 such service?</p>
2672
2673       </div>
2674       <div class="tags">
2675
2676
2677         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>.
2678
2679
2680       </div>
2681     </div>
2682     <div class="padding"></div>
2683
2684     <div class="entry">
2685       <div class="title">
2686         <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>
2687       </div>
2688       <div class="date">
2689         28th January 2011
2690       </div>
2691       <div class="body">
2692         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
2693 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
2694 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
2695 available on the Internet, and check our locally
2696 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
2697 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
2698 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
2699 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
2700 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
2701 out which security holes were present in our free software
2702 collection.</p>
2703
2704 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
2705 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
2706 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
2707 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
2708 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
2709 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
2710 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
2711 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
2712 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
2713 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
2714 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
2715 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
2716 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
2717 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
2718 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
2719 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
2720
2721 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
2722 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
2723 check out, one could look up
2724 <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
2725 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
2726 The most recent one is
2727 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
2728 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
2729 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
2730
2731 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
2732 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
2733 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
2734 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
2735 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
2736 security issues out.</p>
2737
2738 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
2739 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
2740 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
2741 RHEL is providing
2742 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
2743 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
2744 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
2745
2746 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
2747 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
2748 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
2749 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
2750 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
2751 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
2752 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
2753 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
2754 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
2755 established soon.</p>
2756
2757 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
2758 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
2759 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
2760 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
2761 for their packages.</p>
2762
2763       </div>
2764       <div class="tags">
2765
2766
2767         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>.
2768
2769
2770       </div>
2771     </div>
2772     <div class="padding"></div>
2773
2774     <div class="entry">
2775       <div class="title">
2776         <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>
2777       </div>
2778       <div class="date">
2779         23rd January 2011
2780       </div>
2781       <div class="body">
2782         <p>In the
2783 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
2784 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
2785 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
2786 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
2787 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
2788 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
2789 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
2790 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
2791 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
2792 one of my machines like this:</p>
2793
2794 <pre>
2795 loaded modules:
2796 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
2797 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
2798 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
2799 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
2800 10de:03ec pata_amd
2801 10de:03f6 sata_nv
2802 1022:1103 k8temp
2803 109e:036e bttv
2804 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
2805 11ab:4364 sky2
2806 </pre>
2807
2808 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
2809 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
2810
2811 <pre>
2812 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
2813     echo loaded pci modules:
2814     (
2815         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
2816         for address in * ; do
2817             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
2818                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
2819                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
2820                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
2821                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
2822                     echo "$id $module"
2823                 fi
2824             fi
2825         done
2826     )
2827     echo
2828 fi
2829 </pre>
2830
2831 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
2832 mappings:</p>
2833
2834 <pre>
2835 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
2836     echo loaded usb modules:
2837     (
2838         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
2839         for address in * ; do
2840             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
2841                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
2842                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
2843                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
2844                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
2845                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
2846                         echo "$id $module"
2847                     fi
2848                 fi
2849             fi
2850         done
2851     )
2852     echo
2853 fi
2854 </pre>
2855
2856 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
2857 well.</p>
2858
2859       </div>
2860       <div class="tags">
2861
2862
2863         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>.
2864
2865
2866       </div>
2867     </div>
2868     <div class="padding"></div>
2869
2870     <div class="entry">
2871       <div class="title">
2872         <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>
2873       </div>
2874       <div class="date">
2875         22nd December 2010
2876       </div>
2877       <div class="body">
2878         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
2879 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
2880 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
2881 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
2882 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
2883 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
2884 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
2885 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
2886 university.</p>
2887
2888 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
2889 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
2890 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
2891 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
2892 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
2893 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
2894 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
2895 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
2896
2897 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
2898 I perform on a new model.</p>
2899
2900 <ul>
2901
2902 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
2903 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
2904 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
2905
2906 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
2907 installation, X.org is working.</li>
2908
2909 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
2910 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
2911 reported by the program.</li>
2912
2913 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
2914 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
2915 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
2916 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
2917 normally test this by playing
2918 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
2919 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
2920
2921 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
2922 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
2923
2924 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
2925 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
2926
2927 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
2928 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
2929
2930 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
2931 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
2932 few.</li>
2933
2934 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
2935 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
2936 notice this.</li>
2937
2938 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
2939 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
2940 resume.</li>
2941
2942 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
2943 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
2944 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
2945 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
2946 not.</li>
2947
2948 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
2949 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
2950 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
2951 existence.</li>
2952
2953 </ul>
2954
2955 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
2956 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
2957 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
2958 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
2959 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
2960 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
2961 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
2962 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
2963
2964       </div>
2965       <div class="tags">
2966
2967
2968         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>.
2969
2970
2971       </div>
2972     </div>
2973     <div class="padding"></div>
2974
2975     <div class="entry">
2976       <div class="title">
2977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
2978       </div>
2979       <div class="date">
2980         11th December 2010
2981       </div>
2982       <div class="body">
2983         <p>As I continue to explore
2984 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
2985 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
2986 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
2987
2988 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
2989 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
2990 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
2991 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
2992 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
2993 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
2994 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
2995 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
2996 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
2997 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
2998 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
2999 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
3000 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
3001 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
3002 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
3003 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
3004 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
3005 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
3006 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
3007 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
3008
3009 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
3010 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
3011 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
3012 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
3013 If the Skolelinux foundation
3014 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
3015 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
3016 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
3017 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
3018 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
3019 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
3020 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
3021 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
3022
3023 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
3024 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
3025 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
3026 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
3027 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
3028 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
3029 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
3030 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
3031 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
3032 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
3033 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
3034 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
3035 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
3036 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
3037 currencies.</p>
3038
3039 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
3040 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
3041 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
3042 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
3043 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
3044 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
3045 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
3046 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
3047 BitCoins.  Check out
3048 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
3049 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
3050 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
3051 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
3052 yet.</p>
3053
3054 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
3055 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
3056 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
3057 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
3058 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
3059
3060       </div>
3061       <div class="tags">
3062
3063
3064         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>.
3065
3066
3067       </div>
3068     </div>
3069     <div class="padding"></div>
3070
3071     <div class="entry">
3072       <div class="title">
3073         <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>
3074       </div>
3075       <div class="date">
3076         10th December 2010
3077       </div>
3078       <div class="body">
3079         <p>With this weeks lawless
3080 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
3081 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
3082 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
3083 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
3084 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
3085 A blog post from
3086 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
3087 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
3088 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
3089 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
3090 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
3091 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
3092 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
3093
3094 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
3095 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
3096 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
3097 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
3098 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
3099 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
3100 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
3101 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
3102 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
3103 Debian</a> soon.</p>
3104
3105 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
3106 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
3107 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
3108 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
3109 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
3110 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
3111 you can even get
3112 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
3113 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
3114 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
3115 on the current exchange rates.</p>
3116
3117 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
3118 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
3119 donations to the address
3120 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
3121
3122       </div>
3123       <div class="tags">
3124
3125
3126         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>.
3127
3128
3129       </div>
3130     </div>
3131     <div class="padding"></div>
3132
3133     <div class="entry">
3134       <div class="title">
3135         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
3136       </div>
3137       <div class="date">
3138         27th November 2010
3139       </div>
3140       <div class="body">
3141         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
3142 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
3143 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
3144 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
3145 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
3146 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
3147 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
3148 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
3149
3150 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
3151 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
3152 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
3153 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
3154 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
3155 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
3156 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
3157 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
3158 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
3159 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
3160 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
3161
3162 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
3163 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
3164 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
3165 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
3166 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
3167 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
3168 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
3169 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
3170 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
3171 what is going on.</p>
3172
3173       </div>
3174       <div class="tags">
3175
3176
3177         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>.
