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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_APT_upgrade_without_enough_free_space_on_the_disk___.html">Debian APT upgrade without enough free space on the disk...</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          8th July 2018
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch
  32 for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free
  33 space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'.  I normally
  34 would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install &lt;somepackages&gt;' to
  35 upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of
  36 packages to download fall below the amount of free space available.
  37 Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got
  38 tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually.  I concluded
  39 that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and
  40 decided to see if I could automate it.  I came up with this small
  41 script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':</p>
  42
  43 <p><blockquote><pre>
  44 #!/bin/sh
  45 #
  46 # Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
  47 # upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
  48 # apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
  49 # flag for manual/automatic.
  50
  51 set -e
  52
  53 ignore() {
  54     if [ "$1" ]; then
  55         grep -v "$1"
  56     else
  57         cat
  58     fi
  59 }
  60
  61 for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
  62     echo "Upgrading $p"
  63     apt clean
  64     apt install --download-only -y $p
  65     for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
  66         if [ -e "$f" ]; then
  67             dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
  68             break
  69         fi
  70     done
  71 done
  72 </pre></blockquote></p>
  73
  74 <p>The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to
  75 download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the
  76 downloaded packages using dpkg.  The idea is to upgrade packages
  77 without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of
  78 the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency).  To
  79 use it, simply run it as root from the command line.  If it fail, try
  80 'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again.  This
  81 might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old
  82 packages.  dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.</p>
  83
  84 <p>It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to
  85 upgrade.  The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip
  86 the packages that are simply too large to unpack.  Today this was
  87 'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar
  88 problems earlier (like TeX).</p>
  89
  90 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  91 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  92 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
  93
  94       </div>
  95       <div class="tags">
  96
  97
  98         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  99
 100
 101       </div>
 102     </div>
 103     <div class="padding"></div>
 104
 105     <div class="entry">
 106       <div class="title">
 107         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Version_3_1_of_Cura__the_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian.html">Version 3.1 of Cura, the 3D print slicer, is now in Debian</a>
 108       </div>
 109       <div class="date">
 110         13th February 2018
 111       </div>
 112       <div class="body">
 113         <p>A new version of the
 114 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">3D printer slicer
 115 software Cura</a>, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing
 116 (aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid).  I hope you find it
 117 useful.  It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will
 118 enter testing tomorrow.  See the
 119 <a href="https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes">release
 120 notes</a> for the list of bug fixes and new features.  Version 3.2
 121 was announced 6 days ago.  We will try to get it into Debian as
 122 well.</p>
 123
 124 <p>More information related to 3D printing is available on the
 125 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3DPrinting">3D printing</a> and
 126 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3D-printer">3D printer</a> wiki pages
 127 in Debian.</p>
 128
 129 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 130 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 131 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 132
 133       </div>
 134       <div class="tags">
 135
 136
 137         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>.
 138
 139
 140       </div>
 141     </div>
 142     <div class="padding"></div>
 143
 144     <div class="entry">
 145       <div class="title">
 146         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cura__the_nice_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian_Unstable.html">Cura, the nice 3D print slicer, is now in Debian Unstable</a>
 147       </div>
 148       <div class="date">
 149         17th December 2017
 150       </div>
 151       <div class="body">
 152         <p>After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report
 153 that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just
 154 entered Debian Unstable.  It consist of five packages,
 155 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">cura</a>,
 156 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura-engine">cura-engine</a>,
 157 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libarcus">libarcus</a>,
 158 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fdm-materials">fdm-materials</a>,
 159 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libsavitar">libsavitar</a> and
 160 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/uranium">uranium</a>.  The last
 161 two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday.  This should make
 162 it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of
 163 3D printers.  My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will
 164 make life easier for at least me. :)</p>
 165
 166 <p>The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was
 167 happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages.  With the introduction
 168 of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service,
 169 Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa.  If you own or have access to a 3D
 170 printer, give it a go. :)</p>
 171
 172 <p>The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian
 173 team, flocking together on the
 174 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/3dprinter-general">3dprinter-general</a>
 175 mailing list and the
 176 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-3dprinting">#debian-3dprinting</a>
 177 IRC channel.</p>
 178
 179 <p>The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to
 180 version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
 181 3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.</p>
 182
 183       </div>
 184       <div class="tags">
 185
 186
 187         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>.
 188
 189
 190       </div>
 191     </div>
 192     <div class="padding"></div>
 193
 194     <div class="entry">
 195       <div class="title">
 196         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Generating_3D_prints_in_Debian_using_Cura_and_Slic3r__prusa_.html">Generating 3D prints in Debian using Cura and Slic3r(-prusa)</a>
 197       </div>
 198       <div class="date">
 199          9th October 2017
 200       </div>
 201       <div class="body">
 202         <p>At my nearby maker space,
 203 <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Sonen</a>, I heard the story that it
 204 was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+)
 205 on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had
 206 to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages
 207 worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X.  I found this annoying,
 208 as the software involved,
 209 <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura">Cura</a>, is free software
 210 and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took
 211 the time to package it for the relevant distributions.  I even found
 212 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/706656">a request for adding into
 213 Debian</a> from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but
 214 never resulted in the software showing up in Debian.  So a few days
 215 ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.</p>
 216
 217 <p>Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a
 218 working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW
 219 queue for the ftpmasters to have a look.  You can track the progress
 220 on
 221 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=3dprinter-general%40lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 222 status page for the 3D printer team</a>.</p>
 223
 224 <p>The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded
 225 now to get slots in <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW
 226 queue</a> while we work up updating the packages to the latest
 227 upstream version.</p>
 228
 229 <p>On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder
 230 to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the
 231 short time I spent on it, are already in Debian.  If you are looking
 232 for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in
 233 Debian, check out
 234 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r">slic3r</a> and
 235 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa">slic3r-prusa</a>.
 236 The latter is a fork of the former.</p>
 237
 238 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 239 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 240 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 241
 242       </div>
 243       <div class="tags">
 244
 245
 246         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>.
 247
 248
 249       </div>
 250     </div>
 251     <div class="padding"></div>
 252
 253     <div class="entry">
 254       <div class="title">
 255         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html">Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass</a>
 256       </div>
 257       <div class="date">
 258         29th September 2017
 259       </div>
 260       <div class="body">
 261         <p>Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
 262 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
 263 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
 264 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
 265 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
 266 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
 267 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
 268 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
 269 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
 270 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
 271 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
 272 listen.</p>
 273
 274 <p>I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
 275 visualizing this information up and running for
 276 <a href="http://norwaymakers.org/osf17">Oslo Skaperfestival 2017</a>
 277 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
 278 library.  The solution is based on the
 279 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">simple
 280 recipe for listening to GSM chatter</a> I posted a few days ago, and
 281 will show up at the stand of <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Åpen
 282 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
 283 Oslo</a>.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
 284 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
 285 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
 286 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.</p>
 287
 288 <p>We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
 289 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
 290 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
 291 <a href="https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass">English version of
 292 Hopglass</a>.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
 293 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
 294 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a> converting
 295 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.</p>
 296
 297 <p>The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
 298 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
 299 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
 300 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output">patches
 301 in my meshviewer-output branch</a>.  For some reason we could not get
 302 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
 303 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
 304 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
 305 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
 306 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
 307 mentioned in
 308 <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14">the github
 309 issue for the topic</a>.
 310
 311 <p>If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!</p>
 312
 313       </div>
 314       <div class="tags">
 315
 316
 317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 318
 319
 320       </div>
 321     </div>
 322     <div class="padding"></div>
 323
 324     <div class="entry">
 325       <div class="title">
 326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you</a>
 327       </div>
 328       <div class="date">
 329         24th September 2017
 330       </div>
 331       <div class="body">
 332         <p>A little more than a month ago I wrote
 333 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">how
 334 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
 335 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
 336 cheap USB software defined radio</a>, and thus being able to pinpoint
 337 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
 338 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
 339 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
 340 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.</p>
 341
 342 <p>The <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a>
 343 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
 344 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
 345 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.</p>
 346
 347 <p>Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
 348 clone of two python scripts:</p>
 349
 350 <ol>
 351
 352 <li>Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
 353   testing).</li>
 354
 355 <li>Run '<tt>apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
 356   python-scapy</tt>' as root to install required packages.</li>
 357
 358 <li>Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using '<tt>git clone
 359   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git</tt>'.</li>
 360
 361 <li>Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.</li>
 362
 363 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
 364   scan-and-livemon</tt>' to locate the frequency of nearby base
 365   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.</li>
 366
 367 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
 368   simple_IMSI-catcher.py</tt>' to display the collected information.</li>
 369
 370 </ol>
 371
 372 <p>Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
 373 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336">its underlying
 374 program grgsm_scanner</a>) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
 375 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
 376 very cheaply
 377 (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832">for example
 378 from ebay</a>), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
 379 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.</p>
 380
 381 <p>As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
 382 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
 383 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
 384 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
 385 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
 386 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
 387 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
 388 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.</p>
 389
 390 <p>I've tried to run the scanner on a
 391 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
 392 running Debian Buster</a>, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
 393 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print 'O' to
 394 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
 395 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
 396 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal
 397 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
 398 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
 399 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
 400 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
 401 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().</p>
 402
 403       </div>
 404       <div class="tags">
 405
 406
 407         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 408
 409
 410       </div>
 411     </div>
 412     <div class="padding"></div>
 413
 414     <div class="entry">
 415       <div class="title">
 416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian</a>
 417       </div>
 418       <div class="date">
 419          9th August 2017
 420       </div>
 421       <div class="body">
 422         <p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
 423 web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
 424 <a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
 425 to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
 426 DVB-T software defined radios.  The article refered to instructions
 427 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
 428 Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
 429
 430 <p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
 431 bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
 432 and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
 433 scratch.  I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
 434 Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
 435 stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
 436 some other version skew problem.  While trying to get this recipe
 437 working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
 438 and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
 439 gr-gsm package.  I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
 440 gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
 441 Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository.  All I needed to
 442 do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
 443
 444 <p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
 445 loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
 446 packages with IMSI numbers in them.  The code is fairly short and easy
 447 to understand.  The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
 448 to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
 449 and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
 450 network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
 451 default).  This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
 452 collector for a few days now.</p>
 453
 454 <p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
 455
 456 <ol>
 457
 458 <li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
 459
 460 <li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
 461 <a href="http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/">http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/</a>,</li>
 462
 463 <li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
 464
 465 <li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
 466 where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
 467 found a GSM station).</li>
 468
 469 <li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
 470
 471 </ol>
 472
 473 <p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
 474 running, I decided to package
 475 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
 476 for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
 477 #871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
 478 Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
 479 know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
 480
 481 <p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
 482 commercial tools like
 483 <a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
 484 Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
 485 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
 486 Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
 487 more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
 488 is easily tracked.  Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
 489 I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
 490 wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
 491 track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
 492 police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
 493 of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
 494 of government officials...</p>
 495
 496 <p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
 497 script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
 498 the GSM network.  It will only collect one frequency at the time,
 499 while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
 500 phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
 501 program.  Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
 502 simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
 503 parser code.  I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
 504 one frequency?</p>
 505
 506       </div>
 507       <div class="tags">
 508
 509
 510         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 511
 512
 513       </div>
 514     </div>
 515     <div class="padding"></div>
 516
 517     <div class="entry">
 518       <div class="title">
 519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_is_now_available.html">Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available</a>
 520       </div>
 521       <div class="date">
 522         25th July 2017
 523       </div>
 524       <div class="body">
 525         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-07-25-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.png"/></p>
 526
 527 <p>I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of
 528 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
 529 Handbook</a>".  This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and
 530 I am very happy to hold the result in my hand.   We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition
 531 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available
 532 from lulu.com</a>.  If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list
 533 price.  The book is also available for download in electronic form as
 534 PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be
 535 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online
 536 as a web page</a>.</p>
 537
 538 <p>This is the second book I publish (the first was the book
 539 "<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>" by Lawrence Lessig
 540 in
 541 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">English</a>,
 542 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">French</a>
 543 and
 544 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Norwegian
 545 Bokmål</a>), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this
 546 project.  I hope
 547 "<a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog-and-roland-mas/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-23262290.html">Håndbok
 548 for Debian-administratoren</a>" will be well received.</p>
 549
 550       </div>
 551       <div class="tags">
 552
 553
 554         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 555
 556
 557       </div>
 558     </div>
 559     <div class="padding"></div>
 560
 561     <div class="entry">
 562       <div class="title">
 563         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/N_r_nynorskoversettelsen_svikter_til_eksamen___.html">Når nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...</a>
 564       </div>
 565       <div class="date">
 566          3rd June 2017
 567       </div>
 568       <div class="body">
 569         <p><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/Krever-at-elever-ma-fa-annullert-eksamen-etter-rot-med-oppgavetekster-622459b.html">Aftenposten
 570 melder i dag</a> om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og
 571 menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmåls og nynorskutgaven ikke var
 572 like.  Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring
 573 på om den fri oversetterløsningen
 574 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium</a> ville gjort en bedre
 575 jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet.  Det kan se slik ut.</p>
 576
 577 <p>Her er bokmålsoppgaven fra eksamenen:</p>
 578
 579 <blockquote>
 580 <p>Drøft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktørers
 581 rolle og muligheter til å håndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som
 582 for eksempel flykningekrisen.</p>
 583
 584 <p>Vedlegge er eksempler på tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver
 585 på temaet:</p>
 586 <ol>
 587 <li>Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC
 588 <li>«Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
 589 </ol>
 590
 591 </blockquote>
 592
 593 <p>Dette oversetter Apertium slik:</p>
 594
 595 <blockquote>
 596 <p>Drøft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til
 597 andre aktørar og høve til å handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som
 598 til dømes *flykningekrisen.</p>
 599
 600 <p>Vedleggja er døme på tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv på
 601 temaet:</p>
 602
 603 <ol>
 604 <li>*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC</li>
 605 <li>«*Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015</li>
 606 </ol>
 607
 608 </blockquote>
 609
 610 <p>Ord som ikke ble forstått er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger
 611 ekstra språksjekk.  Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i
 612 oppgaven elevene fikk presentert på eksamen.  Jeg mistenker dog at
 613 "andre aktørers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vært oversatt til
 614 "rolla til andre aktørar og deira høve til ..." eller noe slikt, men
 615 det er kanskje flisespikking.  Det understreker vel bare at det alltid
 616 trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.</p>
 617
 618       </div>
 619       <div class="tags">
 620
 621
 622         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/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
 623
 624
 625       </div>
 626     </div>
 627     <div class="padding"></div>
 628
 629     <div class="entry">
 630       <div class="title">
 631         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html">Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself...</a>
 632       </div>
 633       <div class="date">
 634          9th March 2017
 635       </div>
 636       <div class="body">
 637         <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux
 638 computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine
 639 was experiencing NFS hang.  If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a
 640 file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the
 641 shell) will hang too.  So you want to be able to detect this without
 642 risking the detection process getting stuck too.  It has not been
 643 obvious how to do this.  When the hang has lasted a while, it is
 644 possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p>
 645
 646 <p><blockquote>
 647 nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying
 648 <br>nfs: server nfsserver OK
 649 </blockquote></p>
 650
 651 <p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to
 652 be sure looking in dmesg is going to work.  If there are lots of other
 653 messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they
 654 are noticed.</p>
 655
 656 <p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel
 657 code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect
 658 it.  The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every
 659 time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg.  And after digging a
 660 bit further, I discovered that this value show up in
 661 /proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p>
 662
 663 <p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the
 664 same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the
 665 mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine.
 666 I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount
 667 points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem
 668 view), but that does not worry me.</p>
 669
 670 <p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p>
 671
 672 <p><blockquote><pre>
 673 [...]
 674 device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3
 675 device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1
 676         opts:   rw,vers=3,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,namlen=255,acregmin=3,acregmax=60,acdirmin=30,acdirmax=60,soft,nolock,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=129.240.3.145,mountvers=3,mountport=4048,mountproto=udp,local_lock=all
 677         age:    7863311
 678         caps:   caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255
 679         sec:    flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1
 680         events: 61063112 732346265 1028140 35486205 16220064 8162542 761447191 71714012 37189 3891185 45561809 110486139 4850138 420353 15449177 296502 52736725 13523379 0 52182 9016896 1231 0 0 0 0 0
 681         bytes:  166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809
 682         RPC iostats version: 1.0  p/v: 100003/3 (nfs)
 683         xprt:   tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820
 684         per-op statistics
 685                 NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 686              GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132
 687              SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943
 688               LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511
 689               ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140
 690             READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118
 691                 READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693
 692                WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771
 693               CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398
 694                MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245
 695              SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917
 696                MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304
 697               REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636
 698                RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002
 699               RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288
 700                 LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579
 701              READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917
 702          READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937
 703               FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022
 704               FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1
 705             PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0
 706               COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 707
 708 device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc
 709 [...]
 710 </pre></blockquote></p>
 711
 712 <p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list.
 713 It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system
 714 operation.  Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts.  If these
 715 numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS
 716 hang.  Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right
 717 away.  The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a
 718 while.  The exact timeout value depend on the setup.  For example the
 719 defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the
 720 timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS
 721 mount options.</p>
 722
 723 <p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat
 724 Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/.
 725 But according to
 726 <ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris
 727 10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c'
 728 command can be used to get these timeout values.  But this do not work
 729 on Linux, as far as I can tell.  I
 730 <ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>,
 731 but have not seen any replies yet.</p>
 732
 733 <p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is
 734 experiencing NFS hangs?  Is there a way to detect which processes are
 735 affected?  Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the
 736 network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared?  I would very
 737 much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p>
 738
 739       </div>
 740       <div class="tags">
 741
 742
 743         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/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
 744
 745
 746       </div>
 747     </div>
 748     <div class="padding"></div>
 749
 750     <div class="entry">
 751       <div class="title">
 752         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html">Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress</a>
 753       </div>
 754       <div class="date">
 755          3rd March 2017
 756       </div>
 757       <div class="body">
 758         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
 759 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
 760 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
 761 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
 762 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
 763 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
 764 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
 765 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
 766 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
 767
 768 <p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
 769
 770 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
 771 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
 772 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
 773 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
 774 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
 775 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
 776 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
 777 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
 778
 779       </div>
 780       <div class="tags">
 781
 782
 783         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 784
 785
 786       </div>
 787     </div>
 788     <div class="padding"></div>
 789
 790     <div class="entry">
 791       <div class="title">
 792         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
 793       </div>
 794       <div class="date">
 795          1st March 2017
 796       </div>
 797       <div class="body">
 798         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
 799 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
 800 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
 801 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
 802 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
 803 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
 804 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
 805 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
 806 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
 807 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
 808 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
 809
 810 <blockquote><pre>
 811 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 812   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
 813   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
 814      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 815      sleep 1; \
 816   done
 817 300
 818 0+1 oppføringer inn
 819 0+1 oppføringer ut
 820 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
 821 4
 822 8
 823 12
 824 17
 825 21
 826 %
 827 </pre></blockquote>
 828
 829 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
 830 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
 831 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
 832 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
 833
 834 <blockquote><pre>
 835 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 836   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
 837   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
 838      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 839      sleep 1; \
 840   done
 841 1079
 842 0+1 oppføringer inn
 843 0+1 oppføringer ut
 844 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
 845 433
 846 1028
 847 1031
 848 1035
 849 1038
 850 %
 851 </pre></blockquote>
 852
 853 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
 854 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
 855
 856 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
 857 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
 858 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
 859 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
 860 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
 861 post.</p>
 862
 863       </div>
 864       <div class="tags">
 865
 866
 867         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 868
 869
 870       </div>
 871     </div>
 872     <div class="padding"></div>
 873
 874     <div class="entry">
 875       <div class="title">
 876         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
 877       </div>
 878       <div class="date">
 879          9th January 2017
 880       </div>
 881       <div class="body">
 882         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
 883 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
 884 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
 885 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
 886 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
 887 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
 888 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
 889 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
 890 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
 891 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
 892 this:
 893
 894 <p><pre>
 895 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 896  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
 897  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
 898  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
 899  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
 900  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
 901  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
 902  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
 903  8  * * *
 904  9  * * *
 905 [...]
 906 </pre></p>
 907
 908 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
 909 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
 910 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
 911 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
 912 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
 913 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
 914 traceroute request.</p>
 915
 916 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
 917 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
 918 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
 919 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
 920 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
 921
 922 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
 923 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
 924 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
 925 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
 926 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
 927 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
 928 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
 929 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
 930 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
 931
 932 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
 933 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
 934 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
 935 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
 936 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
 937 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
 938 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
 939 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
 940 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
 941 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
 942 render the page (in HAR format using
 943 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
 944 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
 945 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
 946 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
 947 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
 948
 949 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
 950 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
 951
 952 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
 953 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
 954 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
 955 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
 956 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
 957 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
 958 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
 959 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
 960 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
 961 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
 962 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
 963 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
 964 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
 965 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
 966
 967 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
 968 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 969
 970 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
 971 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
 972 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
 973 question.
 974 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
 975 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
 976 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
 977 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
 978 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
 979 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
 980 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
 981
 982 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
 983 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 984
 985 <p>In the process, I came across the
 986 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
 987 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
 988 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
 989 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
 990 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
 991 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
 992 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
 993 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
 994 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
 995 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
 996 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
 997 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
 998 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
 999 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
1000
1001 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
1002 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
1003
1004 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
1005 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
1006 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
1007 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
1008
1009 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
1010 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
1011 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
1012 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
1013 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
1014 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
1015 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
1016
1017 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
1018 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
1019 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
1020 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
1021 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
1022 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
1023 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
1024
1025 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
1026 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
1027 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
1028 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
1029
1030 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1031 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1032 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1033
1034       </div>
1035       <div class="tags">
1036
1037
1038         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/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1039
1040
1041       </div>
1042     </div>
1043     <div class="padding"></div>
1044
1045     <div class="entry">
1046       <div class="title">
1047         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
1048       </div>
1049       <div class="date">
1050         23rd December 2016
1051       </div>
1052       <div class="body">
1053         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
1054 readers probably know, I have been working on the
1055 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
1056 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
1057 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
1058 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
1059 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
1060 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
1061 metadata format.  And today,
1062 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
1063 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
1064 ie using fnmatch():</p>
1065
1066 <p><pre>
1067 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
1068   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
1069 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
1070 Name: pymissile
1071 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
1072 Package: pymissile
1073 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
1074 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
1075 Name: libnxt
1076 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
1077 Package: libnxt
1078 ---
1079 Identifier: t2n [generic]
1080 Name: t2n
1081 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
1082 Package: t2n
1083 ---
1084 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
1085 Name: python-nxt
1086 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
1087 Package: python-nxt
1088 ---
1089 Identifier: nbc [generic]
1090 Name: nbc
1091 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
1092 Package: nbc
1093 %
1094 </pre></p>
1095
1096 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
1097 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
1098
1099 <p><pre>
1100 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
1101 pymissile
1102 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
1103 libnxt
1104 nbc
1105 python-nxt
1106 t2n
1107 %
1108 </pre></p>
1109
1110 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
1111 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
1112
1113 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
1114 make the most of the hardware they have, please
1115 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
1116 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
1117 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
1118 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
1119 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
1120 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
1121 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
1122 part of my involvement in
1123 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
1124 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
1125 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
1126 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
1127 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
1128 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
1129 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
1130 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
1131 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
1132
1133 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1134 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1135 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1136
1137       </div>
1138       <div class="tags">
1139
1140
1141         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>.