3178
3179
3180       </div>
3181     </div>
3182     <div class="padding"></div>
3183
3184     <div class="entry">
3185       <div class="title">
3186         <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>
3187       </div>
3188       <div class="date">
3189         22nd November 2010
3190       </div>
3191       <div class="body">
3192         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
3193 upgrade testing of the
3194 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3195 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
3196 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
3197 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
3198
3199 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3200
3201 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3202
3203 <blockquote><p>
3204   apache2.2-bin
3205   aptdaemon
3206   baobab
3207   binfmt-support
3208   browser-plugin-gnash
3209   cheese-common
3210   cli-common
3211   cups-pk-helper
3212   dmz-cursor-theme
3213   empathy
3214   empathy-common
3215   freedesktop-sound-theme
3216   freeglut3
3217   gconf-defaults-service
3218   gdm-themes
3219   gedit-plugins
3220   geoclue
3221   geoclue-hostip
3222   geoclue-localnet
3223   geoclue-manual
3224   geoclue-yahoo
3225   gnash
3226   gnash-common
3227   gnome
3228   gnome-backgrounds
3229   gnome-cards-data
3230   gnome-codec-install
3231   gnome-core
3232   gnome-desktop-environment
3233   gnome-disk-utility
3234   gnome-screenshot
3235   gnome-search-tool
3236   gnome-session-canberra
3237   gnome-system-log
3238   gnome-themes-extras
3239   gnome-themes-more
3240   gnome-user-share
3241   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3242   gstreamer0.10-tools
3243   gtk2-engines
3244   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3245   gtk2-engines-smooth
3246   hamster-applet
3247   libapache2-mod-dnssd
3248   libapr1
3249   libaprutil1
3250   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
3251   libaprutil1-ldap
3252   libart2.0-cil
3253   libboost-date-time1.42.0
3254   libboost-python1.42.0
3255   libboost-thread1.42.0
3256   libchamplain-0.4-0
3257   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
3258   libcheese-gtk18
3259   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3260   libcryptui0
3261   libdiscid0
3262   libelf1
3263   libepc-1.0-2
3264   libepc-common
3265   libepc-ui-1.0-2
3266   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3267   libfreerdp0
3268   libgconf2.0-cil
3269   libgdata-common
3270   libgdata7
3271   libgdu-gtk0
3272   libgee2
3273   libgeoclue0
3274   libgexiv2-0
3275   libgif4
3276   libglade2.0-cil
3277   libglib2.0-cil
3278   libgmime2.4-cil
3279   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3280   libgnome2.24-cil
3281   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
3282   libgpod-common
3283   libgpod4
3284   libgtk2.0-cil
3285   libgtkglext1
3286   libgtksourceview2.0-common
3287   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3288   libmono-addins0.2-cil
3289   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
3290   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3291   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
3292   libmono-posix2.0-cil
3293   libmono-security2.0-cil
3294   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3295   libmono-system2.0-cil
3296   libmtp8
3297   libmusicbrainz3-6
3298   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
3299   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
3300   libopal3.6.8
3301   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
3302   libpt2.6.7
3303   libpython2.6
3304   librpm1
3305   librpmio1
3306   libsdl1.2debian
3307   libsrtp0
3308   libssh-4
3309   libtelepathy-farsight0
3310   libtelepathy-glib0
3311   libtidy-0.99-0
3312   media-player-info
3313   mesa-utils
3314   mono-2.0-gac
3315   mono-gac
3316   mono-runtime
3317   nautilus-sendto
3318   nautilus-sendto-empathy
3319   p7zip-full
3320   pkg-config
3321   python-aptdaemon
3322   python-aptdaemon-gtk
3323   python-axiom
3324   python-beautifulsoup
3325   python-bugbuddy
3326   python-clientform
3327   python-coherence
3328   python-configobj
3329   python-crypto
3330   python-cupshelpers
3331   python-elementtree
3332   python-epsilon
3333   python-evolution
3334   python-feedparser
3335   python-gdata
3336   python-gdbm
3337   python-gst0.10
3338   python-gtkglext1
3339   python-gtksourceview2
3340   python-httplib2
3341   python-louie
3342   python-mako
3343   python-markupsafe
3344   python-mechanize
3345   python-nevow
3346   python-notify
3347   python-opengl
3348   python-openssl
3349   python-pam
3350   python-pkg-resources
3351   python-pyasn1
3352   python-pysqlite2
3353   python-rdflib
3354   python-serial
3355   python-tagpy
3356   python-twisted-bin
3357   python-twisted-conch
3358   python-twisted-core
3359   python-twisted-web
3360   python-utidylib
3361   python-webkit
3362   python-xdg
3363   python-zope.interface
3364   remmina
3365   remmina-plugin-data
3366   remmina-plugin-rdp
3367   remmina-plugin-vnc
3368   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3369   rhythmbox-plugins
3370   rpm-common
3371   rpm2cpio
3372   seahorse-plugins
3373   shotwell
3374   software-center
3375   system-config-printer-udev
3376   telepathy-gabble
3377   telepathy-mission-control-5
3378   telepathy-salut
3379   tomboy
3380   totem
3381   totem-coherence
3382   totem-mozilla
3383   totem-plugins
3384   transmission-common
3385   xdg-user-dirs
3386   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
3387   xserver-xephyr
3388 </p></blockquote>
3389
3390 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3391
3392 <blockquote><p>
3393   cheese
3394   ekiga
3395   eog
3396   epiphany-extensions
3397   evolution-exchange
3398   fast-user-switch-applet
3399   file-roller
3400   gcalctool
3401   gconf-editor
3402   gdm
3403   gedit
3404   gedit-common
3405   gnome-games
3406   gnome-games-data
3407   gnome-nettool
3408   gnome-system-tools
3409   gnome-themes
3410   gnuchess
3411   gucharmap
3412   guile-1.8-libs
3413   libavahi-ui0
3414   libdmx1
3415   libgalago3
3416   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
3417   libgtksourceview2.0-0
3418   liblircclient0
3419   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
3420   libspeexdsp1
3421   libsvga1
3422   rhythmbox
3423   seahorse
3424   sound-juicer
3425   system-config-printer
3426   totem-common
3427   transmission-gtk
3428   vinagre
3429   vino
3430 </p></blockquote>
3431
3432 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3433
3434 <blockquote><p>
3435   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3436 </p></blockquote>
3437
3438 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3439
3440 <blockquote><p>
3441 [nothing]
3442 </p></blockquote>
3443
3444 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
3445
3446 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3447
3448 <blockquote><p>
3449   ksmserver
3450 </p></blockquote>
3451
3452 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3453
3454 <blockquote><p>
3455   kwin
3456   network-manager-kde
3457 </p></blockquote>
3458
3459 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3460
3461 <blockquote><p>
3462   arts
3463   dolphin
3464   freespacenotifier
3465   google-gadgets-gst
3466   google-gadgets-xul
3467   kappfinder
3468   kcalc
3469   kcharselect
3470   kde-core
3471   kde-plasma-desktop
3472   kde-standard
3473   kde-window-manager
3474   kdeartwork
3475   kdeartwork-emoticons
3476   kdeartwork-style
3477   kdeartwork-theme-icon
3478   kdebase
3479   kdebase-apps
3480   kdebase-workspace
3481   kdebase-workspace-bin
3482   kdebase-workspace-data
3483   kdeeject
3484   kdelibs
3485   kdeplasma-addons
3486   kdeutils
3487   kdewallpapers
3488   kdf
3489   kfloppy
3490   kgpg
3491   khelpcenter4
3492   kinfocenter
3493   konq-plugins-l10n
3494   konqueror-nsplugins
3495   kscreensaver
3496   kscreensaver-xsavers
3497   ktimer
3498   kwrite
3499   libgle3
3500   libkde4-ruby1.8
3501   libkonq5
3502   libkonq5-templates
3503   libnetpbm10
3504   libplasma-ruby
3505   libplasma-ruby1.8
3506   libqt4-ruby1.8
3507   marble-data
3508   marble-plugins
3509   netpbm
3510   nuvola-icon-theme
3511   plasma-dataengines-workspace
3512   plasma-desktop
3513   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
3514   plasma-runners-addons
3515   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
3516   plasma-scriptengine-python
3517   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
3518   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
3519   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
3520   plasma-scriptengines
3521   plasma-wallpapers-addons
3522   plasma-widget-folderview
3523   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3524   ruby
3525   sweeper
3526   update-notifier-kde
3527   xscreensaver-data-extra
3528   xscreensaver-gl
3529   xscreensaver-gl-extra
3530   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3531 </p></blockquote>
3532
3533 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3534
3535 <blockquote><p>
3536   ark
3537   google-gadgets-common
3538   google-gadgets-qt
3539   htdig
3540   kate
3541   kdebase-bin
3542   kdebase-data
3543   kdepasswd
3544   kfind
3545   klipper
3546   konq-plugins
3547   konqueror
3548   ksysguard
3549   ksysguardd
3550   libarchive1
3551   libcln6
3552   libeet1
3553   libeina-svn-06
3554   libggadget-1.0-0b
3555   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
3556   libgps19
3557   libkdecorations4
3558   libkephal4
3559   libkonq4
3560   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
3561   libkscreensaver5
3562   libksgrd4
3563   libksignalplotter4
3564   libkunitconversion4
3565   libkwineffects1a
3566   libmarblewidget4
3567   libntrack-qt4-1
3568   libntrack0
3569   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
3570   libplasmaclock4a
3571   libplasmagenericshell4
3572   libprocesscore4a
3573   libprocessui4a
3574   libqalculate5
3575   libqedje0a
3576   libqtruby4shared2
3577   libqzion0a
3578   libruby1.8
3579   libscim8c2a
3580   libsmokekdecore4-3
3581   libsmokekdeui4-3
3582   libsmokekfile3
3583   libsmokekhtml3
3584   libsmokekio3
3585   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
3586   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
3587   libsmokekparts3
3588   libsmokektexteditor3
3589   libsmokekutils3
3590   libsmokenepomuk3
3591   libsmokephonon3
3592   libsmokeplasma3
3593   libsmokeqtcore4-3
3594   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
3595   libsmokeqtgui4-3
3596   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
3597   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
3598   libsmokeqtscript4-3
3599   libsmokeqtsql4-3
3600   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
3601   libsmokeqttest4-3
3602   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
3603   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
3604   libsmokeqtxml4-3
3605   libsmokesolid3
3606   libsmokesoprano3
3607   libtaskmanager4a
3608   libtidy-0.99-0
3609   libweather-ion4a
3610   libxklavier16
3611   libxxf86misc1
3612   okteta
3613   oxygencursors
3614   plasma-dataengines-addons
3615   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
3616   plasma-widget-lancelot
3617   plasma-widgets-addons
3618   plasma-widgets-workspace
3619   polkit-kde-1
3620   ruby1.8
3621   systemsettings
3622   update-notifier-common
3623 </p></blockquote>
3624
3625 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
3626 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
3627 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
3628 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
3629
3630       </div>
3631       <div class="tags">
3632
3633
3634         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>.
3635
3636
3637       </div>
3638     </div>
3639     <div class="padding"></div>
3640
3641     <div class="entry">
3642       <div class="title">
3643         <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>
3644       </div>
3645       <div class="date">
3646         22nd November 2010
3647       </div>
3648       <div class="body">
3649         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
3650 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
3651 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
3652 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
3653 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
3654 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
3655 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
3656 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
3657 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
3658
3659 <p>I found
3660 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
3661 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
3662 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
3663 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
3664 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
3665 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
3666
3667 <pre>
3668 #!/bin/sh
3669
3670 # Based on
3671 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
3672
3673 set -e
3674 set -x
3675
3676 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
3677     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
3678     exit 1
3679 else
3680     host="$1"
3681 fi
3682
3683 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
3684     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
3685     exit 1
3686 fi
3687
3688 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
3689 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
3690 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
3691 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
3692
3693 img=$host.img
3694 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
3695 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
3696
3697 parted $img mklabel msdos
3698 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
3699 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
3700 parted $img set 1 boot on
3701
3702 modprobe dm-mod
3703 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
3704 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
3705
3706 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
3707 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
3708 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
3709
3710 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
3711 losetup -d /dev/loop0
3712 </pre>
3713
3714 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
3715 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
3716
3717 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
3718 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
3719 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
3720 seem to work just fine.</p>
3721
3722       </div>
3723       <div class="tags">
3724
3725
3726         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>.
3727
3728
3729       </div>
3730     </div>
3731     <div class="padding"></div>
3732
3733     <div class="entry">
3734       <div class="title">
3735         <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>
3736       </div>
3737       <div class="date">
3738         20th November 2010
3739       </div>
3740       <div class="body">
3741         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
3742 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
3743 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
3744 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
3745
3746 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
3747 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
3748 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
3749
3750 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
3751
3752 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3753
3754 <blockquote><p>
3755   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
3756   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
3757   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
3758   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
3759   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
3760   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
3761   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
3762   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
3763   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
3764   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
3765   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
3766   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
3767   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
3768   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
3769   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
3770   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
3771   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
3772   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
3773   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
3774   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
3775   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
3776   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
3777   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
3778   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
3779   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
3780   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
3781   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
3782   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
3783   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
3784   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
3785   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
3786   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
3787   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
3788   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
3789   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
3790   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
3791   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
3792   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
3793   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
3794   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
3795   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
3796   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
3797   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
3798   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
3799   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
3800   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
3801   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
3802   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
3803   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
3804   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
3805   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
3806   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
3807   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
3808   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
3809   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
3810   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
3811   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
3812   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
3813   zip
3814 </p></blockquote>
3815
3816 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
3817
3818 <blockquote><p>
3819   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
3820   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
3821   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
3822   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
3823   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
3824   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
3825   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
3826   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
3827   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
3828   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
3829   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
3830   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
3831   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
3832   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
3833   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
3834   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
3835   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
3836   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
3837   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
3838   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
3839   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
3840   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
3841   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
3842   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
3843   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
3844   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
3845   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
3846   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
3847   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
3848 </p></blockquote>
3849
3850 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3851
3852 <blockquote><p>
3853   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
3854 </p></blockquote>
3855
3856 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3857
3858 <blockquote><p>
3859 [nothing]
3860 </p></blockquote>
3861
3862 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
3863
3864 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
3865
3866 <blockquote><p>
3867   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
3868   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
3869   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
3870   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
3871   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
3872   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
3873   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
3874   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
3875   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
3876   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
3877   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
3878   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
3879   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
3880   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
3881   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
3882   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
3883   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
3884   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
3885   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
3886   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
3887   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
3888   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
3889   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
3890   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
3891   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
3892   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
3893   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
3894   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
3895   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
3896   ttf-sazanami-gothic
3897 </p></blockquote>
3898
3899 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
3900
3901 <blockquote><p>
3902   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
3903   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
3904   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
3905   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
3906   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
3907   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
3908   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
3909   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
3910   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
3911   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
3912   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
3913   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
3914   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
3915   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
3916   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
3917   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
3918   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
3919   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
3920   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
3921   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
3922   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
3923   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
3924   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
3925   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
3926   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
3927   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
3928   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
3929   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
3930   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
3931   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
3932   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
3933   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
3934   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
3935 </p></blockquote>
3936
3937 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
3938
3939 <blockquote><p>
3940   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
3941   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
3942   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
3943   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
3944   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
3945   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
3946   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
3947 </p></blockquote>
3948
3949 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
3950
3951 <blockquote><p>
3952   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
3953 </p></blockquote>
3954
3955       </div>
3956       <div class="tags">
3957
3958
3959         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>.
3960
3961
3962       </div>
3963     </div>
3964     <div class="padding"></div>
3965
3966     <div class="entry">
3967       <div class="title">
3968         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
3969       </div>
3970       <div class="date">
3971         20th November 2010
3972       </div>
3973       <div class="body">
3974         <p>Answering
3975 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
3976 call from the Gnash project</a> for
3977 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
3978 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
3979 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
3980 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
3981 releases out more often.</p>
3982
3983 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
3984 I have considered setting up a <a
3985 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
3986 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
3987 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
3988 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
3989 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
3990 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
3991 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
3992 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
3993 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
3994 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
3995 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
3996 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
3997
3998       </div>
3999       <div class="tags">
4000
4001
4002         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>.