1142
1143
1144       </div>
1145     </div>
1146     <div class="padding"></div>
1147
1148     <div class="entry">
1149       <div class="title">
1150         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
1151       </div>
1152       <div class="date">
1153         20th December 2016
1154       </div>
1155       <div class="body">
1156         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
1157 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
1158 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
1159 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
1160 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
1161 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
1162 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
1163 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
1164 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
1165 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
1166
1167 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
1168
1169 <p><pre>
1170 % isenkram-lookup
1171 bluez
1172 cheese
1173 ethtool
1174 fprintd
1175 fprintd-demo
1176 gkrellm-thinkbat
1177 hdapsd
1178 libpam-fprintd
1179 pidgin-blinklight
1180 thinkfan
1181 tlp
1182 tp-smapi-dkms
1183 tp-smapi-source
1184 tpb
1185 %
1186 </pre></p>
1187
1188 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
1189 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
1190 I have all the firmware my machine need:
1191
1192 <p><pre>
1193 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1194 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
1195 %
1196 </pre></p>
1197
1198 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
1199 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
1200 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
1201 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
1202 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
1203 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
1204 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
1205 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
1206
1207 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
1208 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
1209 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
1210
1211 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
1212 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
1213 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
1214 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
1215 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
1216 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
1217 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
1218 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
1219 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
1220 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
1221 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
1222 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
1223 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
1224 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
1225 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
1226 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
1227 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
1228 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
1229 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
1230 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
1231 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
1232 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
1233 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
1234 zd1211-firmware</p>
1235
1236 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
1237 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
1238 maintainer to
1239 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
1240 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
1241 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
1242 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
1243
1244 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
1245 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
1246 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
1247 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
1248 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
1249
1250       </div>
1251       <div class="tags">
1252
1253
1254         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>.
1255
1256
1257       </div>
1258     </div>
1259     <div class="padding"></div>
1260
1261     <div class="entry">
1262       <div class="title">
1263         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
1264       </div>
1265       <div class="date">
1266         11th December 2016
1267       </div>
1268       <div class="body">
1269         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
1270
1271 <p>In my early years, I played
1272 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
1273 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
1274 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
1275 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
1276 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
1277 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
1278 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
1279 small.</p>
1280
1281 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
1282 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
1283 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
1284 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
1285 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
1286 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
1287 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
1288 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
1289 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
1290
1291 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
1292 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
1293 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
1294 advantages of the
1295 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
1296 where information about each planet is easily available with common
1297 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
1298 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
1299 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
1300 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
1301 after less then a week.</p>
1302
1303 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
1304 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
1305 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
1306
1307 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1308 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1309 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1310
1311       </div>
1312       <div class="tags">
1313
1314
1315         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1316
1317
1318       </div>
1319     </div>
1320     <div class="padding"></div>
1321
1322     <div class="entry">
1323       <div class="title">
1324         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
1325       </div>
1326       <div class="date">
1327         25th November 2016
1328       </div>
1329       <div class="body">
1330         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
1331 installation system, observing how using
1332 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
1333 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
1334 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
1335 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
1336 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
1337 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
1338 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
1339 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
1340 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
1341 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
1342 up the process make perfect sense.
1343
1344 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
1345 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
1346 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
1347 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
1348 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
1349 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
1350 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
1351 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
1352 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
1353 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
1354
1355 <blockquote><pre>
1356 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
1357 </pre></blockquote>
1358
1359 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
1360 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
1361 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
1362 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
1363 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
1364 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
1365 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
1366 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
1367 tested its impact.</p>
1368
1369
1370       </div>
1371       <div class="tags">
1372
1373
1374         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>.
1375
1376
1377       </div>
1378     </div>
1379     <div class="padding"></div>
1380
1381     <div class="entry">
1382       <div class="title">
1383         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
1384       </div>
1385       <div class="date">
1386         24th November 2016
1387       </div>
1388       <div class="body">
1389         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
1390 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
1391 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
1392 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
1393 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
1394 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
1395 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
1396 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
1397 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
1398 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
1399 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
1400 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
1401 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
1402 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
1403 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
1404 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
1405 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
1406 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
1407 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
1408
1409 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
1410 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
1411 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
1412 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
1413 api.apertium.org.  Se
1414 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
1415 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
1416 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
1417 nynorsk.</p>
1418
1419 <hr/>
1420
1421 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
1422 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
1423 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
1424 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
1425 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
1426 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
1427 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
1428 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
1429 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
1430 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
1431 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
1432 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
1433 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
1434 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
1435 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
1436 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
1437 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
1438 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
1439 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
1440
1441 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
1442 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
1443 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
1444 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
1445 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
1446 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
1447 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
1448 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
1449 nynorsk.</p>
1450
1451       </div>
1452       <div class="tags">
1453
1454
1455         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/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
1456
1457
1458       </div>
1459     </div>
1460     <div class="padding"></div>
1461
1462     <div class="entry">
1463       <div class="title">
1464         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
1465       </div>
1466       <div class="date">
1467         13th November 2016
1468       </div>
1469       <div class="body">
1470         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
1471 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
1472 multi-threaded program, finally
1473 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
1474 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
1475 months since
1476 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
1477 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
1478 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
1479 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
1480 JavaScript libraries.</p>
1481
1482 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
1483
1484 <p><blockquote>
1485 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
1486 </blockquote></p>
1487
1488 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
1489 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
1490 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
1491 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
1492 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
1493
1494 <p><blockquote>
1495 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
1496 </blockquote></p>
1497
1498 <p>See the project home page and the
1499 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
1500 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
1501 working.</p>
1502
1503       </div>
1504       <div class="tags">
1505
1506
1507         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>.
1508
1509
1510       </div>
1511     </div>
1512     <div class="padding"></div>
1513
1514     <div class="entry">
1515       <div class="title">
1516         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
1517       </div>
1518       <div class="date">
1519          4th November 2016
1520       </div>
1521       <div class="body">
1522         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
1523 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
1524 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
1525 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
1526 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
1527 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
1528 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
1529 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
1530 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
1531 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
1532 and had
1533 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
1534 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
1535 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
1536 loved ones. :)</p>
1537
1538 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
1539 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
1540 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
1541 building
1542 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
1543 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
1544 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
1545 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
1546 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
1547 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
1548 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
1549 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
1550
1551 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
1552
1553 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
1554 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
1555 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
1556 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
1557 the battery status run low:</p>
1558
1559 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
1560    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
1561 </video></p>
1562
1563 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
1564 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
1565
1566 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
1567 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
1568 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
1569 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
1570 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
1571 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
1572 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
1573 should.</p>
1574
1575       </div>
1576       <div class="tags">
1577
1578
1579         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/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
1580
1581
1582       </div>
1583     </div>
1584     <div class="padding"></div>
1585
1586     <div class="entry">
1587       <div class="title">
1588         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
1589       </div>
1590       <div class="date">
1591         10th October 2016
1592       </div>
1593       <div class="body">
1594         <p>In July
1595 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
1596 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
1597 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
1598 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
1599
1600 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
1601 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
1602 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
1603 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
1604 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
1605 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
1606 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
1607 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
1608 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
1609 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
1610 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
1611 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
1612 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
1613 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
1614 time.</p>
1615
1616 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
1617 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
1618 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
1619 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
1620 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
1621 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
1622 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
1623
1624 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
1625 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
1626 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
1627 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
1628 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
1629 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
1630 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
1631 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
1632 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
1633 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
1634
1635 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
1636
1637 <ol>
1638
1639 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
1640 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
1641 know, so you need to install it.
1642
1643 <pre>
1644 apt install git tor chromium
1645 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
1646 </pre></li>
1647
1648 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
1649 block below.</li>
1650
1651 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
1652 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
1653
1654 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
1655 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
1656 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
1657 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
1658 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
1659
1660 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
1661 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
1662 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
1663 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
1664 a associated contact database.</li>
1665
1666 </ol>
1667
1668 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
1669 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
1670 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
1671 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
1672 example
1673 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
1674 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
1675 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
1676 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
1677 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
1678 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
1679 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
1680 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
1681 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
1682 working on Debian Stable.</p>
1683
1684 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
1685 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
1686 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
1687
1688 <pre>
1689 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
1690 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
1691 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
1692 --- a/js/background.js
1693 +++ b/js/background.js
1694 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
1695          });
1696      });
1697
1698 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
1699 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
1700      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
1701 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
1702 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
1703      var messageReceiver;
1704      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
1705          if (messageReceiver) {
1706 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
1707 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
1708 --- a/js/expire.js
1709 +++ b/js/expire.js
1710 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
1711  ;(function() {
1712      'use strict';
1713 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
1714 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
1715
1716      window.extension = window.extension || {};
1717
1718 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
1719 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
1720 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
1721 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
1722 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
1723              return {
1724                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
1725                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
1726 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
1727 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
1728 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
1729              };
1730          },
1731          clearQR: function() {
1732 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
1733 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
1734 --- a/options.html
1735 +++ b/options.html
1736 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
1737          &lt;div class='nav'>
1738            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
1739            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
1740 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
1741 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
1742 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
1743 +
1744 +         &lt;/div>
1745            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
1746            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
1747            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
1748 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
1749 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
1750 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
1751 +#!/bin/sh
1752 +set -e
1753 +cd $(dirname $0)
1754 +mkdir -p userdata
1755 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
1756 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
1757 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
1758 +fi
1759 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
1760 +exec chromium \
1761 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1762 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1763 EOF
1764 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
1765 </pre>
1766
1767 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1768 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1769 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1770
1771       </div>
1772       <div class="tags">
1773
1774
1775         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1776
1777
1778       </div>
1779     </div>
1780     <div class="padding"></div>
1781
1782     <div class="entry">
1783       <div class="title">
1784         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
1785       </div>
1786       <div class="date">
1787          7th October 2016
1788       </div>
1789       <div class="body">
1790         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
1791 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
1792 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
1793 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
1794 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
1795 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
1796 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
1797 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
1798 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
1799 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
1800 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
1801 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
1802 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
1803
1804 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
1805 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
1806 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
1807 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
1808 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
1809 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
1810
1811 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
1812 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
1813 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
1814 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
1815 identifiers.</p>
1816
1817 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
1818 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
1819 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
1820 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
1821 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
1822 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
1823 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
1824 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
1825 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
1826 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
1827 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
1828 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
1829 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
1830 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
1831
1832 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
1833 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
1834 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
1835 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
1836 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
1837 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
1838 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
1839
1840 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
1841 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
1842 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
1843 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
1844 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
1845 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
1846 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
1847 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
1848 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
1849 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
1850 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
1851 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
1852 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
1853 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
1854 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
1855 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
1856 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
1857
1858 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
1859 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
1860 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
1861 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
1862 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
1863 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
1864 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
1865
1866 <p><pre>
1867 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
1868     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
1869 </pre></p>
1870
1871 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
1872 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
1873 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
1874 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
1875 to detect this?</p>
1876
1877 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
1878 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
1879 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
1880 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
1881 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
1882 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
1883 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
1884 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
1885 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
1886 directly if no such class exist.</p>
1887
1888 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1889 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1890 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1891
1892 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
1893 please join us on our IRC channel
1894 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
1895 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
1896 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
1897 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
1898
1899 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1900 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1901 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1902
1903       </div>
1904       <div class="tags">
1905
1906
1907         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>.
1908
1909
1910       </div>
1911     </div>
1912     <div class="padding"></div>
1913
1914     <div class="entry">
1915       <div class="title">
1916         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
1917       </div>
1918       <div class="date">
1919         30th August 2016
1920       </div>
1921       <div class="body">
1922         <p>In April we
1923 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
1924 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
1925 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
1926 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
1927 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
1928 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
1929 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
1930 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
1931 contributing using
1932 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1933 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1934 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1935 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1936 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1937 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
1938 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
1939
1940 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
1941 electronic form.</p>
1942
1943       </div>
1944       <div class="tags">
1945
1946
1947         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1948
1949
1950       </div>
1951     </div>
1952     <div class="padding"></div>
1953
1954     <div class="entry">
1955       <div class="title">
1956         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
1957       </div>
1958       <div class="date">
1959         11th August 2016
1960       </div>
1961       <div class="body">
1962         <p>This summer, I read a great article
1963 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
1964 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
1965 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
1966 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
1967 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
1968 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
1969 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
1970 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
1971 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
1972 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
1973 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
1974 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
1975
1976 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
1977 get the system into Debian.  I
1978 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
1979 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
1980 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
1981 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
1982 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
1983 profiling information included in the source package.
1984 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
1985
1986 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
1987 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
1988
1989 <p><blockquote><pre>
1990 coz run --- program-to-run
1991 </pre></blockquote></p>
1992
1993 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
1994 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
1995 most, use a web browser and either point it to
1996 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
1997 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
1998 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
1999 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
2000 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
2001 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
2002 targeted experiments.</p>
2003
2004 <p>A video published by ACM
2005 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
2006 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
2007 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
2008 titled
2009 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
2010 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
2011
2012 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
2013 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
2014 because it uses a
2015 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
2016 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
2017 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
2018 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
2019
2020 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
2021 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
2022 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
2023 C++ libraries.</p>
2024
2025       </div>
2026       <div class="tags">
2027
2028
2029         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/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2030
2031
2032       </div>
2033     </div>
2034     <div class="padding"></div>
2035
2036     <div class="entry">
2037       <div class="title">
2038         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
2039       </div>
2040       <div class="date">
2041          7th July 2016
2042       </div>
2043       <div class="body">
2044         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
2045 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
2046 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
2047 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
2048 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
2049 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
2050 microphone The initial idea had been to just
2051 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
2052 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
2053 until a few days ago.</p>
2054
2055 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
2056 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
2057 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
2058 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
2059 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
2060 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
2061 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
2062
2063 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
2064 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
2065 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
2066 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
2067 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
2068 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
2069 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
2070 him.</p>
2071
2072 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
2073 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
2074 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
2075 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
2076 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
2077 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
2078 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
2079 devices it would work for.</p>
2080
2081 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
2082 followed some instructions
2083 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
2084 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
2085 machine with Debian testing:</p>
2086
2087 <p><pre>
2088 adb reboot-bootloader
2089 fastboot oem rebootRUU
2090 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
2091 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
2092 fastboot reboot
2093 </pre></p>
2094
2095 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
2096 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
2097 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
2098 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
2099 too.</p>
2100
2101 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
2102 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
2103 like this:</p>
2104
2105 <p><pre>
2106 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
2107 </pre>
2108
2109 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
2110 this:</p>
2111
2112 <p><pre>
2113 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
2114 </pre></p>
2115
2116 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
2117 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
2118 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
2119 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
2120 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
2121
2122       </div>
2123       <div class="tags">
2124
2125
2126         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2127
2128
2129       </div>
2130     </div>
2131     <div class="padding"></div>
2132
2133     <div class="entry">
2134       <div class="title">
2135         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
2136       </div>
2137       <div class="date">
2138          3rd July 2016
2139       </div>
2140       <div class="body">
2141         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
2142 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
2143 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
2144 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
2145 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
2146 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
2147 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
2148 Github source, compared it to the source in
2149 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
2150 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
2151 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
2152 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
2153 the recipe how I did it.</p>
2154
2155 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
2156
2157 <pre>
2158 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
2159 </pre>
2160
2161 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
2162 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
2163
2164 <pre>
2165 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
2166 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
2167 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
2168 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
2169 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
2170          });
2171      });
2172
2173 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
2174 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
2175 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
2176 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
2177      var messageReceiver;
2178      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
2179          if (messageReceiver) {
2180 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
2181 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
2182 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
2183 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
2184  ;(function() {
2185      'use strict';
2186 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
2187 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
2188
2189      window.extension = window.extension || {};
2190
2191 EOF
2192 </pre>
2193
2194 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
2195 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
2196 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
2197 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
2198
2199 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
2200 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
2201
2202 <pre>
2203 #!/bin/sh
2204 cd $(dirname $0)
2205 mkdir -p userdata
2206 exec chromium \
2207   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
2208   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
2209 </pre>
2210
2211 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
2212 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
2213 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
2214 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
2215 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
2216
2217 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
2218 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
2219 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
2220 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
2221 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
2222 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
2223 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
2224 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
2225 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
2226 Signal from my laptop.
2227
2228 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
2229 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
2230 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
2231 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
2232 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
2233 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
2234 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
2235 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
2236 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
2237 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
2238 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
2239 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
2240
2241 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
2242 on this topic in
2243 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
2244 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
2245 phone</a>.</p>
2246
2247       </div>
2248       <div class="tags">
2249
2250
2251         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2252
2253
2254       </div>
2255     </div>
2256     <div class="padding"></div>
2257
2258     <div class="entry">
2259       <div class="title">
2260         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
2261       </div>
2262       <div class="date">
2263          6th June 2016
2264       </div>
2265       <div class="body">
2266         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
2267 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
2268 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
2269 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
2270 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
2271 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
2272 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
2273 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
2274 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
2275
2276 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
2277 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
2278 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
2279 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
2280 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
2281 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
2282 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
2283
2284 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
2285 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
2286 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
2287 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
2288 toten and parole.</p>
2289
2290 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
2291 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
2292 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
2293 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
2294 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
2295 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
2296 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
2297 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
2298 formats.</p>
2299
2300       </div>
2301       <div class="tags">
2302
2303
2304         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>.
2305
2306
2307       </div>
2308     </div>
2309     <div class="padding"></div>
2310
2311     <div class="entry">
2312       <div class="title">
2313         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
2314       </div>
2315       <div class="date">
2316          5th June 2016
2317       </div>
2318       <div class="body">
2319         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
2320 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
2321 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
2322 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
2323 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
2324 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
2325 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
2326 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
2327 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
2328 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
2329 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
2330 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
2331 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
2332 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
2333 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
2334 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
2335 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
2336 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
2337 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
2338 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
2339
2340 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
2341 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
2342 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
2343 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
2344 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
2345 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
2346 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
2347 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
2348 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
2349 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
2350 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
2351 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
2352 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
2353 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
2354
2355 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
2356 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
2357 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
2358 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
2359 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
2360 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
2361 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
2362 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
2363
2364 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
2365 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
2366 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
2367 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
2368 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
2369 information is collected from
2370 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
2371 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
2372 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
2373 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
2374 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
2375 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
2376 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
2377 type (preferably
2378 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
2379 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
2380 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
2381 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
2382
2383 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
2384 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
2385 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
2386
2387 <p><blockquote><pre>
2388 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
2389 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
2390   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
2391     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
2392     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
2393     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
2394   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
2395 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
2396 </pre></blockquote></p>
2397
2398 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
2399 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
2400 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
2401 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
2402
2403 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
2404 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
2405 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
2406
2407 <p><blockquote><pre>
2408 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
2409 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
2410 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
2411 %
2412 </pre></blockquote></p>
2413
2414 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
2415 MimeType= line.</p>
2416
2417 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
2418 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
2419 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
2420 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
2421 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
2422 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
2423 fixed. :)</p>
2424
2425       </div>
2426       <div class="tags">
2427
2428
2429         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>.
2430
2431
2432       </div>
2433     </div>
2434     <div class="padding"></div>
2435
2436     <div class="entry">
2437       <div class="title">
2438         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
2439       </div>
2440       <div class="date">
2441         25th May 2016
2442       </div>
2443       <div class="body">
2444         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
2445 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
2446 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
2447 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
2448 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
2449 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
2450 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
2451 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
2452 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
2453 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
2454 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
2455 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
2456
2457 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
2458 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
2459 is going away and is generally being replaced by
2460 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
2461 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
2462 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
2463 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
2464 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
2465 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
2466 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
2467 and see if it is recognised.</p>
2468
2469 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
2470 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
2471 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
2472
2473 <p><blockquote><pre>
2474 % isenkram-lookup
2475 bluez
2476 cheese
2477 fprintd
2478 fprintd-demo
2479 gkrellm-thinkbat
2480 hdapsd
2481 libpam-fprintd
2482 pidgin-blinklight
2483 thinkfan
2484 tleds
2485 tp-smapi-dkms
2486 tp-smapi-source
2487 tpb
2488 %p
2489 </pre></blockquote></p>
2490
2491 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
2492 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
2493 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
2494 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
2495 See
2496 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
2497 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
2498
2499       </div>
2500       <div class="tags">
2501
2502
2503         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>.
2504
2505
2506       </div>
2507     </div>
2508     <div class="padding"></div>
2509
2510     <div class="entry">
2511       <div class="title">
2512         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
2513       </div>
2514       <div class="date">
2515         23rd May 2016
2516       </div>
2517       <div class="body">
2518         <p>Yesterday I updated the
2519 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
2520 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
2521 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
2522 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
2523 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
2524 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
2525 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
2526 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
2527 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
2528 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
2529
2530 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
2531 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
2532 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
2533 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
2534 capacity.</p>
2535
2536 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
2537
2538 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
2539 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
2540 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
2541 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
2542
2543 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
2544
2545 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
2546 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
2547 shrinking. :(</p>
2548
2549 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
2550 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
2551 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
2552 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
2553 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
2554 machine.</p>
2555
2556 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
2557 check out the
2558 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
2559 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
2560 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
2561 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2562 Patches are very welcome.</p>
2563
2564 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2565 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2566 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2567
2568       </div>
2569       <div class="tags">
2570
2571
2572         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>.
2573
2574
2575       </div>
2576     </div>
2577     <div class="padding"></div>
2578
2579     <div class="entry">
2580       <div class="title">
2581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
2582       </div>
2583       <div class="date">
2584         12th May 2016
2585       </div>
2586       <div class="body">
2587         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
2588 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
2589 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
2590 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
2591 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
2592 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
2593 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
2594 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
2595 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
2596 great if you could help out with
2597 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
2598 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
2599
2600       </div>
2601       <div class="tags">
2602
2603
2604         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>.
2605
2606
2607       </div>
2608     </div>
2609     <div class="padding"></div>
2610
2611     <div class="entry">
2612       <div class="title">
2613         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
2614       </div>
2615       <div class="date">
2616          8th May 2016
2617       </div>
2618       <div class="body">
2619         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
2620 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
2621
2622 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
2623 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
2624 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
2625 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
2626 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
2627 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
2628 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
2629 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
2630 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
2631 players.</p>
2632
2633 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
2634 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
2635 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
2636 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
2637 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
2638 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
2639 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
2640 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
2641 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
2642 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
2643 support most file formats.</p>
2644
2645 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
2646 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
2647 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
2648 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
2649 listed first in the table.</p>
2650
2651 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
2652 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
2653 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
2654 support?</p>
2655
2656       </div>
2657       <div class="tags">
2658
2659
2660         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>.
2661
2662
2663       </div>
2664     </div>
2665     <div class="padding"></div>
2666
2667     <div class="entry">
2668       <div class="title">
2669         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
2670       </div>
2671       <div class="date">
2672          4th May 2016
2673       </div>
2674       <div class="body">
2675         A friend of mine made me aware of
2676 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
2677 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
2678 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
2679
2680 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
2681 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
2682 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
2683 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
2684 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
2685 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
2686 production started.</p>
2687
2688 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
2689 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
2690 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
2691
2692       </div>
2693       <div class="tags">
2694
2695
2696         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>.