4003
4004
4005       </div>
4006     </div>
4007     <div class="padding"></div>
4008
4009     <div class="entry">
4010       <div class="title">
4011         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
4012       </div>
4013       <div class="date">
4014          9th November 2010
4015       </div>
4016       <div class="body">
4017         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
4018
4019 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
4020 3D linked in from
4021 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
4022 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
4023
4024       </div>
4025       <div class="tags">
4026
4027
4028         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>.
4029
4030
4031       </div>
4032     </div>
4033     <div class="padding"></div>
4034
4035     <div class="entry">
4036       <div class="title">
4037         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
4038       </div>
4039       <div class="date">
4040         24th October 2010
4041       </div>
4042       <div class="body">
4043         <p>Some updates.</p>
4044
4045 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
4046 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
4047 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
4048 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
4049 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
4050 :)</p>
4051
4052 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
4053 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
4054 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
4055 It is called
4056 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
4057 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
4058 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
4059 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
4060 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
4061 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
4062
4063 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
4064 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
4065 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
4066 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
4067 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
4068 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
4069 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
4070 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
4071 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
4072 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
4073
4074       </div>
4075       <div class="tags">
4076
4077
4078         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>.
4079
4080
4081       </div>
4082     </div>
4083     <div class="padding"></div>
4084
4085     <div class="entry">
4086       <div class="title">
4087         <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>
4088       </div>
4089       <div class="date">
4090          4th September 2010
4091       </div>
4092       <div class="body">
4093         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
4094 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
4095 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
4096 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
4097 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
4098 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
4099 installed.</p>
4100
4101 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
4102 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
4103 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
4104 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
4105 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
4106 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
4107 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
4108 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
4109 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
4110
4111 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
4112 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
4113 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
4114 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
4115 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
4116 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
4117 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
4118 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
4119 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
4120 pages they want to visit.</p>
4121
4122 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
4123 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
4124 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
4125 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
4126 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
4127 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
4128 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
4129 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
4130 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
4131 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
4132 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
4133
4134       </div>
4135       <div class="tags">
4136
4137
4138         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>.
4139
4140
4141       </div>
4142     </div>
4143     <div class="padding"></div>
4144
4145     <div class="entry">
4146       <div class="title">
4147         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
4148       </div>
4149       <div class="date">
4150         27th July 2010
4151       </div>
4152       <div class="body">
4153         <p>I discovered this while doing
4154 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
4155 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
4156 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
4157 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
4158 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
4159
4160 <p>An example is from todays
4161 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
4162 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
4163 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
4164 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
4165 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
4166 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
4167 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
4168
4169 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
4170
4171 <blockquote><pre>
4172 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
4173  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
4174   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
4175 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
4176  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
4177 </pre></blockquote>
4178
4179 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
4180 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
4181 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
4182 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
4183 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
4184 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
4185 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
4186 of dependency loops.</p>
4187
4188 <p>Thanks to
4189 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
4190 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
4191 dependencies
4192 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
4193 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
4194
4195 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
4196 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
4197 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
4198 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
4199 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
4200 it.</p>
4201
4202       </div>
4203       <div class="tags">
4204
4205
4206         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>.
4207
4208
4209       </div>
4210     </div>
4211     <div class="padding"></div>
4212
4213     <div class="entry">
4214       <div class="title">
4215         <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>
4216       </div>
4217       <div class="date">
4218         17th July 2010
4219       </div>
4220       <div class="body">
4221         <p>This is a
4222 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
4223 on my
4224 <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
4225 work</a> on
4226 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
4227 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
4228
4229 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
4230 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
4231 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
4232 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
4233
4234 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
4235 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
4236 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
4237
4238 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
4239
4240 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
4241 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
4242 the web.
4243
4244 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
4245 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
4246 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
4247 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
4248 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
4249 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
4250
4251 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
4252 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
4253 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
4254 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
4255 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
4256 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
4257 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
4258 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
4259 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
4260 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
4261 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
4262 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
4263 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
4264 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
4265 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
4266 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
4267
4268 <blockquote><pre>
4269 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4270   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4271   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4272   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4273   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4274   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4275   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4276
4277 ldapsearch -h ldap \
4278   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
4279   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
4280   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
4281   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
4282   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
4283 </pre></blockquote>
4284
4285 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
4286 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
4287 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
4288 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4289 also exist.</p>
4290
4291 <blockquote><pre>
4292 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4293 objectclass: top
4294 objectclass: dnsdomain
4295 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4296 dc: tjener
4297 arecord: 10.0.2.2
4298 associateddomain: tjener.intern
4299
4300 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4301 objectclass: top
4302 objectclass: dnsdomain2
4303 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4304 dc: 2
4305 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
4306 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
4307 </pre></blockquote>
4308
4309 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
4310 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
4311 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
4312 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
4313 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
4314 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
4315 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
4316 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
4317 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
4318 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
4319 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
4320 instead.</p>
4321
4322 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
4323 like this:</p>
4324
4325 <blockquote><pre>
4326 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4327   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
4328   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
4329   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
4330   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
4331   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
4332
4333 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
4334   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
4335 </pre></blockquote>
4336
4337 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
4338 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
4339 reverse lookups.</p>
4340
4341 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
4342 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
4343 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
4344 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
4345
4346 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
4347 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
4348 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
4349
4350 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
4351 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
4352 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
4353 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
4354 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
4355
4356 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
4357 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
4358 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
4359 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
4360 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
4361
4362 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
4363 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
4364 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
4365 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
4366 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
4367 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
4368
4369 <blockquote><pre>
4370 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
4371     SUP top
4372     AUXILIARY
4373     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
4374           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
4375           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
4376           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
4377           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
4378     ))
4379 </pre></blockquote>
4380
4381 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
4382 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
4383 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
4384 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
4385 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
4386 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
4387
4388 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
4389
4390 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
4391 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
4392 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
4393 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
4394 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
4395
4396 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
4397 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
4398 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
4399 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
4400
4401 <blockquote><pre>
4402 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
4403 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
4404 </pre></blockquote>
4405
4406 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
4407 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
4408 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
4409 search result is this entry:</p>
4410
4411 <blockquote><pre>
4412 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4413 cn: dhcp
4414 objectClass: top
4415 objectClass: dhcpServer
4416 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4417 </pre></blockquote>
4418
4419 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
4420 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
4421 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
4422 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
4423 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
4424 The search result is this entry:</p>
4425
4426 <blockquote><pre>
4427 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4428 cn: DHCP Config
4429 objectClass: top
4430 objectClass: dhcpService
4431 objectClass: dhcpOptions
4432 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4433 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
4434 dhcpStatements: authoritative
4435 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
4436 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
4437 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
4438 </pre></blockquote>
4439
4440 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
4441 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
4442 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
4443 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
4444 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
4445 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
4446 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
4447 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
4448 related computer objects.</p>
4449
4450 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
4451 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
4452 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
4453 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
4454 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
4455 like:</p>
4456
4457 <blockquote><pre>
4458 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4459 cn: hostname
4460 objectClass: top
4461 objectClass: dhcpHost
4462 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4463 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
4464 </pre></blockquote>
4465
4466 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
4467 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
4468 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
4469 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
4470 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
4471 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
4472 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
4473 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
4474 structural object class.
4475
4476 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
4477
4478 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
4479 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
4480 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
4481 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
4482 in the configuration.</p>
4483
4484 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
4485 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
4486 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
4487 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
4488 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
4489 structure.</p>
4490
4491 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
4492 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
4493
4494 <blockquote><pre>
4495 ou=services
4496   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
4497     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
4498     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4499       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4500         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4501     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
4502       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
4503         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
4504     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
4505       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
4506 </pre></blockquote>
4507
4508 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
4509 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
4510 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
4511 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
4512
4513 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
4514 like this:</p>
4515
4516 <blockquote><pre>
4517 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4518 dc: hostname
4519 objectClass: top
4520 objectClass: dhcpHost
4521 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4522 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
4523 associateddomain: hostname.intern
4524 arecord: 10.11.12.13
4525 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4526 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
4527 </pre></blockquote>
4528
4529 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
4530 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
4531 auxiliary object class.</p>
4532
4533       </div>
4534       <div class="tags">
4535
4536
4537         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>.
4538
4539
4540       </div>
4541     </div>
4542     <div class="padding"></div>
4543
4544     <div class="entry">
4545       <div class="title">
4546         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
4547       </div>
4548       <div class="date">
4549         14th July 2010
4550       </div>
4551       <div class="body">
4552         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
4553 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
4554 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
4555 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
4556 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
4557
4558 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
4559 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
4560
4561 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
4562 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
4563 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
4564 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
4565 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
4566 to a slave DNS server.</p>
4567
4568 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
4569 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
4570 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
4571 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
4572 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
4573 seem to work.</p>
4574
4575 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
4576 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
4577 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
4578 this:</p>
4579
4580 <blockquote><pre>
4581   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4582   cn: hostname
4583   objectClass: dhcphost
4584   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
4585   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
4586   associateddomain: hostname.intern
4587   arecord: 10.11.12.13
4588   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
4589   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
4590   ldapconfigsound: Y
4591 </pre></blockquote>
4592
4593 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
4594 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
4595 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
4596 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
4597
4598 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
4599 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
4600 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
4601 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
4602 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
4603 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
4604 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
4605 might be a good place to put it.</p>
4606
4607 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4608 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4609
4610       </div>
4611       <div class="tags">
4612
4613
4614         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>.
4615
4616
4617       </div>
4618     </div>
4619     <div class="padding"></div>
4620
4621     <div class="entry">
4622       <div class="title">
4623         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
4624       </div>
4625       <div class="date">
4626         11th July 2010
4627       </div>
4628       <div class="body">
4629         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
4630 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
4631 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
4632 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
4633
4634 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
4635 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
4636 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
4637 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
4638 LTSP clients.</p>
4639
4640 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
4641 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
4642 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
4643
4644 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
4645 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
4646 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
4647
4648 <blockquote><pre>
4649 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
4650 #
4651 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
4652 #
4653 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
4654 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
4655 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
4656 #
4657 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
4658 # existence of attribute names.
4659 #
4660 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
4661 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
4662 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
4663 #
4664 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
4665 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
4666 #
4667 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
4668 #     SUP top
4669 #     AUXILIARY
4670 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
4671
4672 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
4673 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
4674     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
4675     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
4676         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
4677         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
4678             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
4679             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
4680             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
4681             # bass value on to clients
4682             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
4683         done
4684     done
4685 fi
4686 </pre></blockquote>
4687
4688 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
4689 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
4690 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
4691 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
4692 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
4693
4694 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4695 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4696
4697 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
4698 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
4699 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
4700 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
4701 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
4702 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
4703
4704       </div>
4705       <div class="tags">
4706
4707
4708         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>.
4709
4710
4711       </div>
4712     </div>
4713     <div class="padding"></div>
4714
4715     <div class="entry">
4716       <div class="title">
4717         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
4718       </div>
4719       <div class="date">
4720          9th July 2010
4721       </div>
4722       <div class="body">
4723         <p>Since
4724 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
4725 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
4726 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
4727 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
4728 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
4729 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
4730 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
4731 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
4732 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
4733 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
4734 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
4735 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
4736 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
4737
4738       </div>
4739       <div class="tags">
4740
4741
4742         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>.
4743
4744
4745       </div>
4746     </div>
4747     <div class="padding"></div>
4748
4749     <div class="entry">
4750       <div class="title">
4751         <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>
4752       </div>
4753       <div class="date">
4754          3rd July 2010
4755       </div>
4756       <div class="body">
4757         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
4758 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
4759 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
4760 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
4761 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
4762 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
4763 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
4764 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
4765
4766 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
4767 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
4768 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
4769 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
4770 publish the difference.</p>
4771
4772 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4773
4774 <blockquote><p>
4775   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4776   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
4777   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
4778   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
4779   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
4780   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
4781   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
4782   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
4783 </p></blockquote>
4784
4785 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4786
4787 <blockquote><p>
4788   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
4789   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
4790   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
4791   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
4792   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
4793   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
4794   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
4795   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
4796   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
4797   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
4798   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
4799   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
4800   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
4801   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
4802   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
4803   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
4804   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
4805   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
4806   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
4807   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
4808 </p></blockquote>
4809
4810 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4811
4812 <blockquote><p>
4813   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
4814   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
4815   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
4816   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
4817   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
4818   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
4819   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
4820   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
4821   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
4822   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
4823   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
4824   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
4825   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
4826   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
4827   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
4828   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
4829   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
4830   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
4831   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
4832   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
4833   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
4834 </p></blockquote>
4835
4836 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4837
4838 <blockquote><p>
4839   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
4840   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
4841   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
4842 </p></blockquote>
4843
4844 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
4845 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
4846 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
4847 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
4848 the difference somewhat.
4849
4850       </div>
4851       <div class="tags">
4852
4853
4854         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>.
4855
4856
4857       </div>
4858     </div>
4859     <div class="padding"></div>
4860
4861     <div class="entry">
4862       <div class="title">
4863         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
4864       </div>
4865       <div class="date">
4866         28th June 2010
4867       </div>
4868       <div class="body">
4869         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
4870 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
4871 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
4872 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
4873 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
4874 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
4875 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
4876 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
4877 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
4878 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
4879
4880 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
4881 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
4882 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
4883 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
4884 released.</p>
4885
4886 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
4887 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
4888 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
4889 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
4890
4891 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
4892 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4893
4894 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
4895 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
4896 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
4897 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
4898 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
4899
4900       </div>
4901       <div class="tags">
4902
4903
4904         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>.
4905
4906
4907       </div>
4908     </div>
4909     <div class="padding"></div>
4910
4911     <div class="entry">
4912       <div class="title">
4913         <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>
4914       </div>
4915       <div class="date">
4916         24th June 2010
4917       </div>
4918       <div class="body">
4919         <p>A while back, I
4920 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
4921 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
4922 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
4923 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
4924
4925 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
4926 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
4927 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
4928 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
4929
4930 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
4931 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
4932 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
4933 Debian Edu.</p>
4934
4935 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
4936 the
4937 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
4938 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
4939 available today from IETF.</p>
4940
4941 <pre>
4942 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
4943 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
4944 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
4945  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
4946         NAME 'dhcpHost'
4947         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
4948 -       SUP top
4949 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
4950         MUST cn
4951         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
4952         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
4953 </pre>
4954
4955 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
4956 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
4957 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
4958
4959 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
4960 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
4961
4962       </div>
4963       <div class="tags">
4964
4965
4966         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>.
4967
4968
4969       </div>
4970     </div>
4971     <div class="padding"></div>
4972
4973     <div class="entry">
4974       <div class="title">
4975         <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>
4976       </div>
4977       <div class="date">
4978         16th June 2010
4979       </div>
4980       <div class="body">
4981         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
4982 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
4983 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
4984 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
4985 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
4986 this:
4987
4988 <blockquote><pre>
4989 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
4990 tasksel --new-install
4991 </pre></blockquote>
4992
4993 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
4994 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
4995 any output what so ever.
4996
4997 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
4998 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
4999 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
5000 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
5001 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
5002 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
5003 code like this:
5004
5005 <blockquote><pre>
5006 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5007 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
5008 $cmd
5009 </pre></blockquote>
5010
5011 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
5012 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
5013 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
5014 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
5015 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
5016 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
5017 installation.</p>
5018
5019 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
5020 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
5021 like this.</p>
5022
5023       </div>
5024       <div class="tags">
5025
5026
5027         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>.