2697
2698
2699       </div>
2700     </div>
2701     <div class="padding"></div>
2702
2703     <div class="entry">
2704       <div class="title">
2705         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
2706       </div>
2707       <div class="date">
2708         10th April 2016
2709       </div>
2710       <div class="body">
2711         <p>During this weekends
2712 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
2713 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
2714 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
2715 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
2716 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
2717 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
2718 contributing using
2719 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
2720 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
2721 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
2722 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
2723 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
2724 contributors</a>.</p>
2725
2726 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
2727 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
2728 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
2729 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
2730 available for many more languages.</p>
2731
2732       </div>
2733       <div class="tags">
2734
2735
2736         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2737
2738
2739       </div>
2740     </div>
2741     <div class="padding"></div>
2742
2743     <div class="entry">
2744       <div class="title">
2745         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
2746       </div>
2747       <div class="date">
2748          7th April 2016
2749       </div>
2750       <div class="body">
2751         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
2752 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
2753 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
2754 But I might be wrong.</p>
2755
2756 <p>According to
2757 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
2758 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
2759 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
2760 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
2761 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
2762 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
2763 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
2764 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
2765 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
2766 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
2767
2768 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
2769 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
2770 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
2771 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
2772 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
2773 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
2774 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
2775 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
2776 team status page</a>, and
2777 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
2778 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
2779
2780 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
2781 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
2782 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
2783 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
2784 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
2785 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
2786 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
2787 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
2788 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
2789 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
2790 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
2791 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
2792
2793       </div>
2794       <div class="tags">
2795
2796
2797         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>.
2798
2799
2800       </div>
2801     </div>
2802     <div class="padding"></div>
2803
2804     <div class="entry">
2805       <div class="title">
2806         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
2807       </div>
2808       <div class="date">
2809         23rd March 2016
2810       </div>
2811       <div class="body">
2812         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
2813 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
2814 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
2815 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
2816 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
2817 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
2818 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
2819 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
2820
2821 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
2822 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
2823 and lifetime prediction by running:
2824
2825 <p><pre>
2826 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
2827 </pre></p>
2828
2829 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
2830
2831 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
2832 entry yet):</p>
2833
2834 <p><pre>
2835 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
2836 </pre></p>
2837
2838 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
2839 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
2840 few years of data.</p>
2841
2842 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
2843 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
2844 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
2845 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
2846 know.  The issue is reported as
2847 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
2848 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
2849 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
2850 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
2851 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
2852
2853 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
2854 check out the
2855 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
2856 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
2857 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
2858 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2859 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
2860
2861       </div>
2862       <div class="tags">
2863
2864
2865         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>.
2866
2867
2868       </div>
2869     </div>
2870     <div class="padding"></div>
2871
2872     <div class="entry">
2873       <div class="title">
2874         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
2875       </div>
2876       <div class="date">
2877         15th March 2016
2878       </div>
2879       <div class="body">
2880         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
2881 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
2882 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
2883 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
2884 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
2885 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
2886 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
2887 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
2888 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
2889 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
2890 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
2891
2892 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
2893 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
2894 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
2895 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
2896 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
2897 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
2898 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
2899 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
2900 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
2901 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
2902 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
2903
2904 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
2905
2906 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
2907 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
2908 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
2909 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
2910 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
2911 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
2912
2913 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
2914 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
2915 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
2916 and graphing.</p>
2917
2918 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
2919 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
2920 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
2921 on
2922 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2923 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
2924
2925       </div>
2926       <div class="tags">
2927
2928
2929         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>.
2930
2931
2932       </div>
2933     </div>
2934     <div class="padding"></div>
2935
2936     <div class="entry">
2937       <div class="title">
2938         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
2939       </div>
2940       <div class="date">
2941         19th February 2016
2942       </div>
2943       <div class="body">
2944         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
2945 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
2946 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
2947 the code in the package in question, preferably in
2948 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
2949 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
2950
2951 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
2952 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
2953 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
2954 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
2955 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
2956 out what was wrong with
2957 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
2958 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
2959 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
2960 semi-automatically.</p>
2961
2962 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
2963 file based on the code in the source package,
2964 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
2965 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
2966 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
2967 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
2968 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
2969 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
2970 option in
2971 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
2972 blog posts from 2014</a>.
2973
2974 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
2975
2976 <p><pre>
2977 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
2978 </pre></p>
2979
2980 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
2981 this might not be the best option.</p>
2982
2983 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
2984 this approach in
2985 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
2986 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
2987 dpkg-copyright' option:
2988
2989 <p><pre>
2990 cme update dpkg-copyright
2991 </pre></p>
2992
2993 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
2994 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
2995
2996 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
2997 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
2998 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
2999 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
3000 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
3001 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
3002 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
3003 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
3004 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
3005 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
3006
3007 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
3008 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
3009 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
3010 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
3011
3012 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
3013 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
3014 planet.debian.org.</p>
3015
3016 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3017 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3018 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3019
3020 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
3021 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
3022
3023 <p><pre>
3024 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
3025   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
3026 </pre></p>
3027
3028 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
3029 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
3030 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
3031 with my packages in the future.</p>
3032
3033 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
3034 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
3035 command line.</p>
3036
3037       </div>
3038       <div class="tags">
3039
3040
3041         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>.
3042
3043
3044       </div>
3045     </div>
3046     <div class="padding"></div>
3047
3048     <div class="entry">
3049       <div class="title">
3050         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
3051       </div>
3052       <div class="date">
3053          4th February 2016
3054       </div>
3055       <div class="body">
3056         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
3057 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
3058 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
3059 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
3060 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
3061 about. :)</p>
3062
3063 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
3064 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
3065 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
3066 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
3067 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
3068 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
3069
3070 <blockquote><pre>
3071 % apt install appstream
3072 [...]
3073 % apt update
3074 [...]
3075 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
3076   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
3077 firmware-qlogic
3078 %
3079 </pre></blockquote>
3080
3081 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
3082 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
3083 a way appstream can use.</p>
3084
3085 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
3086 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
3087 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
3088 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
3089 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
3090 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
3091
3092 <blockquote><pre>
3093 % apt install appstream
3094 [...]
3095 % apt update
3096 [...]
3097 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
3098   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
3099 bkchem
3100 phototonic
3101 inkscape
3102 shutter
3103 tetzle
3104 geeqie
3105 xia
3106 pinta
3107 gthumb
3108 karbon
3109 comix
3110 mirage
3111 viewnior
3112 postr
3113 ristretto
3114 kolourpaint4
3115 eog
3116 eom
3117 gimagereader
3118 midori
3119 %
3120 </pre></blockquote>
3121
3122 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
3123 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
3124
3125       </div>
3126       <div class="tags">
3127
3128
3129         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>.
3130
3131
3132       </div>
3133     </div>
3134     <div class="padding"></div>
3135
3136     <div class="entry">
3137       <div class="title">
3138         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
3139       </div>
3140       <div class="date">
3141         24th January 2016
3142       </div>
3143       <div class="body">
3144         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
3145 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
3146 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
3147 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
3148 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
3149 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
3150 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
3151 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
3152 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
3153 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
3154 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
3155 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
3156 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
3157 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
3158 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
3159 entities.</p>
3160
3161 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
3162
3163 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
3164 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
3165 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
3166 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
3167 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
3168 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
3169 tool to do so is called
3170 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
3171 discovered it when I read
3172 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
3173 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
3174 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
3175 The python program was in Debian, but
3176 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
3177 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
3178 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
3179 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
3180 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
3181 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
3182 are now included
3183 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
3184
3185 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
3186 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
3187 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
3188 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
3189 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
3190 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
3191 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
3192 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
3193 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
3194 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
3195 about yourself with the services.</p>
3196
3197 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
3198 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
3199 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
3200 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
3201 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
3202 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
3203 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
3204 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
3205 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
3206 things.  A similar technique have been
3207 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
3208 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
3209 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
3210 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
3211 public.</p>
3212
3213 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
3214 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
3215 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
3216 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
3217
3218 <p>(I have uploaded
3219 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
3220 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
3221 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
3222
3223       </div>
3224       <div class="tags">
3225
3226
3227         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/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3228
3229
3230       </div>
3231     </div>
3232     <div class="padding"></div>
3233
3234     <div class="entry">
3235       <div class="title">
3236         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
3237       </div>
3238       <div class="date">
3239         15th January 2016
3240       </div>
3241       <div class="body">
3242         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
3243 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
3244 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
3245 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
3246 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
3247 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
3248 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
3249 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
3250 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
3251 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
3252 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
3253 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
3254 was not the first to propose this, as the
3255 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
3256 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
3257 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
3258 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
3259
3260 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
3261 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
3262 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
3263 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
3264 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
3265
3266 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
3267 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
3268 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
3269 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
3270 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
3271 done in /etc/.</p>
3272
3273 <blockquote><pre>
3274 apt install apt-transport-tor
3275 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
3276 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
3277 </pre></blockquote>
3278
3279 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
3280 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
3281 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
3282 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
3283
3284 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
3285 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
3286 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
3287 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
3288 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
3289 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
3290
3291 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
3292 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
3293 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
3294 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
3295 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
3296
3297 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
3298 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
3299 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
3300 system.</p>
3301
3302       </div>
3303       <div class="tags">
3304
3305
3306         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>.
3307
3308
3309       </div>
3310     </div>
3311     <div class="padding"></div>
3312
3313     <div class="entry">
3314       <div class="title">
3315         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
3316       </div>
3317       <div class="date">
3318         23rd December 2015
3319       </div>
3320       <div class="body">
3321         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
3322 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
3323 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
3324 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
3325 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
3326 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
3327
3328 <p>A few days I came across
3329 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
3330 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
3331 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
3332 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
3333 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
3334 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
3335 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
3336 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
3337 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
3338 discovered the developer
3339 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
3340 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
3341 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
3342 archive.</p>
3343
3344 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
3345 it into Debian, where it currently
3346 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
3347 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
3348
3349 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
3350 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
3351 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
3352 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
3353 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
3354 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
3355 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
3356 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
3357 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
3358 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
3359 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
3360 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
3361
3362 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
3363 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
3364 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
3365 package show up in unstable.</p>
3366
3367       </div>
3368       <div class="tags">
3369
3370
3371         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/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3372
3373
3374       </div>
3375     </div>
3376     <div class="padding"></div>
3377
3378     <div class="entry">
3379       <div class="title">
3380         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
3381       </div>
3382       <div class="date">
3383         20th December 2015
3384       </div>
3385       <div class="body">
3386         <p>Around three years ago, I created
3387 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
3388 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
3389 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
3390 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
3391 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
3392 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
3393 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
3394 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
3395 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
3396 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
3397 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
3398 with.</p>
3399
3400 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
3401 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
3402 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
3403 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
3404 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
3405 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
3406 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
3407 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
3408 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
3409 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
3410 Debian version of appstream.</p>
3411
3412 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
3413 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
3414 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
3415 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
3416 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
3417 how do add the required
3418 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
3419 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
3420 this content:</p>
3421
3422 <blockquote><pre>
3423 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
3424 &lt;component&gt;
3425   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
3426   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
3427   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
3428   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
3429   &lt;description&gt;
3430     &lt;p&gt;
3431       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
3432       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
3433       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
3434       launcher.
3435     &lt;/p&gt;
3436   &lt;/description&gt;
3437   &lt;provides&gt;
3438     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
3439   &lt;/provides&gt;
3440 &lt;/component&gt;
3441 </pre></blockquote>
3442
3443 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
3444 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
3445 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
3446 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
3447 0202.</p>
3448
3449 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
3450 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
3451 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
3452 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
3453 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
3454 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
3455 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
3456 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
3457
3458 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
3459 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
3460 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
3461 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
3462 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
3463
3464 <blockquote><pre>
3465 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
3466 </pre></blockquote>
3467
3468 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
3469 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
3470 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
3471 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
3472 question.</p>
3473
3474 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
3475 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
3476
3477 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
3478 try running this command on the command line:</p>
3479
3480 <blockquote><pre>
3481 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
3482 </pre></blockquote>
3483
3484 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
3485 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
3486 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
3487
3488       </div>
3489       <div class="tags">
3490
3491
3492         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>.
3493
3494
3495       </div>
3496     </div>
3497     <div class="padding"></div>
3498
3499     <div class="entry">
3500       <div class="title">
3501         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
3502       </div>
3503       <div class="date">
3504         30th November 2015
3505       </div>
3506       <div class="body">
3507         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
3508 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
3509 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
3510 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
3511 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
3512
3513 <blockquote>
3514
3515 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
3516
3517 <blockquote>
3518 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
3519
3520 The first step is to choose a
3521 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
3522 code.<br/>
3523
3524 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
3525 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
3526
3527 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
3528 work<br/>
3529
3530 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
3531 </blockquote>
3532
3533 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
3534 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
3535 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
3536 0x57</a></small></p>
3537
3538 <p>As the Debian Website
3539 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
3540 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
3541 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
3542 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
3543 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
3544 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
3545 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
3546 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
3547 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
3548 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
3549 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
3550 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
3551 Freedom">FaiF</a>
3552 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
3553 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
3554 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
3555 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
3556 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
3557 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
3558 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
3559 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
3560 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
3561 In March the SFC supported a
3562 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
3563 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
3564 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
3565 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
3566 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
3567 conferences
3568 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
3569 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
3570 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
3571 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
3572 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
3573 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
3574 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
3575 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
3576 Software.</p>
3577
3578 <p>If you support Free Software,
3579 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
3580 what the SFC do, agree with their
3581 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
3582 principles</a>, are happy about their
3583 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
3584 work on a project that is an SFC
3585 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
3586 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
3587 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
3588 Allan Webber</a>,
3589 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
3590 Smith</a>,
3591 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
3592 Bacon</a>, myself and
3593 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
3594 becoming a
3595 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
3596 next week your donation will be
3597 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
3598 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
3599 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
3600 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
3601 social media accounts.</p>
3602
3603 </blockquote>
3604
3605 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
3606 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
3607 supporter too?</p>
3608
3609       </div>
3610       <div class="tags">
3611
3612
3613         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
3614
3615
3616       </div>
3617     </div>
3618     <div class="padding"></div>
3619
3620     <div class="entry">
3621       <div class="title">
3622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
3623       </div>
3624       <div class="date">
3625         17th November 2015
3626       </div>
3627       <div class="body">
3628         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
3629 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
3630 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
3631 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
3632 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
3633 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
3634 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
3635 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
3636 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
3637 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
3638
3639 <pre>
3640 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
3641       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
3642 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
3643 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
3644 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
3645 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
3646 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
3647 </pre>
3648
3649 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
3650 my old key.</p>
3651
3652 <p>If you signed my old key
3653 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
3654 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
3655 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
3656 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
3657
3658       </div>
3659       <div class="tags">
3660
3661
3662         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>.
3663
3664
3665       </div>
3666     </div>
3667     <div class="padding"></div>
3668
3669     <div class="entry">
3670       <div class="title">
3671         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
3672       </div>
3673       <div class="date">
3674         24th September 2015
3675       </div>
3676       <div class="body">
3677         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
3678 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
3679 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
3680 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
3681 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
3682 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
3683 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
3684
3685 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
3686
3687 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
3688 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
3689 by someone else.  I found
3690 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
3691 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
3692 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
3693 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
3694 from him.  Via
3695 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
3696 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
3697 discovered
3698 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
3699 available in Debian.</p>
3700
3701 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
3702 battery stats ever since. Now my
3703 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
3704 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
3705 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
3706 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
3707
3708 <pre>
3709 #!/bin/sh
3710 # Inspired by
3711 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
3712 # See also
3713 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
3714 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
3715
3716 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
3717     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
3718
3719 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
3720     (
3721         printf "timestamp,"
3722         for f in $files; do
3723             printf "%s," $f
3724         done
3725         echo
3726     ) > "$logfile"
3727 fi
3728
3729 log_battery() {
3730     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
3731     # when several log processes run in parallel.
3732     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
3733         for f in $files; do \
3734             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
3735         done)
3736     echo "$msg"
3737 }
3738
3739 cd /sys/class/power_supply
3740
3741 for bat in BAT*; do
3742     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
3743 done
3744 </pre>
3745
3746 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
3747 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
3748 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
3749 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
3750 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
3751 The code for the Debian package
3752 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
3753 available on github</a>.</p>
3754
3755 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
3756
3757 <pre>
3758 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
3759 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
3760 [...]
3761 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
3762 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
3763 </pre>
3764
3765 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
3766 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
3767 battery.</p>
3768
3769 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
3770 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
3771 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
3772 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
3773 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
3774 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
3775 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
3776 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
3777 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
3778 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
3779 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
3780 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
3781 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
3782 Linux too.</p>
3783
3784 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
3785 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
3786 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
3787 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
3788 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
3789 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
3790 load).</p>
3791
3792 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
3793 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
3794 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
3795 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
3796 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
3797 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
3798 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
3799 those.</p>
3800
3801 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
3802 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
3803 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
3804 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
3805 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
3806 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
3807 specific.</p>
3808
3809       </div>
3810       <div class="tags">
3811
3812
3813         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>.
3814
3815
3816       </div>
3817     </div>
3818     <div class="padding"></div>
3819
3820     <div class="entry">
3821       <div class="title">
3822         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
3823       </div>
3824       <div class="date">
3825          5th July 2015
3826       </div>
3827       <div class="body">
3828         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
3829 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
3830 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
3831 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
3832 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
3833 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
3834 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
3835 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
3836 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
3837 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
3838 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
3839
3840 <p>One tip I got was to use the
3841 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
3842 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
3843 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
3844 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
3845 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
3846 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
3847
3848 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
3849 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
3850 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
3851 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
3852 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
3853 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
3854 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
3855 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
3856 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
3857 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
3858 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
3859 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
3860 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
3861 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
3862 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
3863
3864 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
3865 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
3866 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
3867 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
3868
3869 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
3870 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
3871
3872 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
3873 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
3874 different
3875 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
3876 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
3877
3878       </div>
3879       <div class="tags">
3880
3881
3882         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>.
3883
3884
3885       </div>
3886     </div>
3887     <div class="padding"></div>
3888
3889     <div class="entry">
3890       <div class="title">
3891         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
3892       </div>
3893       <div class="date">
3894          3rd July 2015
3895       </div>
3896       <div class="body">
3897         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
3898 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
3899 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
3900 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
3901 flickering.</p>
3902
3903 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
3904 still as
3905 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
3906 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
3907 good help from
3908 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
3909 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
3910 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
3911 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
3912 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
3913 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
3914 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
3915 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
3916 deteriorated since X41.</p>
3917
3918 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
3919 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
3920 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
3921 have suggestions.</p>
3922
3923 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
3924 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
3925 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
3926
3927       </div>
3928       <div class="tags">
3929
3930
3931         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>.
3932
3933
3934       </div>
3935     </div>
3936     <div class="padding"></div>
3937
3938     <div class="entry">
3939       <div class="title">
3940         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
3941       </div>
3942       <div class="date">
3943         22nd November 2014
3944       </div>
3945       <div class="body">
3946         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
3947 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
3948 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
3949 courtesy of
3950 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
3951 Schubert</a> and
3952 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
3953 McVittie</a>.
3954
3955 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
3956 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
3957 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
3958 you upgrade:</p>
3959
3960 <p><blockquote><pre>
3961 Package: systemd-sysv
3962 Pin: release o=Debian
3963 Pin-Priority: -1
3964 </pre></blockquote><p>
3965
3966 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
3967 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
3968 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
3969 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
3970 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
3971
3972 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
3973 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
3974 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
3975 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
3976 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
3977 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
3978
3979 <p><blockquote><pre>
3980 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
3981 </pre></blockquote><p>
3982
3983 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
3984
3985 <p><blockquote><pre>
3986 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
3987 </pre></blockquote><p>
3988
3989 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
3990 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
3991
3992 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
3993 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
3994 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
3995 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
3996 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
3997 Jessie is released.</p>
3998
3999 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
4000 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
4001 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
4002 line.</p>
4003
4004       </div>
4005       <div class="tags">
4006
4007
4008         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>.
4009
4010
4011       </div>
4012     </div>
4013     <div class="padding"></div>
4014
4015     <div class="entry">
4016       <div class="title">
4017         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
4018       </div>
4019       <div class="date">
4020         10th November 2014
4021       </div>
4022       <div class="body">
4023         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
4024 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
4025 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
4026
4027 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
4028 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
4029 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
4030 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
4031 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
4032 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
4033 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
4034 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
4035 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
4036 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
4037 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
4038 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
4039 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
4040 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
4041 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
4042
4043 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
4044 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
4045 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
4046 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
4047 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
4048 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
4049 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
4050 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
4051 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
4052 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
4053 were fairly easy, and
4054 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
4055 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
4056 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
4057 useful approach.</p>
4058
4059 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
4060 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
4061 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
4062 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
4063 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
4064 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
4065 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
4066 this:</p>
4067
4068 <p><blockquote><pre>
4069 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
4070   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
4071 </pre></blockquote></p>
4072
4073 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
4074 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
4075
4076 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
4077 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
4078 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
4079 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
4080 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
4081 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
4082 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
4083 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
4084 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
4085 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
4086 system.</p>
4087
4088 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
4089 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
4090 SMTorP. :)</p>
4091
4092       </div>
4093       <div class="tags">
4094
4095
4096         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4097
4098
4099       </div>
4100     </div>
4101     <div class="padding"></div>
4102
4103     <div class="entry">
4104       <div class="title">
4105         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
4106       </div>
4107       <div class="date">
4108         22nd October 2014
4109       </div>
4110       <div class="body">
4111         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
4112 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
4113 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
4114 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
4115 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
4116 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
4117 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
4118 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
4119 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
4120 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
4121 lists I recently took over:</p>
4122
4123 <p><blockquote><pre>
4124 % time listadmin xiph
4125 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
4126 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
4127
4128 real    0m1.709s
4129 user    0m0.232s
4130 sys     0m0.012s
4131 %
4132 </pre></blockquote></p>
4133
4134 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
4135 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
4136 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
4137 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
4138 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
4139 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
4140 program.</p>
4141
4142 <p>If you install
4143 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
4144 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
4145 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
4146
4147 <p><blockquote><pre>
4148 username username@example.org
4149 spamlevel 23
4150 default discard
4151 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
4152
4153 password secret
4154 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
4155 mailman-list@lists.example.com
4156
4157 password hidden
4158 other-list@otherserver.example.org
4159 </pre></blockquote></p>
4160
4161 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
4162 learn the details.</p>
4163
4164 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
4165 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
4166 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
4167 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
4168
4169 <p><blockquote><pre>
4170 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
4171 </pre></blockquote></p>
4172
4173 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
4174 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
4175 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
4176 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
4177 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
4178 email.</p>
4179
4180 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
4181 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
4182 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
4183 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
4184 software.</p>
4185
4186 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4187 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4188 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4189
4190 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
4191 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
4192 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
4193 sure why.</p>
4194
4195       </div>
4196       <div class="tags">
4197
4198
4199         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/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4200
4201
4202       </div>
4203     </div>
4204     <div class="padding"></div>
4205
4206     <div class="entry">
4207       <div class="title">
4208         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
4209       </div>
4210       <div class="date">
4211         17th October 2014
4212       </div>
4213       <div class="body">
4214         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
4215 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
4216 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
4217 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
4218 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
4219 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
4220 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
4221
4222 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
4223 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
4224 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
4225 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
4226 of this story.)</p>
4227
4228 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
4229 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
4230 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
4231 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
4232 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
4233 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
4234 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
4235 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
4236 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
4237 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
4238
4239 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
4240 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
4241 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
4242 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
4243
4244 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
4245 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
4246
4247 <p><blockquote><pre>
4248 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
4249 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
4250 </pre></blockquote></p>
4251
4252 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
4253 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
4254 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
4255 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
4256 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
4257 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
4258 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
4259 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
4260
4261 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
4262 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
4263
4264 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
4265 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
4266 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
4267 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
4268 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
4269
4270 <p><blockquote><pre>
4271 Task: isenkram-packages
4272 Section: hardware
4273 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4274  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4275  proposed.
4276 Test-new-install: show show
4277 Relevance: 8
4278 Packages: for-current-hardware
4279
4280 Task: isenkram-firmware
4281 Section: hardware
4282 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4283  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
4284  packages are proposed.
4285 Test-new-install: mark show
4286 Relevance: 8
4287 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
4288 </pre></blockquote></p>
4289
4290 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
4291 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
4292 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
4293 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
4294 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
4295
4296 <p><blockquote><pre>
4297 #!/bin/sh
4298 #
4299 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
4300 export PATH
4301 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4302 </pre></blockquote></p>
4303
4304 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
4305 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
4306
4307 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
4308 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
4309 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
4310 install.</p>
4311
4312 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
4313 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
4314 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
4315
4316       </div>
4317       <div class="tags">
4318
4319
4320         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
4321
4322
4323       </div>
4324     </div>
4325     <div class="padding"></div>
4326
4327     <div class="entry">
4328       <div class="title">
4329         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
4330       </div>
4331       <div class="date">
4332          4th October 2014
4333       </div>
4334       <div class="body">
4335         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
4336 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
4337 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
4338 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
4339
4340 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
4341
4342 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
4343 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
4344 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
4345
4346       </div>
4347       <div class="tags">
4348
4349
4350         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>.
4351
4352
4353       </div>
4354     </div>
4355     <div class="padding"></div>
4356
4357     <div class="entry">
4358       <div class="title">
4359         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
4360       </div>
4361       <div class="date">
4362          4th October 2014
4363       </div>
4364       <div class="body">
4365         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
4366 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
4367 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
4368 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
4369 Dibb.</p>
4370
4371 <p>I just wrapped up
4372 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
4373 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
4374 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
4375 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
4376 0.17.</p>
4377
4378 <ul>
4379
4380  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
4381  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
4382    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
4383  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
4384  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
4385  <li>Fix include orders</li>
4386  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
4387  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
4388  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
4389    the palette size is the same.</li>
4390  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
4391  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
4392  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
4393  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
4394    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
4395
4396 </ul>
4397
4398 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
4399 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
4400 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
4401
4402       </div>
4403       <div class="tags">
4404
4405
4406         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
4407
4408
4409       </div>
4410     </div>
4411     <div class="padding"></div>
4412
4413     <div class="entry">
4414       <div class="title">
4415         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
4416       </div>
4417       <div class="date">
4418         26th September 2014
4419       </div>
4420       <div class="body">
4421         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4422 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
4423 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
4424 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
4425 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
4426 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
4427 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
4428 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
4429 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
4430 future.  The
4431 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
4432 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
4433 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
4434 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
4435 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
4436
4437 <p>First, download the test ISO via
4438 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
4439 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
4440 or rsync (use
4441 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
4442 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
4443 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
4444 install with some tweaking.</p>
4445
4446 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
4447 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
4448
4449 <p><blockquote><pre>
4450 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
4451 </pre></blockquote></p>
4452
4453 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
4454 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
4455 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
4456 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
4457
4458 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
4459 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
4460 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
4461 your need.</p>
4462
4463 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
4464 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
4465 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
4466 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
4467 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
4468 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
4469 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
4470 days.</p>
4471
4472 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
4473 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
4474 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
4475 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
4476 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
4477 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
4478 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
4479 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
4480 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
4481
4482 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
4483 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
4484 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
4485
4486       </div>
4487       <div class="tags">
4488
4489
4490         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>.
4491
4492
4493       </div>
4494     </div>
4495     <div class="padding"></div>
4496
4497     <div class="entry">
4498       <div class="title">
4499         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
4500       </div>
4501       <div class="date">
4502         25th September 2014
4503       </div>
4504       <div class="body">
4505         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
4506 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
4507 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
4508 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
4509 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
4510 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
4511 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
4512 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
4513 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
4514 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
4515 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
4516 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
4517 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
4518
4519 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
4520 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
4521 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
4522 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
4523 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
4524 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
4525 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
4526 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
4527 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
4528 list</a>. :)</p>
4529
4530       </div>
4531       <div class="tags">
4532
4533
4534         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
4535
4536
4537       </div>
4538     </div>
4539     <div class="padding"></div>
4540
4541     <div class="entry">
4542       <div class="title">
4543         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
4544       </div>
4545       <div class="date">
4546         16th September 2014
4547       </div>
4548       <div class="body">
4549         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
4550 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
4551 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
4552 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
4553 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
4554 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
4555 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
4556 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
4557 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
4558 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
4559 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
4560 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
4561 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
4562 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
4563
4564 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
4565 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
4566 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
4567 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
4568 depend on the small and clever package
4569 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
4570 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
4571 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
4572 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
4573 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
4574 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
4575 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
4576 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
4577 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
4578 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
4579 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
4580
4581 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
4582 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
4583 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
4584 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
4585 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
4586 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
4587 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
4588 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
4589 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
4590 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
4591 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
4592 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
4593 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
4594 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
4595 dialog.</p>
4596
4597 <p><table>
4598
4599 <tr>
4600 <th>Machine/setup</th>
4601 <th>Original tasksel</th>
4602 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
4603 <th>Reduction</th>
4604 </tr>
4605
4606 <tr>
4607 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
4608 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
4609 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
4610 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
4611 </tr>
4612
4613 <tr>
4614 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
4615 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
4616 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
4617 <td>23 min 40%</td>
4618 </tr>
4619
4620 <tr>
4621 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
4622 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
4623 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
4624 <td>11 min 50%</td>
4625 </tr>
4626
4627 <tr>
4628 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
4629 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
4630 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
4631 <td>2 min 33%</td>
4632 </tr>
4633
4634 <tr>
4635 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
4636 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
4637 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
4638 <td>4 min 21%</td>
4639 </tr>
4640
4641 </table></p>
4642
4643 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
4644 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
4645 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
4646 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
4647 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
4648 installed.</p>
4649
4650 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
4651 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
4652 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
4653 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
4654 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
4655 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
4656 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
4657 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
4658 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
4659 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
4660 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
4661 for the entire installation.</p>
4662
4663 <p>I've implemented this in the
4664 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
4665 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
4666 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
4667 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
4668 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
4669
4670 <p><blockquote><pre>
4671 #!/bin/sh
4672 set -e
4673 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
4674 info() {
4675     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
4676 }
4677 error() {
4678     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
4679 }
4680 override_install() {
4681     apt-install eatmydata || true
4682     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
4683         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
4684             file=/usr/bin/$bin
4685             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
4686             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
4687                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
4688                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
4689                     > /target$file.edu
4690                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
4691                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
4692                     --rename --quiet --add $file
4693                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
4694             else
4695                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
4696             fi
4697         done
4698     else
4699         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
4700     fi
4701 }
4702
4703 override_install
4704 </pre></blockquote></p>
4705
4706 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
4707 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
4708
4709 <p><blockquote><pre>
4710 #! /bin/sh -e
4711 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
4712 error() {
4713     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
4714 }
4715 remove_install_override() {
4716     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
4717         file=/usr/bin/$bin
4718         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
4719             rm /target$file
4720             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
4721                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
4722             rm /target$file.edu
4723         else
4724             error "Missing divert for $file."
4725         fi
4726     done
4727     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
4728 }
4729
4730 remove_install_override
4731 </pre></blockquote></p>
4732
4733 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
4734 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
4735 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
4736
4737 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
4738 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
4739 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
4740 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
4741 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
4742 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
4743 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
4744 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
4745 everyone.</p>
4746
4747 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
4748 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
4749 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
4750 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
4751
4752 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
4753 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
4754 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
4755 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
4756 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
4757
4758 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
4759 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
4760 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
4761 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
4762 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
4763
4764       </div>
4765       <div class="tags">
4766
4767
4768         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>.
4769
4770
4771       </div>
4772     </div>
4773     <div class="padding"></div>
4774
4775     <div class="entry">
4776       <div class="title">
4777         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
4778       </div>
4779       <div class="date">
4780         10th September 2014
4781       </div>
4782       <div class="body">
4783         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
4784 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
4785 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
4786 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
4787 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
4788 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
4789 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
4790 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
4791 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
4792 those problems are gone now.</p>
4793
4794 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
4795 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
4796 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
4797 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
4798 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
4799
4800 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
4801 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
4802 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
4803
4804 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
4805 line:</p>
4806
4807 <p><blockquote><pre>
4808 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
4809 </pre></blockquote></p>
4810
4811 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
4812 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
4813 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
4814 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
4815
4816 <p><blockquote><pre>
4817 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
4818 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
4819 %
4820 </pre></blockquote></p>
4821
4822 <p>Now if only
4823 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
4824 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
4825 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
4826 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
4827 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
4828 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
4829 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
4830 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
4831 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
4832
4833       </div>
4834       <div class="tags">
4835
4836
4837         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4838
4839
4840       </div>
4841     </div>
4842     <div class="padding"></div>
4843
4844     <div class="entry">
4845       <div class="title">
4846         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
4847       </div>
4848       <div class="date">
4849         17th June 2014
4850       </div>
4851       <div class="body">
4852         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4853 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
4854 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
4855 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
4856 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
4857
4858 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
4859 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
4860 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
4861 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
4862 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
4863 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
4864 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
4865 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
4866 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
4867 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
4868 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
4869 goals.</p>
4870
4871 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
4872 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
4873 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
4874 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
4875 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
4876 chapters together into one large web page (aka
4877 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
4878 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
4879 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
4880 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
4881 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
4882 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
4883 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
4884 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
4885 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
4886 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
4887 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
4888 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
4889 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
4890 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
4891 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
4892 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
4893 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
4894 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
4895
4896 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
4897 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
4898 track the English original.  For this we use the
4899 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
4900 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
4901 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
4902 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
4903 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
4904 files), which the translations update with the native language
4905 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
4906 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
4907 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
4908 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
4909 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
4910 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
4911 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
4912 of the documentation.</p>
4913
4914 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
4915 recommend using
4916 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
4917 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
4918 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
4919 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
4920 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
4921 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
4922 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
4923 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
4924
4925 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
4926 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
4927 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
4928 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
4929 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
4930 translated images by storing translated versions in
4931 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
4932 package maintainers know more.</p>
4933
4934 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
4935 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
4936 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
4937 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
4938 PDF version</a> or the
4939 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
4940 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
4941 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
4942
4943 <p>To learn more, check out
4944 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
4945 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
4946 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
4947 manual on the wiki</a> and
4948 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
4949 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
4950
4951       </div>
4952       <div class="tags">
4953
4954
4955         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4956
4957
4958       </div>
4959     </div>
4960     <div class="padding"></div>
4961
4962     <div class="entry">
4963       <div class="title">
4964         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
4965       </div>
4966       <div class="date">
4967         23rd April 2014
4968       </div>
4969       <div class="body">
4970         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
4971 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
4972 So I implemented one, using
4973 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
4974 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
4975 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
4976 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
4977 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
4978 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
4979
4980 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
4981 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
4982 packages to install.  The first part is in
4983 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
4984 this:</p>
4985
4986 <p><blockquote><pre>
4987 Task: isenkram
4988 Section: hardware
4989 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4990  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4991  proposed.
4992 Test-new-install: mark show
4993 Relevance: 8
4994 Packages: for-current-hardware
4995 </pre></blockquote></p>
4996
4997 <p>The second part is in
4998 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
4999 this:</p>
5000
5001 <p><blockquote><pre>
5002 #!/bin/sh
5003 #
5004 (
5005     isenkram-lookup
5006     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
5007 ) | sort -u
5008 </pre></blockquote></p>
5009
5010 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
5011 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
5012 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
5013 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
5014 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
5015 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
5016
5017 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
5018 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
5019 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
5020 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
5021 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
5022 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
5023 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
5024 the python-apt code (bug
5025 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
5026 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
5027 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
5028 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
5029 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
5030 unstable today.</p>
5031
5032 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
5033 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
5034 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
5035 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
5036 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
5037 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
5038 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
5039 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
5040 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
5041
5042 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
5043 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
5044 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
5045 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
5046 package.  See also
5047 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
5048 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
5049 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
5050 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
5051
5052       </div>
5053       <div class="tags">
5054
5055
5056         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>.
5057
5058
5059       </div>
5060     </div>
5061     <div class="padding"></div>
5062
5063     <div class="entry">
5064       <div class="title">
5065         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
5066       </div>
5067       <div class="date">
5068         15th April 2014
5069       </div>
5070       <div class="body">
5071         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
5072 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
5073 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
5074 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
5075 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
5076 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
5077
5078 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
5079 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
5080 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
5081 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
5082 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
5083 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
5084 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
5085
5086 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
5087 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
5088 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
5089 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
5090 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
5091 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
5092 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
5093 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
5094 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
5095 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
5096 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
5097 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
5098
5099 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
5100 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
5101 become root:</p>
5102
5103 <p><pre>
5104 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
5105   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
5106   u-boot-tools
5107 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
5108   freedom-maker
5109 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
5110 </pre></p>
5111
5112 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
5113 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
5114 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
5115 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
5116 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
5117 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
5118 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
5119 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
5120
5121 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
5122 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
5123 the preseed values:</p>
5124
5125 <p><pre>
5126 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
5127 </pre></p>
5128
5129 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
5130 it still work.</p>
5131
5132 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
5133 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
5134 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
5135 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
5136 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
5137 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
5138 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
5139
5140 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
5141 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
5142 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
5143 irc.debian.org)</a> and
5144 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5145 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5146
5147       </div>
5148       <div class="tags">
5149
5150
5151         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5152
5153
5154       </div>
5155     </div>
5156     <div class="padding"></div>
5157
5158     <div class="entry">
5159       <div class="title">
5160         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
5161       </div>
5162       <div class="date">
5163          9th April 2014
5164       </div>
5165       <div class="body">
5166         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
5167 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
5168 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
5169 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
5170 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
5171 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
5172 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
5173 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
5174 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
5175 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
5176 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
5177 have looked at a system called
5178 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
5179 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
5180
5181 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
5182 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
5183 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
5184 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
5185 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
5186 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
5187 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
5188 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
5189 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
5190 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
5191 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
5192 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
5193 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
5194
5195 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
5196 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
5197 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
5198 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
5199 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
5200 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
5201 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
5202 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
5203 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
5204 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
5205 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
5206 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
5207 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
5208 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
5209 account.</p>
5210
5211 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
5212 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
5213 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
5214 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
5215 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
5216 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
5217 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
5218
5219 <p><blockquote><pre>
5220 [s3c]
5221 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5222 backend-login: API-login
5223 backend-password: API-password
5224 fs-passphrase: local-password
5225 </pre></blockquote></p>
5226
5227 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
5228 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
5229 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
5230 details and password to create it:</p>
5231
5232 <p><blockquote><pre>
5233 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
5234 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5235   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5236 Enter backend login:
5237 Enter backend password:
5238 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
5239 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
5240 Enter encryption password:
5241 Confirm encryption password:
5242 Generating random encryption key...
5243 Creating metadata tables...
5244 Dumping metadata...
5245 ..objects..
5246 ..blocks..
5247 ..inodes..
5248 ..inode_blocks..
5249 ..symlink_targets..
5250 ..names..
5251 ..contents..
5252 ..ext_attributes..
5253 Compressing and uploading metadata...
5254 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
5255 # </pre></blockquote></p>
5256
5257 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
5258
5259 <p><blockquote><pre>
5260 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5261   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
5262 Using 4 upload threads.
5263 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
5264 Reading metadata...
5265 ..objects..
5266 ..blocks..
5267 ..inodes..
5268 ..inode_blocks..
5269 ..symlink_targets..
5270 ..names..
5271 ..contents..
5272 ..ext_attributes..
5273 Mounting filesystem...
5274 # df -h /s3ql
5275 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
5276 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
5277 #
5278 </pre></blockquote></p>
5279
5280 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
5281 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
5282 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
5283 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
5284 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
5285 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
5286
5287 <p><blockquote><pre>
5288 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
5289 #
5290 </pre></blockquote></p>
5291
5292 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
5293 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
5294 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
5295 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
5296 file system:</p>
5297
5298 <p><blockquote><pre>
5299 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
5300 Using cached metadata.
5301 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
5302 Checking DB integrity...
5303 Creating temporary extra indices...
5304 Checking lost+found...
5305 Checking cached objects...
5306 Checking names (refcounts)...
5307 Checking contents (names)...
5308 Checking contents (inodes)...
5309 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
5310 Checking objects (reference counts)...
5311 Checking objects (backend)...
5312 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
5313 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
5314 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
5315 Checking objects (sizes)...
5316 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
5317 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
5318 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
5319 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
5320 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
5321 Checking inodes (sizes)...
5322 Checking extended attributes (names)...
5323 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
5324 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
5325 Checking directory reachability...
5326 Checking unix conventions...
5327 Checking referential integrity...
5328 Dropping temporary indices...
5329 Backing up old metadata...
5330 Dumping metadata...
5331 ..objects..
5332 ..blocks..
5333 ..inodes..
5334 ..inode_blocks..
5335 ..symlink_targets..
5336 ..names..
5337 ..contents..
5338 ..ext_attributes..
5339 Compressing and uploading metadata...
5340 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
5341 #
5342 </pre></blockquote></p>
5343
5344 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
5345 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
5346 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
5347 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
5348 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
5349 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
5350 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
5351 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
5352 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
5353 working set.</p>
5354
5355 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
5356 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
5357 busy:</p>
5358
5359 <p><blockquote><pre>
5360 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
5361   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
5362 Using 8 upload threads.
5363 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
5364 #
5365 </pre></blockquote></p>
5366
5367 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
5368 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
5369 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
5370 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
5371 s3qlctrl:
5372
5373 <p><blockquote><pre>
5374 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
5375 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
5376 #
5377 </pre></blockquote></p>
5378
5379 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
5380 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
5381 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
5382 a report:</p>
5383
5384 <p><blockquote><pre>
5385 # s3qlstat /s3ql
5386 Directory entries:    9141
5387 Inodes:               9143
5388 Data blocks:          8851
5389 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
5390 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
5391 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
5392 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
5393 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
5394 #
5395 </pre></blockquote></p>
5396
5397 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
5398 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
5399 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
5400 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
5401 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
5402 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
5403 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
5404 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
5405 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
5406 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
5407 best.</p>
5408
5409 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
5410 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
5411 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
5412 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
5413 poster is titled
5414 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
5415 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
5416 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
5417 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
5418 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
5419
5420 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
5421 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
5422 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
5423 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
5424 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
5425 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
5426 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
5427 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
5428
5429 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
5430 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
5431 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
5432 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
5433 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
5434 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
5435 only read from it.</p>
5436
5437 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5438 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5439 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5440
5441       </div>
5442       <div class="tags">
5443
5444
5445         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/nice free software">nice free software</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>.
5446
5447
5448       </div>
5449     </div>
5450     <div class="padding"></div>
5451
5452     <div class="entry">
5453       <div class="title">
5454         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
5455       </div>
5456       <div class="date">
5457         14th March 2014
5458       </div>
5459       <div class="body">
5460         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
5461 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
5462 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
5463 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
5464 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
5465 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
5466 release (0.2).</p>
5467
5468 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
5469 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
5470 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
5471 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
5472 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
5473 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
5474 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
5475 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
5476 and build using
5477 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
5478 with a user with sudo access to become root:
5479
5480 <pre>
5481 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
5482   freedom-maker
5483 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
5484   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
5485   u-boot-tools
5486 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
5487 </pre>
5488
5489 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
5490 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
5491 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
5492 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
5493 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
5494 kpartx call.</p>
5495
5496 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
5497 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
5498 the preseed values:</p>
5499
5500 <pre>
5501 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
5502 </pre>
5503
5504 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
5505 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
5506 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
5507 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
5508 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
5509 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
5510
5511 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
5512 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
5513 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
5514 irc.debian.org)</a> and
5515 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5516 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5517
5518       </div>
5519       <div class="tags">
5520
5521
5522         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5523
5524
5525       </div>
5526     </div>
5527     <div class="padding"></div>
5528
5529     <div class="entry">
5530       <div class="title">
5531         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
5532       </div>
5533       <div class="date">
5534         22nd February 2014
5535       </div>
5536       <div class="body">
5537         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
5538 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
5539 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
5540 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
5541 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
5542 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
5543 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
5544 proper home since then.</p>
5545
5546 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
5547 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
5548 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
5549 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
5550 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
5551
5552 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
5553 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
5554 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
5555 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
5556 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
5557 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
5558 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
5559 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
5560 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
5561
5562       </div>
5563       <div class="tags">
5564
5565
5566         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>.
5567
5568
5569       </div>
5570     </div>
5571     <div class="padding"></div>
5572
5573     <div class="entry">
5574       <div class="title">
5575         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
5576       </div>
5577       <div class="date">
5578          3rd February 2014
5579       </div>
5580       <div class="body">
5581         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
5582 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
5583 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
5584 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
5585 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
5586 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
5587 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
5588 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
5589 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
5590
5591 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
5592 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
5593 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
5594 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
5595 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
5596 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
5597
5598 <p><blockquote><pre>
5599 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
5600 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
5601 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
5602 dhclient /dev/eth0
5603 </pre></blockquote></p>
5604
5605 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
5606 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
5607 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
5608
5609 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
5610 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
5611 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
5612 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
5613 side.</p>
5614
5615 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
5616 stuff:</p>
5617
5618 <p><blockquote><pre>
5619 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
5620 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
5621 EOF
5622 apt-get update
5623 apt-get dist-upgrade
5624 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
5625     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
5626 update-alternatives --config runsystem
5627 </pre></blockquote></p>
5628
5629 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
5630 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
5631 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
5632 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
5633 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
5634 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
5635 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
5636 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
5637 ssh instead.
5638
5639 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
5640 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
5641 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
5642 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
5643 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
5644 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
5645
5646 <p><blockquote><pre>
5647 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
5648 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
5649 EOF
5650 </pre></blockquote></p>
5651
5652 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
5653 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
5654 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
5655 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
5656
5657 <p><blockquote><pre>
5658 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
5659 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
5660 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
5661 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
5662 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
5663 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
5664 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
5665 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
5666 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
5667 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
5668 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
5669 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
5670 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
5671 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
5672 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
5673 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
5674 #
5675 </pre></blockquote></p>
5676
5677 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
5678 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
5679 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
5680 command line stuff.<p>
5681
5682       </div>
5683       <div class="tags">
5684
5685
5686         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>.
5687
5688
5689       </div>
5690     </div>
5691     <div class="padding"></div>
5692
5693     <div class="entry">
5694       <div class="title">
5695         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
5696       </div>
5697       <div class="date">
5698         14th January 2014
5699       </div>
5700       <div class="body">
5701         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
5702 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
5703 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
5704 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
5705 the source.  The company behind it provide
5706 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
5707 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
5708 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
5709 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
5710 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
5711 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
5712 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
5713 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
5714 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
5715 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
5716 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
5717 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
5718 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
5719 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
5720 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
5721 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
5722 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
5723 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
5724 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
5725
5726 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
5727
5728 <ul>
5729
5730   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
5731   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
5732   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
5733
5734 </ul>
5735
5736 <p>You can
5737 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
5738 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
5739 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
5740 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
5741 include a test suite check.</p>
5742
5743       </div>
5744       <div class="tags">
5745
5746
5747         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
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/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
5757       </div>
5758       <div class="date">
5759         24th November 2013
5760       </div>
5761       <div class="body">
5762         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
5763 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
5764 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
5765 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
5766 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
5767 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
5768 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
5769 is working on.  I checked the
5770 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
5771 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
5772 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
5773 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
5774 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
5775 These are the release notes:</p>
5776
5777 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
5778
5779 <ul>
5780
5781   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
5782    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
5783    up.</li>
5784
5785   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
5786
5787   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
5788    Matthias Klose.</li>
5789
5790   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
5791    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
5792
5793   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
5794    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
5795    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
5796
5797 </ul>
5798
5799 <p>You can
5800 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
5801 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
5802 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
5803 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
5804 include a testsuite check.</p>
5805
5806       </div>
5807       <div class="tags">
5808
5809
5810         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5811
5812
5813       </div>
5814     </div>
5815     <div class="padding"></div>
5816
5817     <div class="entry">
5818       <div class="title">
5819         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
5820       </div>
5821       <div class="date">
5822          2nd November 2013
5823       </div>
5824       <div class="body">
5825         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
5826 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
5827 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
5828 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
5829 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
5830
5831 <p><pre>
5832 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
5833 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
5834 # Provides:          rsyslog
5835 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
5836 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
5837 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
5838 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
5839 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
5840 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
5841 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
5842 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
5843 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
5844 ### END INIT INFO
5845 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
5846 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
5847 </pre></p>
5848
5849 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
5850 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
5851 info/comments.</p>
5852
5853 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
5854 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
5855
5856 <p><pre>
5857 #!/bin/sh
5858
5859 # Define LSB log_* functions.