5028
5029
5030       </div>
5031     </div>
5032     <div class="padding"></div>
5033
5034     <div class="entry">
5035       <div class="title">
5036         <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>
5037       </div>
5038       <div class="date">
5039         13th June 2010
5040       </div>
5041       <div class="body">
5042         <p>My
5043 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
5044 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
5045 finally made the upgrade logs available from
5046 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
5047 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
5048 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
5049 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
5050
5051 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
5052 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
5053 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
5054 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
5055 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
5056 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
5057 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
5058 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
5059
5060 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
5061 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
5062 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
5063 too surprising.</p>
5064
5065 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
5066 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
5067 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
5068 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
5069 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
5070 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
5071 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
5072 continue.</p>
5073
5074 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
5075 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
5076   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
5077   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
5078   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
5079   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
5080   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
5081   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5082   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5083   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5084   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5085   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5086   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5087   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5088   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5089   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5090   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5091   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5092   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5093   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5094   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5095   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5096   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5097   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5098   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5099   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5100   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5101   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5102   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
5103   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
5104
5105 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
5106
5107 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
5108   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
5109   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
5110   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
5111   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5112   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
5113   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
5114   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
5115   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
5116   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
5117   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5118   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
5119   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
5120   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
5121   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
5122   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
5123   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
5124   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
5125   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
5126   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
5127   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
5128   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
5129   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
5130   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
5131   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
5132   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
5133   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
5134   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
5135   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
5136   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5137   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5138   zip</p>
5139
5140 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
5141
5142 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
5143   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
5144   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
5145   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
5146   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
5147   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
5148   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
5149   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
5150   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
5151   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
5152   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
5153   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
5154   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
5155   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
5156   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5157   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
5158   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
5159   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
5160   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
5161   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
5162   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
5163   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
5164   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
5165   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
5166   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
5167   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
5168   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
5169   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
5170
5171 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
5172 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
5173   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5174   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
5175   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
5176   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5177   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
5178   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
5179   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5180   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
5181   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
5182   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
5183   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
5184   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
5185   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
5186   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
5187   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
5188   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5189   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5190   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
5191   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
5192   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5193   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
5194   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
5195   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5196   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5197   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
5198   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
5199   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
5200   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
5201   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
5202   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
5203   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
5204   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
5205   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
5206   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
5207   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
5208   xulrunner-1.9</p>
5209
5210
5211       </div>
5212       <div class="tags">
5213
5214
5215         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>.
5216
5217
5218       </div>
5219     </div>
5220     <div class="padding"></div>
5221
5222     <div class="entry">
5223       <div class="title">
5224         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
5225       </div>
5226       <div class="date">
5227         11th June 2010
5228       </div>
5229       <div class="body">
5230         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
5231 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
5232 have been discovered and reported in the process
5233 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
5234 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
5235 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
5236 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
5237 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
5238
5239 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
5240 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
5241 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
5242 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
5243 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
5244 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
5245
5246 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
5247 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
5248 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5249 is created.  The bug report
5250 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
5251 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
5252 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
5253 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
5254 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
5255 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
5256 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
5257 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
5258 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
5259 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
5260 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
5261 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
5262 Debian Squeeze.</p>
5263
5264 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
5265 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
5266 trick:</p>
5267
5268 <blockquote><pre>
5269 #!/bin/sh
5270 set -ex
5271
5272 if [ "$1" ] ; then
5273     desktop=$1
5274 else
5275     desktop=gnome
5276 fi
5277
5278 from=lenny
5279 to=squeeze
5280
5281 exec &lt; /dev/null
5282 unset LANG
5283 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
5284 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
5285 fuser -mv .
5286 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
5287 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5288 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
5289 #!/bin/sh
5290 exit 101
5291 EOF
5292 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
5293 exit_cleanup() {
5294     umount $tmpdir/proc
5295 }
5296 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
5297 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
5298 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
5299
5300 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
5301
5302 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
5303 # to return the correct answers.
5304 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
5305     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
5306
5307 # Include the desktop and laptop task
5308 for test in desktop laptop ; do
5309     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
5310 #!/bin/sh
5311 exit 2
5312 EOF
5313     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
5314 done
5315
5316 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
5317 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
5318 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
5319 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
5320
5321 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
5322 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
5323 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
5324 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
5325 fuser -mv
5326 </pre></blockquote>
5327
5328 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
5329 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
5330 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
5331 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
5332 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
5333 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
5334
5335 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
5336 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
5337 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
5338 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
5339 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
5340 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
5341 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
5342
5343 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
5344 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
5345 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
5346 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
5347 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
5348 packages.</p>
5349
5350       </div>
5351       <div class="tags">
5352
5353
5354         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>.
5355
5356
5357       </div>
5358     </div>
5359     <div class="padding"></div>
5360
5361     <div class="entry">
5362       <div class="title">
5363         <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>
5364       </div>
5365       <div class="date">
5366          6th June 2010
5367       </div>
5368       <div class="body">
5369         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
5370 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
5371 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
5372 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
5373 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
5374 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
5375 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
5376
5377 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
5378 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
5379 COLUMNS):</p>
5380
5381 <blockquote><pre>
5382 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
5383 previous=N
5384 PREVLEVEL=
5385 RUNLEVEL=
5386 runlevel=S
5387 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
5388 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
5389 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
5390 </pre></blockquote>
5391
5392 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
5393 script.</p>
5394
5395 <blockquote><pre>
5396 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
5397 previous=N
5398 PREVLEVEL=N
5399 RUNLEVEL=S
5400 runlevel=S
5401 </pre></blockquote>
5402
5403 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
5404 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
5405 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
5406
5407 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
5408 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
5409 choice.</p>
5410
5411       </div>
5412       <div class="tags">
5413
5414
5415         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>.
5416
5417
5418       </div>
5419     </div>
5420     <div class="padding"></div>
5421
5422     <div class="entry">
5423       <div class="title">
5424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
5425       </div>
5426       <div class="date">
5427          6th June 2010
5428       </div>
5429       <div class="body">
5430         <p>Via the
5431 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
5432 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
5433 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
5434 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
5435 following the standards wars of today.</p>
5436
5437       </div>
5438       <div class="tags">
5439
5440
5441         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>.
5442
5443
5444       </div>
5445     </div>
5446     <div class="padding"></div>
5447
5448     <div class="entry">
5449       <div class="title">
5450         <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>
5451       </div>
5452       <div class="date">
5453          3rd June 2010
5454       </div>
5455       <div class="body">
5456         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
5457 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
5458 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
5459 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
5460 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
5461
5462 <blockquote><pre>
5463 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
5464   vendor                    count
5465   Dell Computer Corporation     1
5466     PowerEdge 1750              1
5467   IBM                           1
5468     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
5469   Intel                         2
5470   [no-dmi-info]                 3
5471 maintainer:~#
5472 </pre></blockquote>
5473
5474 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
5475 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
5476 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
5477 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
5478 option to list the individual machines.</p>
5479
5480 <p>A larger list is
5481 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
5482 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
5483 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
5484 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
5485 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
5486 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
5487 collector.</p>
5488
5489       </div>
5490       <div class="tags">
5491
5492
5493         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>.
5494
5495
5496       </div>
5497     </div>
5498     <div class="padding"></div>
5499
5500     <div class="entry">
5501       <div class="title">
5502         <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>
5503       </div>
5504       <div class="date">
5505          1st June 2010
5506       </div>
5507       <div class="body">
5508         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
5509 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
5510 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
5511 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
5512 wait.</p>
5513
5514 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
5515 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
5516 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
5517 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
5518 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
5519 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
5520
5521 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
5522 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
5523 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
5524 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
5525 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
5526 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
5527 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
5528 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
5529
5530 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
5531
5532       </div>
5533       <div class="tags">
5534
5535
5536         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>.
5537
5538
5539       </div>
5540     </div>
5541     <div class="padding"></div>
5542
5543     <div class="entry">
5544       <div class="title">
5545         <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>
5546       </div>
5547       <div class="date">
5548         27th May 2010
5549       </div>
5550       <div class="body">
5551         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
5552 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
5553 issues are known and should be solved:
5554
5555 <p><ul>
5556
5557 <li>The wicd package seen to
5558 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
5559 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
5560 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
5561 seem to be on the case.</li>
5562
5563 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
5564 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
5565 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
5566 maintainer is on the case.</li>
5567
5568 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
5569 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
5570 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
5571 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
5572 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
5573 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
5574 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
5575 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
5576
5577 </ul></p>
5578
5579 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
5580 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
5581 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
5582 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
5583
5584 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5585 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5586 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5587 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5588
5589 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
5590
5591       </div>
5592       <div class="tags">
5593
5594
5595         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>.