5860 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
5861 # and status_of_proc is working.
5862 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
5863
5864 #
5865 # Function that starts the daemon/service
5866
5867 #
5868 do_start()
5869 {
5870         # Return
5871         #   0 if daemon has been started
5872         #   1 if daemon was already running
5873         #   2 if daemon could not be started
5874         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
5875                 || return 1
5876         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
5877                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
5878                 || return 2
5879         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
5880         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
5881         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
5882 }
5883
5884 #
5885 # Function that stops the daemon/service
5886 #
5887 do_stop()
5888 {
5889         # Return
5890         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
5891         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
5892         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
5893         #   other if a failure occurred
5894         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5895         RETVAL="$?"
5896         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
5897         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
5898         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
5899         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
5900         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
5901         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
5902         # sleep for some time.
5903         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
5904         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
5905         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
5906         rm -f $PIDFILE
5907         return "$RETVAL"
5908 }
5909
5910 #
5911 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
5912 #
5913 do_reload() {
5914         #
5915         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
5916         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
5917         # then implement that here.
5918         #
5919         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5920         return 0
5921 }
5922
5923 SCRIPTNAME=$1
5924 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
5925 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
5926 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
5927     script="$1"
5928     shift
5929     . $script
5930 else
5931     exit 0
5932 fi
5933
5934 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
5935 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
5936
5937 # Exit if the package is not installed
5938 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
5939
5940 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
5941 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
5942
5943 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
5944 . /lib/init/vars.sh
5945
5946 case "$1" in
5947   start)
5948         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
5949         do_start
5950         case "$?" in
5951                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5952                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5953         esac
5954         ;;
5955   stop)
5956         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
5957         do_stop
5958         case "$?" in
5959                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5960                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5961         esac
5962         ;;
5963   status)
5964         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
5965         ;;
5966   #reload|force-reload)
5967         #
5968         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
5969         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
5970         #
5971         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
5972         #do_reload
5973         #log_end_msg $?
5974         #;;
5975   restart|force-reload)
5976         #
5977         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
5978         # 'force-reload' alias
5979         #
5980         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
5981         do_stop
5982         case "$?" in
5983           0|1)
5984                 do_start
5985                 case "$?" in
5986                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
5987                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
5988                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
5989                 esac
5990                 ;;
5991           *)
5992                 # Failed to stop
5993                 log_end_msg 1
5994                 ;;
5995         esac
5996         ;;
5997   *)
5998         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
5999         exit 3
6000         ;;
6001 esac
6002
6003 :
6004 </pre></p>
6005
6006 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
6007 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
6008 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
6009 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
6010
6011 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
6012 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
6013 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
6014 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
6015 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
6016
6017       </div>
6018       <div class="tags">
6019
6020
6021         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>.
6022
6023
6024       </div>
6025     </div>
6026     <div class="padding"></div>
6027
6028     <div class="entry">
6029       <div class="title">
6030         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
6031       </div>
6032       <div class="date">
6033          1st November 2013
6034       </div>
6035       <div class="body">
6036         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
6037 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
6038 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
6039 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
6040 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
6041 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
6042 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
6043 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
6044 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
6045 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
6046 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
6047 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
6048
6049 <p>The source is now available from
6050 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
6051
6052       </div>
6053       <div class="tags">
6054
6055
6056         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>.
6057
6058
6059       </div>
6060     </div>
6061     <div class="padding"></div>
6062
6063     <div class="entry">
6064       <div class="title">
6065         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
6066       </div>
6067       <div class="date">
6068         27th October 2013
6069       </div>
6070       <div class="body">
6071         <p>The
6072 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
6073 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
6074 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
6075 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
6076 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
6077 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
6078 of a plan to simplify the build system for
6079 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
6080 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
6081 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
6082 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
6083 Raspberry Pi.</p>
6084
6085 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
6086 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
6087 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
6088 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
6089 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
6090 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
6091 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
6092 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
6093 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
6094 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
6095 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
6096 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
6097 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
6098 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
6099 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
6100 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
6101 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
6102 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
6103 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
6104 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
6105 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
6106 available from
6107 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
6108 upstream project page</a>.</p>
6109
6110 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
6111 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
6112 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
6113 list:</p>
6114
6115 <p><pre>
6116 #!/bin/sh
6117 set -e # Exit on first error
6118 rootdir="$1"
6119 cd "$rootdir"
6120 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
6121 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
6122 EOF
6123 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
6124 # install a kernel somewhere too.
6125 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
6126     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
6127 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
6128 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
6129 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
6130 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
6131 </pre></p>
6132
6133 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
6134 to build the image:</p>
6135
6136 <pre>
6137 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
6138     --variant minbase \
6139     --arch armel \
6140     --distribution jessie \
6141     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
6142     --image test.img \
6143     --size 600M \
6144     --bootsize 64M \
6145     --boottype vfat \
6146     --log-level debug \
6147     --verbose \
6148     --no-kernel \
6149     --no-extlinux \
6150     --root-password raspberry \
6151     --hostname raspberrypi \
6152     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
6153     --customize `pwd`/customize \
6154     --package netbase \
6155     --package git-core \
6156     --package binutils \
6157     --package ca-certificates \
6158     --package wget \
6159     --package kmod
6160 </pre></p>
6161
6162 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
6163 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
6164 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
6165 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
6166 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
6167 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
6168 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
6169
6170 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
6171 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
6172 build dependency list.</p>
6173
6174 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
6175 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
6176 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
6177 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
6178
6179       </div>
6180       <div class="tags">
6181
6182
6183         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
6184
6185
6186       </div>
6187     </div>
6188     <div class="padding"></div>
6189
6190     <div class="entry">
6191       <div class="title">
6192         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
6193       </div>
6194       <div class="date">
6195         15th October 2013
6196       </div>
6197       <div class="body">
6198         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
6199 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
6200 these. :)</p>
6201
6202 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
6203 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
6204 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
6205 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
6206 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
6207 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
6208 hope you will to. :)</p>
6209
6210 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
6211 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
6212 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
6213 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
6214 donated.  Are you next?</p>
6215
6216 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
6217 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
6218 statement under the heading
6219 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
6220 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
6221 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
6222 too.</p>
6223
6224       </div>
6225       <div class="tags">
6226
6227
6228         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
6229
6230
6231       </div>
6232     </div>
6233     <div class="padding"></div>
6234
6235     <div class="entry">
6236       <div class="title">
6237         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
6238       </div>
6239       <div class="date">
6240         27th September 2013
6241       </div>
6242       <div class="body">
6243         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
6244 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
6245 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
6246 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
6247
6248 <ul>
6249
6250 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
6251 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
6252
6253 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
6254 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
6255
6256 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
6257 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
6258 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
6259 (Youtube)</li>
6260
6261 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
6262 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
6263
6264 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
6265 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
6266
6267 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
6268 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
6269 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
6270
6271 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
6272 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
6273 (Youtube)</li>
6274
6275 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
6276 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
6277
6278 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
6279 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
6280
6281 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
6282 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
6283 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
6284
6285 </ul>
6286
6287 <p>A larger list is available from
6288 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
6289 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
6290
6291 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
6292 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
6293 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
6294 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
6295 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
6296 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
6297 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
6298 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
6299 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
6300 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
6301 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
6302
6303       </div>
6304       <div class="tags">
6305
6306
6307         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6308
6309
6310       </div>
6311     </div>
6312     <div class="padding"></div>
6313
6314     <div class="entry">
6315       <div class="title">
6316         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
6317       </div>
6318       <div class="date">
6319         10th September 2013
6320       </div>
6321       <div class="body">
6322         <p>I was introduced to the
6323 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
6324 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
6325 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
6326 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
6327 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
6328 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
6329 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
6330 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
6331
6332 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
6333 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
6334 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
6335 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
6336 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
6337
6338 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
6339 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
6340 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
6341 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
6342 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
6343 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
6344 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
6345 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
6346 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
6347 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
6348 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
6349 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
6350 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
6351 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
6352 missing in Debian).</p>
6353
6354 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
6355 scripts
6356 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
6357 and a administrative web interface
6358 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
6359 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
6360 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
6361 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
6362 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
6363 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
6364 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
6365 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
6366 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
6367 this is really working yet, see
6368 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
6369 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
6370 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
6371 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
6372 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
6373 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
6374 with lots of half baked features.</p>
6375
6376 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
6377 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
6378 at.</p>
6379
6380 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
6381
6382 <ol>
6383
6384 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
6385 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
6386 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
6387 to the Debian installer:<p>
6388 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
6389
6390 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
6391 install on.</li>
6392
6393 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
6394 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
6395
6396 </ol>
6397
6398 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
6399
6400 <ol>
6401
6402 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
6403 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
6404 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
6405 <pre>
6406 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
6407 </pre></li>
6408 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
6409 <pre>
6410 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
6411    apt-key add -
6412 apt-get update
6413 apt-get install freedombox-setup
6414 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
6415 </pre></li>
6416 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
6417
6418 </ol>
6419
6420 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
6421 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
6422 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
6423 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
6424 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
6425
6426 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
6427 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
6428 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
6429 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
6430
6431 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
6432 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
6433 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
6434 irc.debian.org and the
6435 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
6436 mailing list</a>.</p>
6437
6438 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
6439 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
6440 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
6441 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
6442 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
6443 default password is 'secret'.</p>
6444
6445       </div>
6446       <div class="tags">
6447
6448
6449         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6450
6451
6452       </div>
6453     </div>
6454     <div class="padding"></div>
6455
6456     <div class="entry">
6457       <div class="title">
6458         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
6459       </div>
6460       <div class="date">
6461         18th August 2013
6462       </div>
6463       <div class="body">
6464         <p>Earlier, I reported about
6465 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
6466 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
6467 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
6468 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
6469 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
6470 currently on the disk.</p>
6471
6472 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
6473 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
6474 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
6475 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
6476 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
6477 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
6478 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
6479 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
6480 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
6481 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
6482 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
6483 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
6484 the broken disks.</p>
6485
6486       </div>
6487       <div class="tags">
6488
6489
6490         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>.
6491
6492
6493       </div>
6494     </div>
6495     <div class="padding"></div>
6496
6497     <div class="entry">
6498       <div class="title">
6499         <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>
6500       </div>
6501       <div class="date">
6502         17th July 2013
6503       </div>
6504       <div class="body">
6505         <p>Today I switched to
6506 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
6507 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
6508 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
6509 <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
6510 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
6511 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
6512 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
6513 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
6514 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
6515 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
6516 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
6517 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
6518 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
6519 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
6520 station from now on.</p>
6521
6522 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
6523 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
6524 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
6525 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
6526 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
6527 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
6528 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
6529 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
6530 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
6531 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
6532 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
6533 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
6534
6535 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
6536 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
6537 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
6538 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
6539 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
6540 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
6541 parameters are tuned:</p>
6542
6543 <ul>
6544
6545 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
6546     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
6547
6548 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
6549     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
6550     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
6551
6552 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
6553     systems.</li>
6554
6555 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
6556     /etc/fstab.</li>
6557
6558 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
6559
6560 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
6561     cron.daily).</li>
6562
6563 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
6564     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
6565
6566 </ul>
6567
6568 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
6569 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
6570 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
6571 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
6572 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
6573 from getting the data on the disk (see
6574 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
6575 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
6576 right thing to do.</p>
6577
6578 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
6579 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
6580 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
6581
6582 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
6583 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
6584 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
6585 instead of during my work.</p>
6586
6587 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
6588 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
6589
6590 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
6591 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
6592 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
6593
6594 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
6595 there.</p>
6596
6597 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
6598 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
6599 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
6600 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
6601 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
6602 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
6603 back.</p>
6604
6605       </div>
6606       <div class="tags">
6607
6608
6609         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>.
6610
6611
6612       </div>
6613     </div>
6614     <div class="padding"></div>
6615
6616     <div class="entry">
6617       <div class="title">
6618         <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>
6619       </div>
6620       <div class="date">
6621         10th July 2013
6622       </div>
6623       <div class="body">
6624         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
6625 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
6626 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
6627 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
6628 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
6629 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
6630 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
6631 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
6632
6633 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
6634 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
6635 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
6636 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
6637 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
6638 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
6639 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
6640 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
6641 lock up when I download a new
6642 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
6643 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
6644 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
6645
6646 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
6647 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
6648 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
6649 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
6650 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
6651 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
6652
6653 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
6654 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
6655 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
6656 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
6657 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
6658 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
6659
6660 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
6661 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
6662 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
6663 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
6664 exist).</p>
6665
6666       </div>
6667       <div class="tags">
6668
6669
6670         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>.
6671
6672
6673       </div>
6674     </div>
6675     <div class="padding"></div>
6676
6677     <div class="entry">
6678       <div class="title">
6679         <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>
6680       </div>
6681       <div class="date">
6682          9th July 2013
6683       </div>
6684       <div class="body">
6685         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
6686 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
6687 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
6688 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
6689 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6690 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
6691 Bitraf</a>.</p>
6692
6693 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
6694 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
6695 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
6696 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
6697 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
6698
6699       </div>
6700       <div class="tags">
6701
6702
6703         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>.
6704
6705
6706       </div>
6707     </div>
6708     <div class="padding"></div>
6709
6710     <div class="entry">
6711       <div class="title">
6712         <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>
6713       </div>
6714       <div class="date">
6715          5th July 2013
6716       </div>
6717       <div class="body">
6718         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
6719 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
6720 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
6721 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
6722 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
6723 ended up picking a
6724 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
6725 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
6726 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
6727 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
6728 on that below.</p>
6729
6730 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
6731 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
6732 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
6733 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
6734 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
6735 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
6736 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
6737 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
6738 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
6739
6740 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
6741 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
6742 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
6743 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
6744 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
6745 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
6746 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
6747
6748 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
6749 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
6750
6751 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
6752 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
6753 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
6754 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
6755 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
6756 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
6757 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
6758 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
6759 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
6760 kernel developers as
6761 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
6762 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
6763 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
6764 Lenovo forums, both for
6765 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
6766 2012-11-10</a> and for
6767 <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
6768 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
6769 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
6770 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
6771 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
6772 There is even a
6773 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
6774 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
6775 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
6776
6777 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
6778 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
6779 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
6780 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
6781 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
6782 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
6783 fixed. :)</p>
6784
6785       </div>
6786       <div class="tags">
6787
6788
6789         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>.
6790
6791
6792       </div>
6793     </div>
6794     <div class="padding"></div>
6795
6796     <div class="entry">
6797       <div class="title">
6798         <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>
6799       </div>
6800       <div class="date">
6801          4th July 2013
6802       </div>
6803       <div class="body">
6804         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
6805 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
6806 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
6807 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
6808 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
6809 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
6810 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
6811 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
6812 with an expencive door stop.</p>
6813
6814 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
6815 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
6816 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
6817 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
6818 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
6819 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
6820 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
6821
6822 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
6823 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
6824 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
6825 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
6826 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
6827 new laptop now. :)</p>
6828
6829 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
6830
6831       </div>
6832       <div class="tags">
6833
6834
6835         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>.
6836
6837
6838       </div>
6839     </div>
6840     <div class="padding"></div>
6841
6842     <div class="entry">
6843       <div class="title">
6844         <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>
6845       </div>
6846       <div class="date">
6847         25th June 2013
6848       </div>
6849       <div class="body">
6850         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
6851 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
6852 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
6853 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
6854 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
6855 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
6856 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
6857 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
6858 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
6859 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
6860 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
6861
6862 <p><pre>
6863 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6864 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
6865 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
6866 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
6867 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
6868 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
6869 firmware-ipw2x00
6870 firmware-ipw2x00
6871 Preconfiguring packages ...
6872 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
6873 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
6874 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
6875 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
6876 #
6877 </pre></p>
6878
6879 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
6880 printed instead:</p>
6881
6882 <p><pre>
6883 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6884 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
6885 #
6886 </pre></p>
6887
6888 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
6889 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
6890
6891 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
6892 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
6893 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
6894 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
6895 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
6896 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
6897 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
6898 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
6899 machine.</p>
6900
6901 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
6902 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
6903 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
6904 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
6905 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
6906 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
6907
6908       </div>
6909       <div class="tags">
6910
6911
6912         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>.
6913
6914
6915       </div>
6916     </div>
6917     <div class="padding"></div>
6918
6919     <div class="entry">
6920       <div class="title">
6921         <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>
6922       </div>
6923       <div class="date">
6924         11th June 2013
6925       </div>
6926       <div class="body">
6927         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
6928 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
6929 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
6930 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
6931 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
6932 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
6933 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
6934 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
6935 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
6936 i915 driver used by the
6937 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6938 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
6939
6940 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
6941 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
6942 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
6943 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
6944 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
6945
6946 <pre>
6947 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
6948 update-initramfs -u -k all
6949 </pre>
6950
6951 <p>Since March 2012 there is
6952 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
6953 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
6954 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
6955 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
6956 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
6957 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
6958 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
6959 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
6960 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
6961 number.</p>
6962
6963 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
6964 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
6965
6966 <p><pre>
6967 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
6968     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
6969     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
6970  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
6971  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
6972     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
6973  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
6974     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
6975  Latency: 0
6976  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
6977  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
6978  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
6979  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
6980  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
6981  Capabilities: <access denied>
6982  Kernel driver in use: i915
6983 </pre></p>
6984
6985 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
6986
6987 <p><pre>
6988 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
6989        ...
6990         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
6991         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
6992        ...
6993 }
6994 </pre></p>
6995
6996 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
6997 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
6998 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
6999 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
7000 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
7001 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
7002 yet shown up in
7003 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
7004 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
7005 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
7006 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
7007 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
7008 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
7009
7010 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
7011 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
7012 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
7013 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
7014 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
7015 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
7016 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
7017 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
7018 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
7019 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
7020 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
7021 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
7022
7023 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
7024 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
7025 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
7026 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
7027 backlight.</p>
7028
7029       </div>
7030       <div class="tags">
7031
7032
7033         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>.
7034
7035
7036       </div>
7037     </div>
7038     <div class="padding"></div>
7039
7040     <div class="entry">
7041       <div class="title">
7042         <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>
7043       </div>
7044       <div class="date">
7045         27th May 2013
7046       </div>
7047       <div class="body">
7048         <p>Two days ago, I asked
7049 <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
7050 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
7051 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
7052 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
7053 and Windows 8.</p>
7054
7055 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
7056 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
7057 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
7058 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
7059 enough to tell.</p>
7060
7061 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
7062 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
7063 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
7064 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
7065 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
7066 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
7067 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
7068 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
7069 to follow.</p>
7070
7071 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
7072 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
7073 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
7074 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
7075 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
7076 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
7077 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
7078 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
7079
7080 <p>I've updated the
7081 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
7082 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
7083 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
7084 machine.</p>
7085
7086 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
7087 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
7088
7089       </div>
7090       <div class="tags">
7091
7092
7093         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>.
7094
7095
7096       </div>
7097     </div>
7098     <div class="padding"></div>
7099
7100     <div class="entry">
7101       <div class="title">
7102         <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>
7103       </div>
7104       <div class="date">
7105         25th May 2013
7106       </div>
7107       <div class="body">
7108         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
7109 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
7110 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
7111 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
7112 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
7113 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
7114
7115 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
7116 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
7117 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
7118 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
7119 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
7120 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
7121 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
7122 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
7123 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
7124 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
7125
7126 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
7127 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
7128 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
7129 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
7130 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
7131 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
7132
7133 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
7134 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
7135 on new Laptops?</p>
7136
7137       </div>
7138       <div class="tags">
7139
7140
7141         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>.
7142
7143
7144       </div>
7145     </div>
7146     <div class="padding"></div>
7147
7148     <div class="entry">
7149       <div class="title">
7150         <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>
7151       </div>
7152       <div class="date">
7153         17th May 2013
7154       </div>
7155       <div class="body">
7156         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
7157 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
7158 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
7159 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
7160 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
7161 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
7162 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
7163 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
7164 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
7165 donate some money</a>.
7166
7167 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
7168 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
7169 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
7170 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
7171 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
7172
7173 <p>The script,
7174 <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/>
7175 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
7176 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
7177 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
7178
7179 <ol>
7180
7181 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
7182 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
7183 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
7184     our configuration.</li>
7185 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
7186     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
7187     according to the profile specified in the config above,
7188     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
7189 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
7190     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
7191 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
7192
7193 </ol>
7194
7195 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
7196 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
7197 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
7198 the needed packages.</p>
7199
7200 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
7201 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
7202 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
7203 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
7204 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
7205 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
7206
7207 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
7208 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
7209 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
7210
7211 <p><pre>
7212 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
7213 DESKTOP="lxde"
7214 </pre></p>
7215
7216 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
7217 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
7218 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
7219 boot.</p>
7220
7221       </div>
7222       <div class="tags">
7223
7224
7225         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>.
7226
7227
7228       </div>
7229     </div>
7230     <div class="padding"></div>
7231
7232     <div class="entry">
7233       <div class="title">
7234         <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>
7235       </div>
7236       <div class="date">
7237         11th May 2013
7238       </div>
7239       <div class="body">
7240         <P>In January,
7241 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
7242 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
7243 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
7244 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
7245 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
7246 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
7247 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
7248 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
7249 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
7250 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
7251 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
7252 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
7253
7254 <p><table>
7255 <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>
7256 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
7257 <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>
7258 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
7259 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
7260 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
7261 <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>
7262 <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>
7263 <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>
7264 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
7265 </table></p>
7266
7267 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
7268 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
7269 available in experimental.</p>
7270
7271 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
7272 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
7273 for LEGO designers.</p>
7274
7275       </div>
7276       <div class="tags">
7277
7278
7279         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/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
7280
7281
7282       </div>
7283     </div>
7284     <div class="padding"></div>
7285
7286     <div class="entry">
7287       <div class="title">
7288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
7289       </div>
7290       <div class="date">
7291          5th May 2013
7292       </div>
7293       <div class="body">
7294         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
7295 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
7296 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
7297 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
7298 soon.</p>
7299
7300 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
7301 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
7302 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
7303 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
7304 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
7305 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
7306 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
7307 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
7308 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
7309 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
7310 Edu.</a>
7311
7312 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
7313 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
7314 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
7315 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
7316 follow.<p>
7317
7318       </div>
7319       <div class="tags">
7320
7321
7322         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>.
7323
7324
7325       </div>
7326     </div>
7327     <div class="padding"></div>
7328
7329     <div class="entry">
7330       <div class="title">
7331         <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>
7332       </div>
7333       <div class="date">
7334          3rd April 2013
7335       </div>
7336       <div class="body">
7337         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
7338 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
7339 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
7340 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
7341
7342 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
7343 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
7344 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
7345 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
7346 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
7347 BTS. :)</p>
7348
7349       </div>
7350       <div class="tags">
7351
7352
7353         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>.
7354
7355
7356       </div>
7357     </div>
7358     <div class="padding"></div>
7359
7360     <div class="entry">
7361       <div class="title">
7362         <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>
7363       </div>
7364       <div class="date">
7365          2nd February 2013
7366       </div>
7367       <div class="body">
7368         <p>My
7369 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
7370 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
7371 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
7372 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
7373 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
7374 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
7375 version too.</p>
7376
7377 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
7378 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
7379 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
7380 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
7381 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
7382 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
7383 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
7384 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
7385
7386 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
7387 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
7388 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
7389 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
7390 it. :)</p>
7391
7392 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7393 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7394 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7395
7396       </div>
7397       <div class="tags">
7398
7399
7400         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>.
7401
7402
7403       </div>
7404     </div>
7405     <div class="padding"></div>
7406
7407     <div class="entry">
7408       <div class="title">
7409         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
7410       </div>
7411       <div class="date">
7412         22nd January 2013
7413       </div>
7414       <div class="body">
7415         <p>Yesterday, I
7416 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
7417 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
7418 pluggable hardware devices, which I
7419 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
7420 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
7421 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
7422 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
7423 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
7424 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
7425 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
7426 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
7427 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
7428 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
7429
7430 <pre>
7431 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
7432 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
7433 </pre>
7434
7435 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
7436 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
7437 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
7438 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
7439
7440 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
7441 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
7442 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
7443 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
7444 word.</p>
7445
7446 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
7447 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
7448 process.</p>
7449
7450 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
7451 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
7452
7453       </div>
7454       <div class="tags">
7455
7456
7457         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>.
7458
7459
7460       </div>
7461     </div>
7462     <div class="padding"></div>
7463
7464     <div class="entry">
7465       <div class="title">
7466         <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>
7467       </div>
7468       <div class="date">
7469         21st January 2013
7470       </div>
7471       <div class="body">
7472         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
7473 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
7474 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
7475 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
7476 it, fetch the
7477 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
7478 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
7479 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
7480 autostart script.</p>
7481
7482 <p>The design is simple:</p>
7483
7484 <ul>
7485
7486 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
7487 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
7488
7489 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
7490 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
7491 initially did.</li>
7492
7493 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
7494 the APT database, a database
7495 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
7496 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
7497
7498 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
7499 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
7500 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
7501 package or packages.</li>
7502
7503 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
7504 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
7505
7506 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
7507 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
7508
7509 </ul>
7510
7511 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
7512 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
7513 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
7514 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
7515
7516 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
7517 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
7518 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
7519 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
7520 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
7521
7522 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
7523 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
7524 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
7525 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
7526 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
7527 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
7528 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
7529 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
7530
7531 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
7532 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
7533 '<tt>svn checkout
7534 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
7535 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
7536 devscripts package.</p>
7537
7538 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
7539 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
7540 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
7541 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
7542 instructions</a> for details.</p>
7543
7544       </div>
7545       <div class="tags">
7546
7547
7548         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>.
7549
7550
7551       </div>
7552     </div>
7553     <div class="padding"></div>
7554
7555     <div class="entry">
7556       <div class="title">
7557         <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>
7558       </div>
7559       <div class="date">
7560         19th January 2013
7561       </div>
7562       <div class="body">
7563         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
7564 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
7565 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
7566 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
7567 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
7568 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
7569 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
7570 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
7571 not a durable solution.
7572
7573 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
7574 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
7575
7576 <ul>
7577
7578 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
7579   than A4).</li>
7580 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
7581 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
7582 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
7583 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
7584 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
7585 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
7586 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
7587 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
7588 size).</li>
7589 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
7590   X.org packages.</li>
7591 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
7592   the time).
7593
7594 </ul>
7595
7596 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
7597 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
7598 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
7599 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
7600 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
7601 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
7602 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
7603 still be useful.</p>
7604
7605 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
7606 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
7607 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
7608 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
7609 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
7610 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
7611
7612       </div>
7613       <div class="tags">
7614
7615
7616         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>.
7617
7618
7619       </div>
7620     </div>
7621     <div class="padding"></div>
7622
7623     <div class="entry">
7624       <div class="title">
7625         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
7626       </div>
7627       <div class="date">
7628         18th January 2013
7629       </div>
7630       <div class="body">
7631         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
7632 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
7633 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
7634 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
7635 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
7636 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
7637 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
7638
7639 <pre>
7640 #!/usr/bin/python
7641 import sys
7642 import apt
7643 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
7644     cache = apt.Cache()
7645     cache.open(None)
7646     thepkgs = []
7647     for pkg in cache:
7648         version = pkg.candidate
7649         if version is None:
7650             version = pkg.installed
7651         if version is None:
7652             continue
7653         record = version.record
7654         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
7655             continue
7656         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
7657         for t in mime_types:
7658             t = t.rstrip().strip()
7659             if t == mimetype:
7660                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
7661     return thepkgs
7662 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
7663 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
7664     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
7665 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
7666 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
7667     print "  %s" %pkg
7668 </pre>
7669
7670 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
7671
7672 <pre>
7673 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
7674 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
7675   gecko-mediaplayer
7676 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
7677 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
7678   browser-plugin-gnash
7679 %
7680 </pre>
7681
7682 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
7683 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
7684 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
7685 anyone working on adding it?</p>
7686
7687 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
7688 request for icweasel support for this feature is
7689 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
7690 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
7691 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
7692 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
7693
7694       </div>
7695       <div class="tags">
7696
7697
7698         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>.
7699
7700
7701       </div>
7702     </div>
7703     <div class="padding"></div>
7704
7705     <div class="entry">
7706       <div class="title">
7707         <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>
7708       </div>
7709       <div class="date">
7710         16th January 2013
7711       </div>
7712       <div class="body">
7713         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
7714 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
7715 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
7716 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
7717 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
7718 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
7719 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
7720 downloaded by the browser.</p>
7721
7722 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
7723 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
7724 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
7725 can be found on the
7726 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
7727 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
7728 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
7729 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
7730 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
7731
7732 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
7733
7734 <pre>
7735   count MIME type
7736   ----- -----------------------
7737      32 text/plain
7738      30 audio/mpeg
7739      29 image/png
7740      28 image/jpeg
7741      27 application/ogg
7742      26 audio/x-mp3
7743      25 image/tiff
7744      25 image/gif
7745      22 image/bmp
7746      22 audio/x-wav
7747      20 audio/x-flac
7748      19 audio/x-mpegurl
7749      18 video/x-ms-asf
7750      18 audio/x-musepack
7751      18 audio/x-mpeg
7752      18 application/x-ogg
7753      17 video/mpeg
7754      17 audio/x-scpls
7755      17 audio/ogg
7756      16 video/x-ms-wmv
7757 </pre>
7758
7759 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
7760
7761 <pre>
7762   count MIME type
7763   ----- -----------------------
7764      33 text/plain
7765      32 image/png
7766      32 image/jpeg
7767      29 audio/mpeg
7768      27 image/gif
7769      26 image/tiff
7770      26 application/ogg
7771      25 audio/x-mp3
7772      22 image/bmp
7773      21 audio/x-wav
7774      19 audio/x-mpegurl
7775      19 audio/x-mpeg
7776      18 video/mpeg
7777      18 audio/x-scpls
7778      18 audio/x-flac
7779      18 application/x-ogg
7780      17 video/x-ms-asf
7781      17 text/html
7782      17 audio/x-musepack
7783      16 image/x-xbitmap
7784 </pre>
7785
7786 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
7787
7788 <pre>
7789   count MIME type
7790   ----- -----------------------
7791      31 text/plain
7792      31 image/png
7793      31 image/jpeg
7794      29 audio/mpeg
7795      28 application/ogg
7796      27 image/gif
7797      26 image/tiff
7798      26 audio/x-mp3
7799      23 audio/x-wav
7800      22 image/bmp
7801      21 audio/x-flac
7802      20 audio/x-mpegurl
7803      19 audio/x-mpeg
7804      18 video/x-ms-asf
7805      18 video/mpeg
7806      18 audio/x-scpls
7807      18 application/x-ogg
7808      17 audio/x-musepack
7809      16 video/x-ms-wmv
7810      16 video/x-msvideo
7811 </pre>
7812
7813 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
7814 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
7815 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
7816 issues.</p>
7817
7818 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
7819 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
7820
7821       </div>
7822       <div class="tags">
7823
7824
7825         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>.
7826
7827
7828       </div>
7829     </div>
7830     <div class="padding"></div>
7831
7832     <div class="entry">
7833       <div class="title">
7834         <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>
7835       </div>
7836       <div class="date">
7837         15th January 2013
7838       </div>
7839       <div class="body">
7840         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
7841 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
7842 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
7843 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
7844 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
7845 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
7846 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
7847 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
7848 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
7849 packages.</p>
7850
7851 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
7852 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
7853 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
7854 modalias.</p>
7855
7856 <p><blockquote>
7857 Package: package-name
7858 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
7859 </blockquote></p>
7860
7861 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
7862 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
7863
7864 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
7865 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
7866
7867 <p><blockquote>
7868 Package: cheese
7869 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
7870 </blockquote></p>
7871
7872 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
7873 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
7874
7875 <p><blockquote>
7876 Package: pcmciautils
7877 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
7878 </blockquote></p>
7879
7880 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
7881 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
7882
7883 <p><blockquote>
7884 Package: colorhug-client
7885 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
7886 </blockquote></p>
7887
7888 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
7889 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
7890 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
7891
7892 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
7893 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
7894 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
7895 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
7896 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
7897 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
7898 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
7899 Raring.</p>
7900
7901 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
7902 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
7903 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
7904 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
7905 try the
7906 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
7907 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
7908 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
7909 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
7910
7911 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
7912 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
7913
7914 <p><blockquote>
7915 % ./hw-support-lookup
7916 <br>yubikey-personalization
7917 <br>%
7918 </blockquote></p>
7919
7920 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
7921 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
7922
7923 <p><blockquote>
7924 % ./hw-support-lookup
7925 <br>pcmciautils
7926 <br>%
7927 </blockquote></p>
7928
7929 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
7930 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
7931 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
7932
7933 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
7934 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
7935 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
7936 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
7937 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
7938 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
7939 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
7940 see if it work.</p>
7941
7942 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7943 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7944 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7945 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7946
7947       </div>
7948       <div class="tags">
7949
7950
7951         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>.
7952
7953
7954       </div>
7955     </div>
7956     <div class="padding"></div>
7957
7958     <div class="entry">
7959       <div class="title">
7960         <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>
7961       </div>
7962       <div class="date">
7963         14th January 2013
7964       </div>
7965       <div class="body">
7966         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
7967 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
7968 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
7969 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
7970 in
7971 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7972 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
7973
7974 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
7975
7976 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
7977 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
7978 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
7979 &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;,
7980 &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
7981 &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;.
7982
7983 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
7984 this shell script:</p>
7985
7986 <pre>
7987 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
7988 </pre>
7989
7990 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
7991 using modinfo:</p>
7992
7993 <pre>
7994 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
7995 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
7996 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
7997 %
7998 </pre>
7999
8000 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
8001
8002 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
8003 Bridge memory controller:</p>
8004
8005 <p><blockquote>
8006 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
8007 </blockquote></p>
8008
8009 <p>This represent these values:</p>
8010
8011 <pre>
8012  v   00008086  (vendor)
8013  d   00002770  (device)
8014  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
8015  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
8016  bc  06        (bus class)
8017  sc  00        (bus subclass)
8018  i   00        (interface)
8019 </pre>
8020
8021 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
8022 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
8023 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
8024 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
8025
8026 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
8027 means.</p>
8028
8029 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
8030
8031 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
8032 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
8033
8034 <p><blockquote>
8035 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
8036 </blockquote></p>
8037
8038 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
8039
8040 <pre>
8041  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
8042  p    0001  (device product)
8043  d    0206  (bcddevice)
8044  dc     09  (device class)
8045  dsc    00  (device subclass)
8046  dp     00  (device protocol)
8047  ic     09  (interface class)
8048  isc    00  (interface subclass)
8049  ip     00  (interface protocol)
8050 </pre>
8051
8052 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
8053 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
8054 these alias entries show up:</p>
8055
8056 <p><blockquote>
8057 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
8058 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
8059 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
8060 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
8061 </blockquote></p>
8062
8063 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
8064 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
8065 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
8066
8067 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
8068
8069 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
8070 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
8071
8072 <p><blockquote>
8073 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
8074 </blockquote></p>
8075
8076 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
8077
8078 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
8079
8080 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
8081 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
8082 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
8083
8084 <p><blockquote>
8085 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
8086 </blockquote></p>
8087
8088 <p>The values present are</p>
8089
8090 <pre>
8091  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
8092  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
8093  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
8094  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
8095  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
8096  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
8097  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
8098  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
8099  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
8100  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
8101  ct   10             (chassis type)
8102  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
8103 </pre>
8104
8105 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
8106 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
8107
8108 <pre>
8109   3 Desktop
8110   4 Low Profile Desktop
8111   5 Pizza Box
8112   6 Mini Tower
8113   7 Tower
8114   8 Portable
8115   9 Laptop
8116  10 Notebook
8117  11 Hand Held
8118  12 Docking Station
8119  13 All In One
8120  14 Sub Notebook
8121  15 Space-saving
8122  16 Lunch Box
8123  17 Main Server Chassis
8124  18 Expansion Chassis
8125  19 Sub Chassis
8126  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
8127  21 Peripheral Chassis
8128  22 RAID Chassis
8129  23 Rack Mount Chassis
8130  24 Sealed-case PC
8131  25 Multi-system
8132  26 CompactPCI
8133  27 AdvancedTCA
8134  28 Blade
8135  29 Blade Enclosing
8136 </pre>
8137
8138 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
8139 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
8140 claim it is a desktop.</p>
8141
8142 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
8143
8144 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
8145 test machine:</p>
8146
8147 <p><blockquote>
8148 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
8149 </blockquote></p>
8150
8151 <p>The values present are</p>
8152
8153 <pre>
8154   ty  01  (type)
8155   pr  00  (prototype)
8156   id  00  (id)
8157   ex  00  (extra)
8158 </pre>
8159
8160 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
8161 the valid values are.</p>
8162
8163 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
8164
8165 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
8166 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
8167 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
8168 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
8169 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
8170 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
8171 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
8172
8173 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
8174
8175 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
8176 one can use the following shell script:</p>
8177
8178 <pre>
8179   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
8180     echo "$id" ; \
8181     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
8182   done
8183 </pre>
8184
8185 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
8186 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
8187
8188 <pre>
8189   acpi:ACPI0003:
8190     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
8191   acpi:device:
8192   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
8193   acpi:IBM0068:
8194     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
8195     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
8196     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
8197     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
8198   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
8199     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
8200     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
8201     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
8202   [...]
8203 </pre>
8204
8205 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
8206 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
8207 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
8208 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
8209
8210 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
8211 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
8212 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
8213
8214       </div>
8215       <div class="tags">
8216
8217
8218         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>.
8219
8220
8221       </div>
8222     </div>
8223     <div class="padding"></div>
8224
8225     <div class="entry">
8226       <div class="title">
8227         <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>
8228       </div>
8229       <div class="date">
8230         10th January 2013
8231       </div>
8232       <div class="body">
8233         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
8234 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
8235 Launcher and updated the Debian package
8236 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
8237 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
8238 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
8239 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
8240 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
8241 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
8242 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
8243 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
8244 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
8245 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
8246 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
8247 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
8248 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
8249 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
8250 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
8251
8252       </div>
8253       <div class="tags">
8254
8255
8256         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
8257
8258
8259       </div>
8260     </div>
8261     <div class="padding"></div>
8262
8263     <div class="entry">
8264       <div class="title">
8265         <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>
8266       </div>
8267       <div class="date">
8268          9th January 2013
8269       </div>
8270       <div class="body">
8271         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
8272 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
8273 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
8274 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
8275 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
8276 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
8277 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
8278 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
8279 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
8280 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
8281 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
8282
8283 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
8284 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
8285 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
8286 simple:
8287
8288 <ul>
8289
8290 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
8291   starting when a user log in.</li>
8292
8293 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
8294   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
8295
8296 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
8297   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
8298   packages.</li>
8299
8300 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
8301   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
8302
8303 </ul>
8304
8305 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
8306 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
8307 discover database to find packages and
8308 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
8309 packages.</p>
8310
8311 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
8312 draft package is now checked into
8313 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
8314 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
8315 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
8316 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
8317 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
8318 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
8319 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
8320 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
8321 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
8322 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
8323 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
8324 because of the freeze).</p>
8325
8326 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
8327 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
8328 inserted):</p>
8329
8330 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
8331
8332 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
8333 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
8334 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
8335
8336 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
8337 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
8338 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
8339 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
8340 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
8341 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
8342 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
8343
8344 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
8345 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
8346 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
8347 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
8348 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
8349 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
8350 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
8351 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
8352 not be installed?</p>
8353
8354 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
8355 please send me an email. :)</p>
8356
8357       </div>
8358       <div class="tags">
8359
8360
8361         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>.
8362
8363
8364       </div>
8365     </div>
8366     <div class="padding"></div>
8367
8368     <div class="entry">
8369       <div class="title">
8370         <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>
8371       </div>
8372       <div class="date">
8373          2nd January 2013
8374       </div>
8375       <div class="body">
8376         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
8377 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
8378 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
8379 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
8380 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
8381 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
8382 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
8383 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
8384 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
8385 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
8386
8387 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
8388 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
8389 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
8390
8391       </div>
8392       <div class="tags">
8393
8394
8395         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/lego">lego</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
8396
8397
8398       </div>
8399     </div>
8400     <div class="padding"></div>
8401
8402     <div class="entry">
8403       <div class="title">
8404         <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>
8405       </div>
8406       <div class="date">
8407         25th December 2012
8408       </div>
8409       <div class="body">
8410         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
8411 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
8412
8413 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
8414 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
8415 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
8416 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
8417 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
8418 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
8419 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
8420 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
8421 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
8422 name.</p>
8423
8424 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
8425 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
8426 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
8427
8428 <blockquote><pre>
8429 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
8430 cd bitcoin
8431 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
8432 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
8433 </pre></blockquote>
8434
8435 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
8436 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
8437 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
8438 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
8439 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
8440 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
8441 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
8442 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
8443 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
8444
8445 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
8446 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
8447 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
8448
8449       </div>
8450       <div class="tags">
8451
8452
8453         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>.
8454
8455
8456       </div>
8457     </div>
8458     <div class="padding"></div>
8459
8460     <div class="entry">
8461       <div class="title">
8462         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
8463       </div>
8464       <div class="date">
8465         21st December 2012
8466       </div>
8467       <div class="body">
8468         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
8469 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
8470 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
8471 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
8472 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
8473 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
8474 is now maintained by a
8475 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
8476 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
8477 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
8478 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
8479 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
8480 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
8481 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
8482 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
8483 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
8484 Corallo in a
8485 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
8486 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
8487 Debian package.</p>
8488
8489 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
8490 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
8491 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
8492 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
8493 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
8494 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
8495 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
8496 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
8497 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
8498 new version to unstable.
8499
8500 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
8501 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
8502 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
8503 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
8504 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
8505 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
8506 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
8507 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
8508 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
8509 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
8510 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
8511 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
8512 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
8513 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
8514 have not tested them.</p>
8515
8516 <p>My
8517 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
8518 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
8519 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
8520 years ago, as can be
8521 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
8522 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
8523 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
8524 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
8525 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
8526 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
8527 the same address as last time,
8528 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
8529
8530       </div>
8531       <div class="tags">
8532
8533
8534         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>.
8535
8536
8537       </div>
8538     </div>
8539     <div class="padding"></div>
8540
8541     <div class="entry">
8542       <div class="title">
8543         <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>
8544       </div>
8545       <div class="date">
8546          7th September 2012
8547       </div>
8548       <div class="body">
8549         <p>As I
8550 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
8551 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
8552 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
8553 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
8554 repository for the project</a>.</p>
8555
8556 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
8557 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
8558 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
8559 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
8560
8561 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
8562 PostScript formats at
8563 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
8564 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
8565
8566       </div>
8567       <div class="tags">
8568
8569
8570         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>.
8571
8572
8573       </div>
8574     </div>
8575     <div class="padding"></div>
8576
8577     <div class="entry">
8578       <div class="title">
8579         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
8580       </div>
8581       <div class="date">
8582         16th August 2012
8583       </div>
8584       <div class="body">
8585         <p>I dag fyller
8586 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
8587 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
8588 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
8589
8590       </div>
8591       <div class="tags">
8592
8593
8594         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>.
8595
8596
8597       </div>
8598     </div>
8599     <div class="padding"></div>
8600
8601     <div class="entry">
8602       <div class="title">
8603         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
8604       </div>
8605       <div class="date">
8606         24th June 2012
8607       </div>
8608       <div class="body">
8609         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
8610 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
8611 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
8612 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
8613 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
8614 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
8615 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
8616 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
8617 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
8618 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
8619 missing in my book.</p>
8620
8621 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
8622 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
8623 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
8624 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
8625 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
8626 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
8627 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
8628
8629       </div>
8630       <div class="tags">
8631
8632
8633         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>.
8634
8635
8636       </div>
8637     </div>
8638     <div class="padding"></div>
8639
8640     <div class="entry">
8641       <div class="title">
8642         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
8643       </div>
8644       <div class="date">
8645         21st November 2011
8646       </div>
8647       <div class="body">
8648         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
8649 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
8650 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
8651 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
8652 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
8653 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
8654 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
8655 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
8656 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
8657 the tools to do so.</p>
8658
8659 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
8660 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
8661 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
8662 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
8663
8664 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
8665 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
8666 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
8667 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
8668 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
8669 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
8670 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
8671 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
8672
8673 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
8674 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
8675 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
8676
8677 <p><pre>
8678 #!/usr/bin/perl
8679 use strict;
8680 use warnings;
8681 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
8682 BEGIN {
8683     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
8684     my %rhelmodules = (
8685         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
8686         );
8687     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
8688         eval "use $module;";
8689         if ($@) {
8690             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
8691             system("yum install -y $pkg");
8692             eval "use $module;";
8693         }
8694     }
8695 }
8696 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
8697
8698 upgrade_dell();
8699
8700 exit 0;
8701
8702 sub run_firmware_script {
8703     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
8704     unless ($script) {
8705         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
8706         exit 1
8707     }
8708     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
8709
8710     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
8711         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
8712     } else {
8713         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
8714     }
8715 }
8716
8717 sub run_firmware_scripts {
8718     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
8719     # Run firmware packages
8720     for my $dir (@dirs) {
8721         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
8722         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
8723         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
8724             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
8725             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
8726         }
8727         closedir $dh;
8728     }
8729 }
8730
8731 sub download {
8732     my $url = shift;
8733     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
8734     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
8735 }
8736
8737 sub upgrade_dell {
8738     my @dirs;
8739     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8740     chomp $product;
8741
8742     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
8743
8744         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
8745         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
8746
8747         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
8748             CLEANUP => 1
8749             );
8750         chdir($tmpdir);
8751         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
8752         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
8753         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
8754         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
8755         my $fwopts = "-q";
8756         if (@paths) {
8757             for my $url (@paths) {
8758                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
8759             }
8760             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
8761         } else {
8762             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8763             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8764         }
8765         chdir('/');
8766     } else {
8767         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8768         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8769     }
8770 }
8771
8772 sub fetch_dell_fw {
8773     my $path = shift;
8774     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
8775     download($url);
8776 }
8777
8778 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
8779 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
8780 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
8781 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
8782     my $filename = shift;
8783
8784     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8785     chomp $product;
8786     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
8787
8788     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
8789
8790     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
8791     my @paths;
8792     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
8793         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
8794         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
8795         my $oscode;
8796         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
8797             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
8798         } else {
8799             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
8800         }
8801         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
8802         {
8803             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
8804         }
8805     }
8806     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
8807         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
8808
8809         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
8810         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
8811
8812         my $cpath = $component->{path};
8813         for my $path (@paths) {
8814             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
8815                 push(@paths, $cpath);
8816             }
8817         }
8818     }
8819     return @paths;
8820 }
8821 </pre>
8822
8823 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
8824 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
8825 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
8826 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
8827 outdated.</p>
8828
8829       </div>
8830       <div class="tags">
8831
8832
8833         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>.