5596
5597
5598       </div>
5599     </div>
5600     <div class="padding"></div>
5601
5602     <div class="entry">
5603       <div class="title">
5604         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
5605       </div>
5606       <div class="date">
5607         22nd May 2010
5608       </div>
5609       <div class="body">
5610         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
5611 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
5612 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
5613 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
5614
5615 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
5616 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
5617 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
5618 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
5619 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
5620 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
5621 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
5622 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
5623 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
5624 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
5625 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
5626 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
5627 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
5628 going to work.</p>
5629
5630 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
5631 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
5632 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
5633 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
5634 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
5635 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
5636 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
5637 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
5638 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
5639 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
5640 Edu.</p>
5641
5642 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
5643 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
5644 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
5645 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
5646 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
5647 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
5648
5649 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
5650 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
5651
5652       </div>
5653       <div class="tags">
5654
5655
5656         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>.
5657
5658
5659       </div>
5660     </div>
5661     <div class="padding"></div>
5662
5663     <div class="entry">
5664       <div class="title">
5665         <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>
5666       </div>
5667       <div class="date">
5668         14th May 2010
5669       </div>
5670       <div class="body">
5671         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
5672 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
5673 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
5674 expected, if I am to believe the
5675 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
5676 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
5677 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
5678 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
5679 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
5680 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
5681 version.</p>
5682
5683 More information about
5684 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5685 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
5686 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
5687 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
5688
5689 <blockquote><pre>
5690 CONCURRENCY=none
5691 </pre></blockquote>
5692
5693 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5694 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5695 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5696 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5697
5698       </div>
5699       <div class="tags">
5700
5701
5702         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>.
5703
5704
5705       </div>
5706     </div>
5707     <div class="padding"></div>
5708
5709     <div class="entry">
5710       <div class="title">
5711         <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>
5712       </div>
5713       <div class="date">
5714         14th May 2010
5715       </div>
5716       <div class="body">
5717         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
5718 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
5719 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
5720 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
5721 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
5722 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
5723 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
5724 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
5725
5726 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
5727 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
5728 this on the collector host:</p>
5729
5730 <blockquote><pre>
5731 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
5732 </pre></blockquote>
5733
5734 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
5735 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
5736
5737 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
5738 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
5739 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
5740 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
5741 written yet.</p>
5742
5743       </div>
5744       <div class="tags">
5745
5746
5747         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>.
5748
5749
5750       </div>
5751     </div>
5752     <div class="padding"></div>
5753
5754     <div class="entry">
5755       <div class="title">
5756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
5757       </div>
5758       <div class="date">
5759         13th May 2010
5760       </div>
5761       <div class="body">
5762         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
5763 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
5764 has been
5765 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
5766
5767 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
5768 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
5769 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
5770 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
5771 based boot system.  Tollef is
5772 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
5773 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
5774 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
5775 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
5776 at the moment do not.</p>
5777
5778 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
5779 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
5780 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
5781 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
5782 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
5783 way forward.</p>
5784
5785 <p>In the mean time, based on the
5786 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
5787 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
5788 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
5789 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
5790 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
5791 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
5792 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
5793 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
5794
5795       </div>
5796       <div class="tags">
5797
5798
5799         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>.
5800
5801
5802       </div>
5803     </div>
5804     <div class="padding"></div>
5805
5806     <div class="entry">
5807       <div class="title">
5808         <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>
5809       </div>
5810       <div class="date">
5811          6th May 2010
5812       </div>
5813       <div class="body">
5814         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
5815 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
5816 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
5817 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
5818 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5819 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
5820 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
5821
5822 <blockquote><pre>
5823 CONCURRENCY=makefile
5824 </pre></blockquote>
5825
5826 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
5827 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
5828 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
5829 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
5830 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
5831 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
5832 make this happen.</p>
5833
5834 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
5835 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
5836 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
5837 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
5838 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
5839
5840 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
5841 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
5842 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
5843 fix the remaining issues.</p>
5844
5845 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
5846 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
5847 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
5848 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
5849
5850       </div>
5851       <div class="tags">
5852
5853
5854         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>.
5855
5856
5857       </div>
5858     </div>
5859     <div class="padding"></div>
5860
5861     <div class="entry">
5862       <div class="title">
5863         <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>
5864       </div>
5865       <div class="date">
5866         27th July 2009
5867       </div>
5868       <div class="body">
5869         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
5870 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
5871 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
5872 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
5873 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
5874 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
5875 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
5876
5877 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
5878 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
5879 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
5880
5881       </div>
5882       <div class="tags">
5883
5884
5885         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>.
5886
5887
5888       </div>
5889     </div>
5890     <div class="padding"></div>
5891
5892     <div class="entry">
5893       <div class="title">
5894         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
5895       </div>
5896       <div class="date">
5897         22nd July 2009
5898       </div>
5899       <div class="body">
5900         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
5901 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
5902 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
5903 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
5904 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
5905 the package up to date.</p>
5906
5907 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
5908 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
5909 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
5910 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
5911 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
5912 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
5913 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
5914 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
5915 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
5916 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
5917 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
5918 working on the future release.</p>
5919
5920 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
5921 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
5922
5923       </div>
5924       <div class="tags">
5925
5926
5927         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>.
5928
5929
5930       </div>
5931     </div>
5932     <div class="padding"></div>
5933
5934     <div class="entry">
5935       <div class="title">
5936         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
5937       </div>
5938       <div class="date">
5939         24th June 2009
5940       </div>
5941       <div class="body">
5942         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
5943 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
5944 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
5945 funded
5946 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
5947 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
5948 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
5949 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
5950 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
5951 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
5952
5953 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
5954 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
5955 boot:</p>
5956
5957 <ul>
5958
5959 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
5960
5961 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
5962    clock is in UTC.</li>
5963
5964 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
5965    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
5966    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
5967
5968 </ul>
5969
5970 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
5971 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
5972 Villegas</a>.
5973
5974 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
5975 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
5976 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
5977 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
5978 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
5979 using this.</p>
5980
5981 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
5982 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
5983 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
5984 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
5985 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
5986 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
5987 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
5988
5989       </div>
5990       <div class="tags">
5991
5992
5993         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>.
5994
5995
5996       </div>
5997     </div>
5998     <div class="padding"></div>
5999
6000     <div class="entry">
6001       <div class="title">
6002         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
6003       </div>
6004       <div class="date">
6005         17th May 2009
6006       </div>
6007       <div class="body">
6008         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
6009 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
6010 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
6011 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
6012 dager siden kom
6013 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
6014 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
6015 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
6016 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
6017 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
6018
6019 <blockquote>
6020 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
6021 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
6022 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
6023 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
6024 </blockquote>
6025
6026 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
6027 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
6028 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
6029 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
6030 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
6031
6032 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
6033 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
6034 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
6035
6036       </div>
6037       <div class="tags">
6038
6039
6040         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
6041
6042
6043       </div>
6044     </div>
6045     <div class="padding"></div>
6046
6047     <div class="entry">
6048       <div class="title">
6049         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
6050       </div>
6051       <div class="date">
6052          7th May 2009
6053       </div>
6054       <div class="body">
6055         <p>Kom over
6056 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
6057 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
6058 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
6059 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
6060 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
6061 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
6062 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
6063
6064       </div>
6065       <div class="tags">
6066
6067
6068         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6069
6070
6071       </div>
6072     </div>
6073     <div class="padding"></div>
6074
6075     <div class="entry">
6076       <div class="title">
6077         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
6078       </div>
6079       <div class="date">
6080          2nd May 2009
6081       </div>
6082       <div class="body">
6083         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
6084 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
6085 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
6086 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
6087 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
6088 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
6089 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
6090 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
6091 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
6092 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
6093 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
6094 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
6095 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
6096 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
6097 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
6098 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
6099 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
6100 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
6101 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
6102 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
6103
6104 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
6105 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
6106 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
6107 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
6108 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
6109 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
6110 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
6111 betydelige.</p>
6112
6113       </div>
6114       <div class="tags">
6115
6116
6117         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6118
6119
6120       </div>
6121     </div>
6122     <div class="padding"></div>
6123
6124     <div class="entry">
6125       <div class="title">
6126         <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>
6127       </div>
6128       <div class="date">
6129          2nd May 2009
6130       </div>
6131       <div class="body">
6132         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
6133 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
6134 do not yet know them.</p>
6135
6136 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
6137 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
6138 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
6139 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
6140 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
6141 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
6142 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
6143 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
6144 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
6145 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
6146 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
6147
6148 <p>The second one is
6149 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
6150 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
6151 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
6152 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
6153 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
6154 and the company behind it is running
6155 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
6156 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
6157 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
6158 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
6159 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
6160 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
6161 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
6162 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
6163
6164 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
6165 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
6166 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
6167 surrounded by today.</p>
6168
6169       </div>
6170       <div class="tags">
6171
6172
6173         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>.
6174
6175
6176       </div>
6177     </div>
6178     <div class="padding"></div>
6179
6180     <div class="entry">
6181       <div class="title">
6182         <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>
6183       </div>
6184       <div class="date">
6185         28th April 2009
6186       </div>
6187       <div class="body">
6188         <p>Julien Blache
6189 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
6190 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
6191 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
6192 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
6193 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
6194 properties.</p>
6195
6196       </div>
6197       <div class="tags">
6198
6199
6200         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>.
6201
6202
6203       </div>
6204     </div>
6205     <div class="padding"></div>
6206
6207     <div class="entry">
6208       <div class="title">
6209         <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>
6210       </div>
6211       <div class="date">
6212         30th March 2009
6213       </div>
6214       <div class="body">
6215         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
6216 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
6217 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
6218 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
6219 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
6220 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
6221 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
6222 application.</p>
6223
6224 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
6225 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
6226 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
6227 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
6228 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
6229 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
6230 blocked from doing so.</p>
6231
6232 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
6233 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
6234 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
6235 requirements change.</p>
6236
6237 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
6238 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
6239 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
6240
6241       </div>
6242       <div class="tags">
6243
6244
6245         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>.
6246
6247
6248       </div>
6249     </div>
6250     <div class="padding"></div>
6251
6252     <div class="entry">
6253       <div class="title">
6254         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
6255       </div>
6256       <div class="date">
6257         29th March 2009
6258       </div>
6259       <div class="body">
6260         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
6261 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
6262 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
6263 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
6264 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
6265 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
6266 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
6267 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
6268 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
6269 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
6270 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
6271 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
6272 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
6273 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
6274 now. :)</p>
6275
6276       </div>
6277       <div class="tags">
6278
6279
6280         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>.
6281
6282
6283       </div>
6284     </div>
6285     <div class="padding"></div>
6286
6287     <div class="entry">
6288       <div class="title">
6289         <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>
6290       </div>
6291       <div class="date">
6292         29th March 2009
6293       </div>
6294       <div class="body">
6295         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
6296 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
6297 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
6298 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
6299 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
6300 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
6301
6302 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
6303 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
6304 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
6305 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
6306 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
6307 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
6308 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
6309 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
6310 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
6311 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
6312 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
6313 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
6314 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
6315
6316 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
6317 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
6318 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
6319 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
6320
6321 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
6322 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
6323
6324 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
6325 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
6326 new IETF work group?</p>
6327
6328       </div>
6329       <div class="tags">
6330
6331
6332         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>.
6333
6334
6335       </div>
6336     </div>
6337     <div class="padding"></div>
6338
6339     <div class="entry">
6340       <div class="title">
6341         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
6342       </div>
6343       <div class="date">
6344         15th February 2009
6345       </div>
6346       <div class="body">
6347         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
6348 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
6349 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
6350 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
6351 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
6352 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
6353 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
6354 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
6355 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
6356 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
6357 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
6358 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
6359
6360       </div>
6361       <div class="tags">
6362
6363
6364         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
6365
6366
6367       </div>
6368     </div>
6369     <div class="padding"></div>
6370
6371     <div class="entry">
6372       <div class="title">
6373         <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>
6374       </div>
6375       <div class="date">
6376          7th December 2008
6377       </div>
6378       <div class="body">
6379         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
6380 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
6381 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
6382 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
6383 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
6384 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
6385 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
6386 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
6387
6388 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
6389 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
6390 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
6391 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
6392 of these cards.</p>
6393
6394       </div>
6395       <div class="tags">
6396
6397
6398         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>.
6399
6400
6401       </div>
6402     </div>
6403     <div class="padding"></div>
6404
6405     <div class="entry">
6406       <div class="title">
6407         <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>
6408       </div>
6409       <div class="date">
6410         25th November 2008
6411       </div>
6412       <div class="body">
6413         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
6414 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
6415 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
6416 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
6417 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
6418 notes are available on
6419 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
6420 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
6421 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
6422 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
6423 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
6424 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
6425 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
6426 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
6427 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
6428
6429 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
6430 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
6431
6432       </div>
6433       <div class="tags">
6434
6435
6436         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>.
6437
6438
6439       </div>
6440     </div>
6441     <div class="padding"></div>
6442
6443     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
6444     <div id="sidebar">
6445
6446
6447
6448 <h2>Archive</h2>
6449 <ul>
6450
6451 <li>2013
6452 <ul>
6453
6454 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
6455
6456 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
6457
6458 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
6459
6460 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
6461
6462 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6463
6464 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
6465
6466 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6467
6468 </ul></li>
6469
6470 <li>2012
6471 <ul>
6472
6473 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
6474
6475 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
6476
6477 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
6478
6479 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
6480
6481 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
6482
6483 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
6484
6485 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
6486
6487 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6488
6489 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
6490
6491 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
6492
6493 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
6494
6495 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
6496
6497 </ul></li>
6498
6499 <li>2011
6500 <ul>
6501
6502 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
6503
6504 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
6505
6506 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
6507
6508 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
6509
6510 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
6511
6512 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
6513
6514 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
6515
6516 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
6517
6518 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
6519
6520 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
6521
6522 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
6523
6524 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
6525
6526 </ul></li>
6527
6528 <li>2010
6529 <ul>
6530
6531 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
6532
6533 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
6534
6535 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
6536
6537 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
6538
6539 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6540
6541 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
6542
6543 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
6544
6545 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
6546
6547 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
6548
6549 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
6550
6551 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
6552
6553 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
6554
6555 </ul></li>
6556
6557 <li>2009
6558 <ul>
6559
6560 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
6561
6562 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
6563
6564 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
6565
6566 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
6567
6568 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
6569
6570 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
6571
6572 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
6573
6574 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
6575
6576 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
6577
6578 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
6579
6580 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
6581
6582 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
6583
6584 </ul></li>
6585
6586 <li>2008
6587 <ul>
6588
6589 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
6590
6591 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
6592
6593 </ul></li>
6594
6595 </ul>
6596
6597
6598
6599 <h2>Tags</h2>
6600 <ul>
6601
6602  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
6603
6604  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
6605
6606  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
6607
6608  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
6609
6610  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
6611
6612  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
6613
6614  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
6615
6616  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (83)</a></li>
6617
6618  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (138)</a></li>
6619
6620  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
6621
6622  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
6623
6624  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
6625
6626  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (210)</a></li>
6627
6628  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
6629
6630  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
6631
6632  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
6633
6634  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
6635
6636  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
6637
6638  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
6639
6640  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
6641
6642  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
6643
6644  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
6645
6646  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
6647
6648  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
6649
6650  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (234)</a></li>
6651
6652  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (153)</a></li>
6653
6654  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
6655
6656  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
6657
6658  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
6659
6660  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
6661
6662  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
6663
6664  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
6665
6666  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
6667
6668  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
6669
6670  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
6671
6672  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
6673
6674  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
6675
6676  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
6677
6678  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
6679
6680  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
6681
6682  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
6683
6684  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
6685
6686  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
6687
6688  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
6689
6690  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
6691
6692  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
6693
6694  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
6695
6696  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
6697
6698  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
6699
6700 </ul>
6701
6702
6703     </div>
6704     <p style="text-align: right">
6705  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
6706 </p>
6707
6708   </body>
6709 </html>