8834
8835
8836       </div>
8837     </div>
8838     <div class="padding"></div>
8839
8840     <div class="entry">
8841       <div class="title">
8842         <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>
8843       </div>
8844       <div class="date">
8845          4th August 2011
8846       </div>
8847       <div class="body">
8848         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
8849 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
8850 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
8851 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
8852 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
8853 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
8854 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
8855 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
8856 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
8857
8858 <p><blockquote>
8859 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
8860 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
8861 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
8862 </blockquote></p>
8863
8864 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
8865 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
8866 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
8867 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
8868 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
8869 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
8870 hard to explain.</p>
8871
8872 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
8873 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
8874 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
8875 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
8876 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
8877 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
8878 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
8879 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
8880 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
8881 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
8882 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
8883 mode).</p>
8884
8885 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
8886 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
8887 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
8888 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
8889 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
8890 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
8891 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
8892 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
8893 after visiting single user mode.</p>
8894
8895 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
8896 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
8897 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
8898 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
8899 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
8900 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
8901 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
8902 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
8903
8904 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
8905 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
8906 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
8907
8908       </div>
8909       <div class="tags">
8910
8911
8912         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>.
8913
8914
8915       </div>
8916     </div>
8917     <div class="padding"></div>
8918
8919     <div class="entry">
8920       <div class="title">
8921         <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>
8922       </div>
8923       <div class="date">
8924         30th July 2011
8925       </div>
8926       <div class="body">
8927         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
8928 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
8929 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
8930 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
8931 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
8932 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
8933 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
8934 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
8935 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
8936 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
8937 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
8938 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
8939 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
8940
8941 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
8942 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
8943 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
8944 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
8945 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
8946 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
8947 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
8948 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
8949 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
8950
8951 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
8952 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
8953 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
8954 is presented.</p>
8955
8956 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
8957 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
8958 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
8959 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
8960 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
8961 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
8962 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
8963 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
8964 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
8965 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
8966 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
8967 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
8968 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
8969 find time to push this forward.</p>
8970
8971       </div>
8972       <div class="tags">
8973
8974
8975         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>.
8976
8977
8978       </div>
8979     </div>
8980     <div class="padding"></div>
8981
8982     <div class="entry">
8983       <div class="title">
8984         <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>
8985       </div>
8986       <div class="date">
8987         29th July 2011
8988       </div>
8989       <div class="body">
8990         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
8991 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
8992 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
8993 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
8994 issues.</p>
8995
8996 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
8997 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
8998 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
8999
9000 <ol>
9001
9002 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
9003 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
9004 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
9005 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
9006 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
9007 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
9008 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
9009 Debian.</li>
9010
9011 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
9012 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
9013 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
9014 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
9015 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
9016 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
9017 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
9018 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
9019 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
9020 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
9021 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
9022 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
9023 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
9024
9025 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
9026 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
9027 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
9028 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
9029 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
9030 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
9031 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
9032 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
9033 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
9034 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
9035
9036 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
9037 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
9038 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
9039 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
9040 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
9041 latter behaviour.</li>
9042
9043 </ol>
9044
9045 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
9046 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
9047 it do not matter much.</p>
9048
9049 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
9050 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
9051 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
9052
9053       </div>
9054       <div class="tags">
9055
9056
9057         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/h264">h264</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>.
9058
9059
9060       </div>
9061     </div>
9062     <div class="padding"></div>
9063
9064     <div class="entry">
9065       <div class="title">
9066         <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>
9067       </div>
9068       <div class="date">
9069         26th July 2011
9070       </div>
9071       <div class="body">
9072         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
9073 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
9074 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
9075 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
9076 security support for a few years.</p>
9077
9078 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
9079 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
9080 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
9081 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
9082 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
9083 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
9084 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
9085 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
9086 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
9087 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
9088 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
9089 easier in the future.</p>
9090
9091 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
9092 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
9093 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
9094 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
9095 do not have time for.</p>
9096
9097       </div>
9098       <div class="tags">
9099
9100
9101         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>.
9102
9103
9104       </div>
9105     </div>
9106     <div class="padding"></div>
9107
9108     <div class="entry">
9109       <div class="title">
9110         <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>
9111       </div>
9112       <div class="date">
9113          3rd April 2011
9114       </div>
9115       <div class="body">
9116         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
9117 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
9118 update in English.</p>
9119
9120 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
9121 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
9122 of the British service
9123 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
9124 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
9125 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
9126 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
9127 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
9128 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
9129 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
9130 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
9131 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
9132 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
9133 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
9134 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
9135 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
9136
9137 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
9138 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
9139 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
9140 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
9141 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
9142 public infrastructure.</p>
9143
9144 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
9145 such service?</p>
9146
9147       </div>
9148       <div class="tags">
9149
9150
9151         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>.
9152
9153
9154       </div>
9155     </div>
9156     <div class="padding"></div>
9157
9158     <div class="entry">
9159       <div class="title">
9160         <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>
9161       </div>
9162       <div class="date">
9163         28th January 2011
9164       </div>
9165       <div class="body">
9166         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
9167 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
9168 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
9169 available on the Internet, and check our locally
9170 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
9171 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
9172 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
9173 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
9174 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
9175 out which security holes were present in our free software
9176 collection.</p>
9177
9178 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
9179 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
9180 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
9181 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
9182 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
9183 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
9184 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
9185 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
9186 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
9187 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
9188 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
9189 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
9190 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
9191 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
9192 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
9193 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
9194
9195 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
9196 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
9197 check out, one could look up
9198 <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
9199 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
9200 The most recent one is
9201 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
9202 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
9203 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
9204
9205 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
9206 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
9207 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
9208 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
9209 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
9210 security issues out.</p>
9211
9212 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
9213 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
9214 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
9215 RHEL is providing
9216 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
9217 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
9218 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
9219
9220 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
9221 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
9222 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
9223 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
9224 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
9225 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
9226 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
9227 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
9228 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
9229 established soon.</p>
9230
9231 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
9232 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
9233 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
9234 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
9235 for their packages.</p>
9236
9237       </div>
9238       <div class="tags">
9239
9240
9241         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>.
9242
9243
9244       </div>
9245     </div>
9246     <div class="padding"></div>
9247
9248     <div class="entry">
9249       <div class="title">
9250         <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>
9251       </div>
9252       <div class="date">
9253         23rd January 2011
9254       </div>
9255       <div class="body">
9256         <p>In the
9257 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
9258 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
9259 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
9260 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
9261 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
9262 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
9263 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
9264 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
9265 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
9266 one of my machines like this:</p>
9267
9268 <pre>
9269 loaded modules:
9270 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
9271 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
9272 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
9273 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
9274 10de:03ec pata_amd
9275 10de:03f6 sata_nv
9276 1022:1103 k8temp
9277 109e:036e bttv
9278 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
9279 11ab:4364 sky2
9280 </pre>
9281
9282 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
9283 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
9284
9285 <pre>
9286 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
9287     echo loaded pci modules:
9288     (
9289         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
9290         for address in * ; do
9291             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
9292                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
9293                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
9294                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
9295                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
9296                     echo "$id $module"
9297                 fi
9298             fi
9299         done
9300     )
9301     echo
9302 fi
9303 </pre>
9304
9305 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
9306 mappings:</p>
9307
9308 <pre>
9309 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
9310     echo loaded usb modules:
9311     (
9312         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
9313         for address in * ; do
9314             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
9315                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
9316                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
9317                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
9318                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
9319                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
9320                         echo "$id $module"
9321                     fi
9322                 fi
9323             fi
9324         done
9325     )
9326     echo
9327 fi
9328 </pre>
9329
9330 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
9331 well.</p>
9332
9333       </div>
9334       <div class="tags">
9335
9336
9337         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>.
9338
9339
9340       </div>
9341     </div>
9342     <div class="padding"></div>
9343
9344     <div class="entry">
9345       <div class="title">
9346         <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>
9347       </div>
9348       <div class="date">
9349         22nd December 2010
9350       </div>
9351       <div class="body">
9352         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
9353 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
9354 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
9355 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
9356 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
9357 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
9358 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
9359 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
9360 university.</p>
9361
9362 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
9363 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
9364 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
9365 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
9366 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
9367 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
9368 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
9369 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
9370
9371 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
9372 I perform on a new model.</p>
9373
9374 <ul>
9375
9376 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
9377 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
9378 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
9379
9380 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
9381 installation, X.org is working.</li>
9382
9383 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
9384 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
9385 reported by the program.</li>
9386
9387 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
9388 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
9389 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
9390 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
9391 normally test this by playing
9392 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
9393 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
9394
9395 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
9396 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
9397
9398 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
9399 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
9400
9401 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
9402 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
9403
9404 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
9405 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
9406 few.</li>
9407
9408 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
9409 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
9410 notice this.</li>
9411
9412 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
9413 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
9414 resume.</li>
9415
9416 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
9417 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
9418 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
9419 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
9420 not.</li>
9421
9422 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
9423 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
9424 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
9425 existence.</li>
9426
9427 </ul>
9428
9429 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
9430 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
9431 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
9432 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
9433 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
9434 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
9435 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
9436 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
9437
9438       </div>
9439       <div class="tags">
9440
9441
9442         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>.
9443
9444
9445       </div>
9446     </div>
9447     <div class="padding"></div>
9448
9449     <div class="entry">
9450       <div class="title">
9451         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
9452       </div>
9453       <div class="date">
9454         11th December 2010
9455       </div>
9456       <div class="body">
9457         <p>As I continue to explore
9458 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
9459 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
9460 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
9461
9462 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
9463 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
9464 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
9465 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
9466 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
9467 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
9468 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
9469 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
9470 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
9471 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
9472 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
9473 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
9474 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
9475 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
9476 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
9477 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
9478 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
9479 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
9480 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
9481 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
9482
9483 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
9484 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
9485 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
9486 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
9487 If the Skolelinux foundation
9488 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
9489 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
9490 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
9491 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
9492 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
9493 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
9494 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
9495 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
9496
9497 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
9498 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
9499 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
9500 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
9501 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
9502 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
9503 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
9504 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
9505 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
9506 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
9507 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
9508 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
9509 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
9510 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
9511 currencies.</p>
9512
9513 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
9514 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
9515 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
9516 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
9517 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
9518 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
9519 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
9520 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
9521 BitCoins.  Check out
9522 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
9523 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
9524 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
9525 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
9526 yet.</p>
9527
9528 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
9529 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
9530 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
9531 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
9532 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
9533
9534       </div>
9535       <div class="tags">
9536
9537
9538         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>.
9539
9540
9541       </div>
9542     </div>
9543     <div class="padding"></div>
9544
9545     <div class="entry">
9546       <div class="title">
9547         <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>
9548       </div>
9549       <div class="date">
9550         10th December 2010
9551       </div>
9552       <div class="body">
9553         <p>With this weeks lawless
9554 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
9555 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
9556 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
9557 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
9558 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
9559 A blog post from
9560 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
9561 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
9562 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
9563 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
9564 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
9565 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
9566 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
9567
9568 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
9569 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
9570 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
9571 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
9572 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
9573 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
9574 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
9575 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
9576 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
9577 Debian</a> soon.</p>
9578
9579 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
9580 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
9581 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
9582 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
9583 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
9584 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
9585 you can even get
9586 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
9587 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
9588 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
9589 on the current exchange rates.</p>
9590
9591 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
9592 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
9593 donations to the address
9594 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
9595
9596       </div>
9597       <div class="tags">
9598
9599
9600         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>.
9601
9602
9603       </div>
9604     </div>
9605     <div class="padding"></div>
9606
9607     <div class="entry">
9608       <div class="title">
9609         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
9610       </div>
9611       <div class="date">
9612         27th November 2010
9613       </div>
9614       <div class="body">
9615         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
9616 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
9617 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
9618 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
9619 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
9620 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
9621 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
9622 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
9623
9624 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
9625 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9626 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
9627 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
9628 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
9629 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
9630 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
9631 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
9632 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
9633 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
9634 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
9635
9636 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
9637 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
9638 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
9639 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
9640 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
9641 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
9642 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
9643 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
9644 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
9645 what is going on.</p>
9646
9647       </div>
9648       <div class="tags">
9649
9650
9651         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>.
9652
9653
9654       </div>
9655     </div>
9656     <div class="padding"></div>
9657
9658     <div class="entry">
9659       <div class="title">
9660         <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>
9661       </div>
9662       <div class="date">
9663         22nd November 2010
9664       </div>
9665       <div class="body">
9666         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
9667 upgrade testing of the
9668 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9669 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
9670 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
9671 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
9672
9673 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9674
9675 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9676
9677 <blockquote><p>
9678   apache2.2-bin
9679   aptdaemon
9680   baobab
9681   binfmt-support
9682   browser-plugin-gnash
9683   cheese-common
9684   cli-common
9685   cups-pk-helper
9686   dmz-cursor-theme
9687   empathy
9688   empathy-common
9689   freedesktop-sound-theme
9690   freeglut3
9691   gconf-defaults-service
9692   gdm-themes
9693   gedit-plugins
9694   geoclue
9695   geoclue-hostip
9696   geoclue-localnet
9697   geoclue-manual
9698   geoclue-yahoo
9699   gnash
9700   gnash-common
9701   gnome
9702   gnome-backgrounds
9703   gnome-cards-data
9704   gnome-codec-install
9705   gnome-core
9706   gnome-desktop-environment
9707   gnome-disk-utility
9708   gnome-screenshot
9709   gnome-search-tool
9710   gnome-session-canberra
9711   gnome-system-log
9712   gnome-themes-extras
9713   gnome-themes-more
9714   gnome-user-share
9715   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9716   gstreamer0.10-tools
9717   gtk2-engines
9718   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9719   gtk2-engines-smooth
9720   hamster-applet
9721   libapache2-mod-dnssd
9722   libapr1
9723   libaprutil1
9724   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
9725   libaprutil1-ldap
9726   libart2.0-cil
9727   libboost-date-time1.42.0
9728   libboost-python1.42.0
9729   libboost-thread1.42.0
9730   libchamplain-0.4-0
9731   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
9732   libcheese-gtk18
9733   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9734   libcryptui0
9735   libdiscid0
9736   libelf1
9737   libepc-1.0-2
9738   libepc-common
9739   libepc-ui-1.0-2
9740   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9741   libfreerdp0
9742   libgconf2.0-cil
9743   libgdata-common
9744   libgdata7
9745   libgdu-gtk0
9746   libgee2
9747   libgeoclue0
9748   libgexiv2-0
9749   libgif4
9750   libglade2.0-cil
9751   libglib2.0-cil
9752   libgmime2.4-cil
9753   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9754   libgnome2.24-cil
9755   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
9756   libgpod-common
9757   libgpod4
9758   libgtk2.0-cil
9759   libgtkglext1
9760   libgtksourceview2.0-common
9761   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9762   libmono-addins0.2-cil
9763   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
9764   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9765   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
9766   libmono-posix2.0-cil
9767   libmono-security2.0-cil
9768   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9769   libmono-system2.0-cil
9770   libmtp8
9771   libmusicbrainz3-6
9772   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
9773   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
9774   libopal3.6.8
9775   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
9776   libpt2.6.7
9777   libpython2.6
9778   librpm1
9779   librpmio1
9780   libsdl1.2debian
9781   libsrtp0
9782   libssh-4
9783   libtelepathy-farsight0
9784   libtelepathy-glib0
9785   libtidy-0.99-0
9786   media-player-info
9787   mesa-utils
9788   mono-2.0-gac
9789   mono-gac
9790   mono-runtime
9791   nautilus-sendto
9792   nautilus-sendto-empathy
9793   p7zip-full
9794   pkg-config
9795   python-aptdaemon
9796   python-aptdaemon-gtk
9797   python-axiom
9798   python-beautifulsoup
9799   python-bugbuddy
9800   python-clientform
9801   python-coherence
9802   python-configobj
9803   python-crypto
9804   python-cupshelpers
9805   python-elementtree
9806   python-epsilon
9807   python-evolution
9808   python-feedparser
9809   python-gdata
9810   python-gdbm
9811   python-gst0.10
9812   python-gtkglext1
9813   python-gtksourceview2
9814   python-httplib2
9815   python-louie
9816   python-mako
9817   python-markupsafe
9818   python-mechanize
9819   python-nevow
9820   python-notify
9821   python-opengl
9822   python-openssl
9823   python-pam
9824   python-pkg-resources
9825   python-pyasn1
9826   python-pysqlite2
9827   python-rdflib
9828   python-serial
9829   python-tagpy
9830   python-twisted-bin
9831   python-twisted-conch
9832   python-twisted-core
9833   python-twisted-web
9834   python-utidylib
9835   python-webkit
9836   python-xdg
9837   python-zope.interface
9838   remmina
9839   remmina-plugin-data
9840   remmina-plugin-rdp
9841   remmina-plugin-vnc
9842   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9843   rhythmbox-plugins
9844   rpm-common
9845   rpm2cpio
9846   seahorse-plugins
9847   shotwell
9848   software-center
9849   system-config-printer-udev
9850   telepathy-gabble
9851   telepathy-mission-control-5
9852   telepathy-salut
9853   tomboy
9854   totem
9855   totem-coherence
9856   totem-mozilla
9857   totem-plugins
9858   transmission-common
9859   xdg-user-dirs
9860   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
9861   xserver-xephyr
9862 </p></blockquote>
9863
9864 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9865
9866 <blockquote><p>
9867   cheese
9868   ekiga
9869   eog
9870   epiphany-extensions
9871   evolution-exchange
9872   fast-user-switch-applet
9873   file-roller
9874   gcalctool
9875   gconf-editor
9876   gdm
9877   gedit
9878   gedit-common
9879   gnome-games
9880   gnome-games-data
9881   gnome-nettool
9882   gnome-system-tools
9883   gnome-themes
9884   gnuchess
9885   gucharmap
9886   guile-1.8-libs
9887   libavahi-ui0
9888   libdmx1
9889   libgalago3
9890   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9891   libgtksourceview2.0-0
9892   liblircclient0
9893   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
9894   libspeexdsp1
9895   libsvga1
9896   rhythmbox
9897   seahorse
9898   sound-juicer
9899   system-config-printer
9900   totem-common
9901   transmission-gtk
9902   vinagre
9903   vino
9904 </p></blockquote>
9905
9906 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9907
9908 <blockquote><p>
9909   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9910 </p></blockquote>
9911
9912 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9913
9914 <blockquote><p>
9915 [nothing]
9916 </p></blockquote>
9917
9918 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9919
9920 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9921
9922 <blockquote><p>
9923   ksmserver
9924 </p></blockquote>
9925
9926 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9927
9928 <blockquote><p>
9929   kwin
9930   network-manager-kde
9931 </p></blockquote>
9932
9933 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9934
9935 <blockquote><p>
9936   arts
9937   dolphin
9938   freespacenotifier
9939   google-gadgets-gst
9940   google-gadgets-xul
9941   kappfinder
9942   kcalc
9943   kcharselect
9944   kde-core
9945   kde-plasma-desktop
9946   kde-standard
9947   kde-window-manager
9948   kdeartwork
9949   kdeartwork-emoticons
9950   kdeartwork-style
9951   kdeartwork-theme-icon
9952   kdebase
9953   kdebase-apps
9954   kdebase-workspace
9955   kdebase-workspace-bin
9956   kdebase-workspace-data
9957   kdeeject
9958   kdelibs
9959   kdeplasma-addons
9960   kdeutils
9961   kdewallpapers
9962   kdf
9963   kfloppy
9964   kgpg
9965   khelpcenter4
9966   kinfocenter
9967   konq-plugins-l10n
9968   konqueror-nsplugins
9969   kscreensaver
9970   kscreensaver-xsavers
9971   ktimer
9972   kwrite
9973   libgle3
9974   libkde4-ruby1.8
9975   libkonq5
9976   libkonq5-templates
9977   libnetpbm10
9978   libplasma-ruby
9979   libplasma-ruby1.8
9980   libqt4-ruby1.8
9981   marble-data
9982   marble-plugins
9983   netpbm
9984   nuvola-icon-theme
9985   plasma-dataengines-workspace
9986   plasma-desktop
9987   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
9988   plasma-runners-addons
9989   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
9990   plasma-scriptengine-python
9991   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
9992   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
9993   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
9994   plasma-scriptengines
9995   plasma-wallpapers-addons
9996   plasma-widget-folderview
9997   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9998   ruby
9999   sweeper
10000   update-notifier-kde
10001   xscreensaver-data-extra
10002   xscreensaver-gl
10003   xscreensaver-gl-extra
10004   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
10005 </p></blockquote>
10006
10007 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10008
10009 <blockquote><p>
10010   ark
10011   google-gadgets-common
10012   google-gadgets-qt
10013   htdig
10014   kate
10015   kdebase-bin
10016   kdebase-data
10017   kdepasswd
10018   kfind
10019   klipper
10020   konq-plugins
10021   konqueror
10022   ksysguard
10023   ksysguardd
10024   libarchive1
10025   libcln6
10026   libeet1
10027   libeina-svn-06
10028   libggadget-1.0-0b
10029   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
10030   libgps19
10031   libkdecorations4
10032   libkephal4
10033   libkonq4
10034   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
10035   libkscreensaver5
10036   libksgrd4
10037   libksignalplotter4
10038   libkunitconversion4
10039   libkwineffects1a
10040   libmarblewidget4
10041   libntrack-qt4-1
10042   libntrack0
10043   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
10044   libplasmaclock4a
10045   libplasmagenericshell4
10046   libprocesscore4a
10047   libprocessui4a
10048   libqalculate5
10049   libqedje0a
10050   libqtruby4shared2
10051   libqzion0a
10052   libruby1.8
10053   libscim8c2a
10054   libsmokekdecore4-3
10055   libsmokekdeui4-3
10056   libsmokekfile3
10057   libsmokekhtml3
10058   libsmokekio3
10059   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
10060   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
10061   libsmokekparts3
10062   libsmokektexteditor3
10063   libsmokekutils3
10064   libsmokenepomuk3
10065   libsmokephonon3
10066   libsmokeplasma3
10067   libsmokeqtcore4-3
10068   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
10069   libsmokeqtgui4-3
10070   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
10071   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
10072   libsmokeqtscript4-3
10073   libsmokeqtsql4-3
10074   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
10075   libsmokeqttest4-3
10076   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
10077   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
10078   libsmokeqtxml4-3
10079   libsmokesolid3
10080   libsmokesoprano3
10081   libtaskmanager4a
10082   libtidy-0.99-0
10083   libweather-ion4a
10084   libxklavier16
10085   libxxf86misc1
10086   okteta
10087   oxygencursors
10088   plasma-dataengines-addons
10089   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
10090   plasma-widget-lancelot
10091   plasma-widgets-addons
10092   plasma-widgets-workspace
10093   polkit-kde-1
10094   ruby1.8
10095   systemsettings
10096   update-notifier-common
10097 </p></blockquote>
10098
10099 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
10100 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
10101 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
10102 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
10103
10104       </div>
10105       <div class="tags">
10106
10107
10108         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>.
10109
10110
10111       </div>
10112     </div>
10113     <div class="padding"></div>
10114
10115     <div class="entry">
10116       <div class="title">
10117         <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>
10118       </div>
10119       <div class="date">
10120         22nd November 2010
10121       </div>
10122       <div class="body">
10123         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
10124 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
10125 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
10126 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
10127 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
10128 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
10129 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
10130 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
10131 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
10132
10133 <p>I found
10134 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
10135 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
10136 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
10137 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
10138 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
10139 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
10140
10141 <pre>
10142 #!/bin/sh
10143
10144 # Based on
10145 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
10146
10147 set -e
10148 set -x
10149
10150 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
10151     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
10152     exit 1
10153 else
10154     host="$1"
10155 fi
10156
10157 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
10158     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
10159     exit 1
10160 fi
10161
10162 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
10163 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
10164 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
10165 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
10166
10167 img=$host.img
10168 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
10169 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
10170
10171 parted $img mklabel msdos
10172 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
10173 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
10174 parted $img set 1 boot on
10175
10176 modprobe dm-mod
10177 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
10178 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
10179
10180 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
10181 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
10182 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
10183
10184 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
10185 losetup -d /dev/loop0
10186 </pre>
10187
10188 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
10189 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
10190
10191 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
10192 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
10193 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
10194 seem to work just fine.</p>
10195
10196       </div>
10197       <div class="tags">
10198
10199
10200         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>.
10201
10202
10203       </div>
10204     </div>
10205     <div class="padding"></div>
10206
10207     <div class="entry">
10208       <div class="title">
10209         <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>
10210       </div>
10211       <div class="date">
10212         20th November 2010
10213       </div>
10214       <div class="body">
10215         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
10216 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
10217 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
10218 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
10219
10220 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
10221 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
10222 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
10223
10224 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
10225
10226 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10227
10228 <blockquote><p>
10229   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
10230   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
10231   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
10232   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
10233   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
10234   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
10235   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
10236   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
10237   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
10238   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
10239   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
10240   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
10241   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
10242   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
10243   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
10244   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
10245   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
10246   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
10247   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
10248   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
10249   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
10250   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
10251   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
10252   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
10253   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
10254   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
10255   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
10256   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
10257   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
10258   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
10259   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
10260   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10261   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
10262   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
10263   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
10264   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
10265   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
10266   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
10267   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
10268   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
10269   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
10270   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
10271   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
10272   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
10273   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
10274   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
10275   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
10276   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
10277   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
10278   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
10279   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
10280   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
10281   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
10282   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
10283   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
10284   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
10285   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
10286   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
10287   zip
10288 </p></blockquote>
10289
10290 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
10291
10292 <blockquote><p>
10293   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
10294   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
10295   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
10296   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
10297   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
10298   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
10299   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
10300   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
10301   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
10302   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
10303   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
10304   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10305   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10306   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10307   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
10308   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
10309   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
10310   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
10311   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
10312   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
10313   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
10314   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
10315   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10316   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
10317   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
10318   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
10319   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
10320   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
10321   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
10322 </p></blockquote>
10323
10324 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10325
10326 <blockquote><p>
10327   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10328 </p></blockquote>
10329
10330 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10331
10332 <blockquote><p>
10333 [nothing]
10334 </p></blockquote>
10335
10336 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
10337
10338 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10339
10340 <blockquote><p>
10341   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
10342   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10343   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
10344   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
10345   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
10346   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
10347   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10348   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
10349   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
10350   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10351   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
10352   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
10353   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
10354   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
10355   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
10356   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
10357   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
10358   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
10359   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
10360   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
10361   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
10362   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
10363   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
10364   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
10365   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
10366   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
10367   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
10368   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
10369   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
10370   ttf-sazanami-gothic
10371 </p></blockquote>
10372
10373 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10374
10375 <blockquote><p>
10376   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
10377   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
10378   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
10379   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
10380   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
10381   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
10382   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
10383   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
10384   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
10385   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
10386   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
10387   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
10388   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
10389   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
10390   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10391   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10392   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
10393   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
10394   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10395   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
10396   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
10397   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
10398   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10399   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10400   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
10401   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
10402   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
10403   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
10404   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
10405   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
10406   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
10407   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
10408   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
10409 </p></blockquote>
10410
10411 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10412
10413 <blockquote><p>
10414   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
10415   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
10416   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
10417   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
10418   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
10419   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
10420   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
10421 </p></blockquote>
10422
10423 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10424
10425 <blockquote><p>
10426   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
10427 </p></blockquote>
10428
10429       </div>
10430       <div class="tags">
10431
10432
10433         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>.
10434
10435
10436       </div>
10437     </div>
10438     <div class="padding"></div>
10439
10440     <div class="entry">
10441       <div class="title">
10442         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
10443       </div>
10444       <div class="date">
10445         20th November 2010
10446       </div>
10447       <div class="body">
10448         <p>Answering
10449 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
10450 call from the Gnash project</a> for
10451 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
10452 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
10453 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
10454 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
10455 releases out more often.</p>
10456
10457 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
10458 I have considered setting up a <a
10459 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
10460 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
10461 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
10462 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
10463 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
10464 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
10465 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
10466 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
10467 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
10468 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
10469 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
10470 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
10471
10472       </div>
10473       <div class="tags">
10474
10475
10476         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>.
10477
10478
10479       </div>
10480     </div>
10481     <div class="padding"></div>
10482
10483     <div class="entry">
10484       <div class="title">
10485         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
10486       </div>
10487       <div class="date">
10488          9th November 2010
10489       </div>
10490       <div class="body">
10491         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
10492
10493 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
10494 3D linked in from
10495 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
10496 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
10497
10498       </div>
10499       <div class="tags">
10500
10501
10502         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>.
10503
10504
10505       </div>
10506     </div>
10507     <div class="padding"></div>
10508
10509     <div class="entry">
10510       <div class="title">
10511         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
10512       </div>
10513       <div class="date">
10514         24th October 2010
10515       </div>
10516       <div class="body">
10517         <p>Some updates.</p>
10518
10519 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
10520 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
10521 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
10522 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
10523 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
10524 :)</p>
10525
10526 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
10527 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
10528 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
10529 It is called
10530 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
10531 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
10532 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
10533 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
10534 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
10535 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
10536
10537 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
10538 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
10539 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
10540 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
10541 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
10542 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
10543 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
10544 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
10545 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
10546 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
10547
10548       </div>
10549       <div class="tags">
10550
10551
10552         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>.
10553
10554
10555       </div>
10556     </div>
10557     <div class="padding"></div>
10558
10559     <div class="entry">
10560       <div class="title">
10561         <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>
10562       </div>
10563       <div class="date">
10564          4th September 2010
10565       </div>
10566       <div class="body">
10567         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
10568 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
10569 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
10570 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
10571 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
10572 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
10573 installed.</p>
10574
10575 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
10576 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
10577 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
10578 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
10579 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
10580 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
10581 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
10582 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
10583 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
10584
10585 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
10586 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
10587 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
10588 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
10589 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
10590 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
10591 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
10592 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
10593 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
10594 pages they want to visit.</p>
10595
10596 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
10597 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
10598 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
10599 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
10600 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
10601 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
10602 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
10603 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
10604 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
10605 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
10606 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
10607
10608       </div>
10609       <div class="tags">
10610
10611
10612         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>.
10613
10614
10615       </div>
10616     </div>
10617     <div class="padding"></div>
10618
10619     <div class="entry">
10620       <div class="title">
10621         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
10622       </div>
10623       <div class="date">
10624         27th July 2010
10625       </div>
10626       <div class="body">
10627         <p>I discovered this while doing
10628 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
10629 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
10630 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
10631 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
10632 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
10633
10634 <p>An example is from todays
10635 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
10636 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
10637 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
10638 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
10639 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
10640 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
10641 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
10642
10643 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
10644
10645 <blockquote><pre>
10646 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
10647  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
10648   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
10649 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
10650  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
10651 </pre></blockquote>
10652
10653 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
10654 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
10655 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
10656 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
10657 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
10658 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
10659 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
10660 of dependency loops.</p>
10661
10662 <p>Thanks to
10663 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
10664 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
10665 dependencies
10666 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
10667 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
10668
10669 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
10670 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
10671 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
10672 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
10673 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
10674 it.</p>
10675
10676       </div>
10677       <div class="tags">
10678
10679
10680         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>.
10681
10682
10683       </div>
10684     </div>
10685     <div class="padding"></div>
10686
10687     <div class="entry">
10688       <div class="title">
10689         <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>
10690       </div>
10691       <div class="date">
10692         17th July 2010
10693       </div>
10694       <div class="body">
10695         <p>This is a
10696 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
10697 on my
10698 <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
10699 work</a> on
10700 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
10701 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
10702
10703 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
10704 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
10705 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
10706 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
10707
10708 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
10709 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
10710 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
10711
10712 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
10713
10714 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
10715 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
10716 the web.
10717
10718 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
10719 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
10720 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
10721 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
10722 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
10723 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
10724
10725 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
10726 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
10727 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
10728 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
10729 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
10730 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
10731 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
10732 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
10733 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
10734 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
10735 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
10736 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
10737 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
10738 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
10739 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
10740 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
10741
10742 <blockquote><pre>
10743 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10744   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10745   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10746   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10747   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10748   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10749   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10750
10751 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10752   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10753   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
10754   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
10755   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
10756   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
10757 </pre></blockquote>
10758
10759 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
10760 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
10761 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
10762 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10763 also exist.</p>
10764
10765 <blockquote><pre>
10766 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10767 objectclass: top
10768 objectclass: dnsdomain
10769 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10770 dc: tjener
10771 arecord: 10.0.2.2
10772 associateddomain: tjener.intern
10773
10774 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10775 objectclass: top
10776 objectclass: dnsdomain2
10777 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10778 dc: 2
10779 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
10780 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
10781 </pre></blockquote>
10782
10783 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
10784 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
10785 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
10786 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
10787 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
10788 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
10789 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
10790 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
10791 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
10792 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
10793 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
10794 instead.</p>
10795
10796 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
10797 like this:</p>
10798
10799 <blockquote><pre>
10800 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10801   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10802   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10803   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10804   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10805   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10806
10807 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10808   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
10809 </pre></blockquote>
10810
10811 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
10812 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
10813 reverse lookups.</p>
10814
10815 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
10816 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
10817 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
10818 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
10819
10820 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
10821 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
10822 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
10823
10824 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
10825 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
10826 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
10827 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
10828 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
10829
10830 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
10831 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
10832 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
10833 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
10834 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
10835
10836 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
10837 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
10838 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
10839 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
10840 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
10841 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
10842
10843 <blockquote><pre>
10844 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
10845     SUP top
10846     AUXILIARY
10847     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
10848           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
10849           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
10850           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
10851           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
10852     ))
10853 </pre></blockquote>
10854
10855 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
10856 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
10857 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
10858 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
10859 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
10860 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
10861
10862 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
10863
10864 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10865 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
10866 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10867 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10868 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
10869
10870 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10871 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10872 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
10873 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
10874
10875 <blockquote><pre>
10876 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10877 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10878 </pre></blockquote>
10879
10880 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10881 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10882 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
10883 search result is this entry:</p>
10884
10885 <blockquote><pre>
10886 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10887 cn: dhcp
10888 objectClass: top
10889 objectClass: dhcpServer
10890 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10891 </pre></blockquote>
10892
10893 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10894 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
10895 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10896 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10897 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10898 The search result is this entry:</p>
10899
10900 <blockquote><pre>
10901 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10902 cn: DHCP Config
10903 objectClass: top
10904 objectClass: dhcpService
10905 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10906 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10907 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10908 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10909 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
10910 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
10911 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
10912 </pre></blockquote>
10913
10914 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
10915 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10916 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10917 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10918 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
10919 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
10920 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10921 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10922 related computer objects.</p>
10923
10924 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10925 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
10926 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10927 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10928 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
10929 like:</p>
10930
10931 <blockquote><pre>
10932 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10933 cn: hostname
10934 objectClass: top
10935 objectClass: dhcpHost
10936 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10937 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10938 </pre></blockquote>
10939
10940 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10941 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10942 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
10943 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10944 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
10945 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10946 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10947 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10948 structural object class.
10949
10950 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
10951
10952 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10953 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10954 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10955 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10956 in the configuration.</p>
10957
10958 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10959 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10960 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10961 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10962 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10963 structure.</p>
10964
10965 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10966 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
10967
10968 <blockquote><pre>
10969 ou=services
10970   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10971     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10972     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10973       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10974         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10975     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10976       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10977         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10978     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10979       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10980 </pre></blockquote>
10981
10982 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10983 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10984 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10985 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
10986
10987 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10988 like this:</p>
10989
10990 <blockquote><pre>
10991 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10992 dc: hostname
10993 objectClass: top
10994 objectClass: dhcpHost
10995 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10996 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10997 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10998 arecord: 10.11.12.13
10999 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
11000 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
11001 </pre></blockquote>
11002
11003 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
11004 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
11005 auxiliary object class.</p>
11006
11007       </div>
11008       <div class="tags">
11009
11010
11011         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>.
11012
11013
11014       </div>
11015     </div>
11016     <div class="padding"></div>
11017
11018     <div class="entry">
11019       <div class="title">
11020         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
11021       </div>
11022       <div class="date">
11023         14th July 2010
11024       </div>
11025       <div class="body">
11026         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
11027 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
11028 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
11029 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
11030 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
11031
11032 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
11033 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
11034
11035 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
11036 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
11037 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
11038 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
11039 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
11040 to a slave DNS server.</p>
11041
11042 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
11043 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
11044 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
11045 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
11046 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
11047 seem to work.</p>
11048
11049 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
11050 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
11051 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
11052 this:</p>
11053
11054 <blockquote><pre>
11055   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11056   cn: hostname
11057   objectClass: dhcphost
11058   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11059   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
11060   associateddomain: hostname.intern
11061   arecord: 10.11.12.13
11062   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
11063   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
11064   ldapconfigsound: Y
11065 </pre></blockquote>
11066
11067 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
11068 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
11069 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
11070 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
11071
11072 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
11073 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
11074 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
11075 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
11076 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
11077 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
11078 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
11079 might be a good place to put it.</p>
11080
11081 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11082 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11083
11084       </div>
11085       <div class="tags">
11086
11087
11088         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>.
11089
11090
11091       </div>
11092     </div>
11093     <div class="padding"></div>
11094
11095     <div class="entry">
11096       <div class="title">
11097         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
11098       </div>
11099       <div class="date">
11100         11th July 2010
11101       </div>
11102       <div class="body">
11103         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
11104 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
11105 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
11106 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
11107
11108 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
11109 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
11110 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
11111 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
11112 LTSP clients.</p>
11113
11114 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
11115 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
11116 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
11117
11118 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
11119 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
11120 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
11121
11122 <blockquote><pre>
11123 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
11124 #
11125 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
11126 #
11127 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
11128 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
11129 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
11130 #
11131 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
11132 # existence of attribute names.
11133 #
11134 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
11135 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
11136 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
11137 #
11138 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
11139 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
11140 #
11141 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
11142 #     SUP top
11143 #     AUXILIARY
11144 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
11145
11146 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
11147 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
11148     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
11149     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
11150         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
11151         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
11152             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
11153             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
11154             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
11155             # bass value on to clients
11156             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
11157         done
11158     done
11159 fi
11160 </pre></blockquote>
11161
11162 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
11163 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
11164 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
11165 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
11166 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
11167
11168 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11169 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11170
11171 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
11172 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
11173 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
11174 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
11175 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
11176 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
11177
11178       </div>
11179       <div class="tags">
11180
11181
11182         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>.
11183
11184
11185       </div>
11186     </div>
11187     <div class="padding"></div>
11188
11189     <div class="entry">
11190       <div class="title">
11191         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
11192       </div>
11193       <div class="date">
11194          9th July 2010
11195       </div>
11196       <div class="body">
11197         <p>Since
11198 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
11199 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
11200 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
11201 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
11202 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
11203 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
11204 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
11205 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
11206 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
11207 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
11208 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
11209 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
11210 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
11211
11212       </div>
11213       <div class="tags">
11214
11215
11216         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>.
11217
11218
11219       </div>
11220     </div>
11221     <div class="padding"></div>
11222
11223     <div class="entry">
11224       <div class="title">
11225         <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>
11226       </div>
11227       <div class="date">
11228          3rd July 2010
11229       </div>
11230       <div class="body">
11231         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
11232 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
11233 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
11234 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
11235 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
11236 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
11237 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
11238 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
11239
11240 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
11241 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
11242 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
11243 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
11244 publish the difference.</p>
11245
11246 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11247
11248 <blockquote><p>
11249   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11250   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
11251   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
11252   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
11253   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
11254   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
11255   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
11256   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
11257 </p></blockquote>
11258
11259 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11260
11261 <blockquote><p>
11262   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
11263   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
11264   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
11265   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
11266   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
11267   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
11268   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
11269   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
11270   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11271   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
11272   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
11273   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
11274   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
11275   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
11276   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
11277   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
11278   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
11279   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
11280   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
11281   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
11282 </p></blockquote>
11283
11284 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11285
11286 <blockquote><p>
11287   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
11288   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
11289   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11290   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11291   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
11292   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
11293   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
11294   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11295   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11296   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11297   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11298   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
11299   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
11300   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
11301   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
11302   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
11303   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
11304   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
11305   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
11306   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
11307   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
11308 </p></blockquote>
11309
11310 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11311
11312 <blockquote><p>
11313   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
11314   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
11315   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
11316 </p></blockquote>
11317
11318 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
11319 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
11320 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
11321 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
11322 the difference somewhat.
11323
11324       </div>
11325       <div class="tags">
11326
11327
11328         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>.
11329
11330
11331       </div>
11332     </div>
11333     <div class="padding"></div>
11334
11335     <div class="entry">
11336       <div class="title">
11337         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
11338       </div>
11339       <div class="date">
11340         28th June 2010
11341       </div>
11342       <div class="body">
11343         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
11344 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
11345 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
11346 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
11347 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
11348 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
11349 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
11350 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
11351 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
11352 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
11353
11354 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
11355 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
11356 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
11357 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
11358 released.</p>
11359
11360 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
11361 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
11362 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
11363 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
11364
11365 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
11366 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11367
11368 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
11369 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
11370 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
11371 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
11372 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
11373
11374       </div>
11375       <div class="tags">
11376
11377
11378         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>.
11379
11380
11381       </div>
11382     </div>
11383     <div class="padding"></div>
11384
11385     <div class="entry">
11386       <div class="title">
11387         <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>
11388       </div>
11389       <div class="date">
11390         24th June 2010
11391       </div>
11392       <div class="body">
11393         <p>A while back, I
11394 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
11395 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
11396 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
11397 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
11398
11399 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
11400 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
11401 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
11402 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
11403
11404 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
11405 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
11406 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
11407 Debian Edu.</p>
11408
11409 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
11410 the
11411 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
11412 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
11413 available today from IETF.</p>
11414
11415 <pre>
11416 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
11417 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
11418 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
11419  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
11420         NAME 'dhcpHost'
11421         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
11422 -       SUP top
11423 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
11424         MUST cn
11425         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
11426         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
11427 </pre>
11428
11429 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
11430 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
11431 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
11432
11433 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11434 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11435
11436       </div>
11437       <div class="tags">
11438
11439
11440         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>.
11441
11442
11443       </div>
11444     </div>
11445     <div class="padding"></div>
11446
11447     <div class="entry">
11448       <div class="title">
11449         <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>
11450       </div>
11451       <div class="date">
11452         16th June 2010
11453       </div>
11454       <div class="body">
11455         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
11456 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
11457 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
11458 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
11459 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
11460 this:
11461
11462 <blockquote><pre>
11463 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11464 tasksel --new-install
11465 </pre></blockquote>
11466
11467 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
11468 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
11469 any output what so ever.
11470
11471 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
11472 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
11473 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
11474 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
11475 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
11476 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
11477 code like this:
11478
11479 <blockquote><pre>
11480 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11481 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
11482 $cmd
11483 </pre></blockquote>
11484
11485 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
11486 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
11487 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
11488 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
11489 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
11490 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
11491 installation.</p>
11492
11493 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
11494 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
11495 like this.</p>
11496
11497       </div>
11498       <div class="tags">
11499
11500
11501         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>.
11502
11503
11504       </div>
11505     </div>
11506     <div class="padding"></div>
11507
11508     <div class="entry">
11509       <div class="title">
11510         <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>
11511       </div>
11512       <div class="date">
11513         13th June 2010
11514       </div>
11515       <div class="body">
11516         <p>My
11517 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
11518 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
11519 finally made the upgrade logs available from
11520 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
11521 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
11522 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
11523 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
11524
11525 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
11526 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
11527 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
11528 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
11529 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
11530 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
11531 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
11532 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
11533
11534 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
11535 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
11536 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
11537 too surprising.</p>
11538
11539 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
11540 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
11541 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
11542 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
11543 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
11544 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
11545 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
11546 continue.</p>
11547
11548 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
11549 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
11550   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
11551   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
11552   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
11553   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
11554   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
11555   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11556   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11557   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11558   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11559   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11560   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11561   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11562   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11563   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11564   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11565   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11566   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11567   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11568   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11569   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11570   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11571   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11572   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11573   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11574   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11575   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11576   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
11577   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
11578
11579 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
11580
11581 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
11582   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
11583   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
11584   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
11585   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11586   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
11587   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
11588   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
11589   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
11590   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
11591   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11592   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
11593   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
11594   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
11595   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
11596   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
11597   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
11598   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
11599   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
11600   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
11601   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
11602   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
11603   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
11604   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
11605   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
11606   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
11607   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
11608   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
11609   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
11610   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11611   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11612   zip</p>
11613
11614 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
11615
11616 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
11617   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
11618   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
11619   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
11620   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
11621   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
11622   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11623   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11624   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11625   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11626   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11627   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11628   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11629   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11630   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11631   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11632   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11633   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11634   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11635   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11636   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11637   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11638   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11639   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11640   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11641   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11642   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11643   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
11644
11645 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
11646 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
11647   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11648   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
11649   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
11650   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11651   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
11652   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
11653   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11654   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
11655   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
11656   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
11657   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
11658   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
11659   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
11660   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
11661   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
11662   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
11663   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
11664   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11665   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
11666   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
11667   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
11668   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
11669   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
11670   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
11671   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
11672   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
11673   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
11674   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
11675   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
11676   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
11677   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
11678   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
11679   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
11680   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11681   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11682   xulrunner-1.9</p>
11683
11684
11685       </div>
11686       <div class="tags">
11687
11688
11689         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>.
11690
11691
11692       </div>
11693     </div>
11694     <div class="padding"></div>
11695
11696     <div class="entry">
11697       <div class="title">
11698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
11699       </div>
11700       <div class="date">
11701         11th June 2010
11702       </div>
11703       <div class="body">
11704         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
11705 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
11706 have been discovered and reported in the process
11707 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
11708 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
11709 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
11710 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
11711 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
11712
11713 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
11714 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
11715 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
11716 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
11717 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
11718 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
11719
11720 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
11721 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
11722 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11723 is created.  The bug report
11724 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
11725 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
11726 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
11727 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
11728 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
11729 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
11730 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
11731 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
11732 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
11733 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
11734 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
11735 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
11736 Debian Squeeze.</p>
11737
11738 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
11739 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
11740 trick:</p>
11741
11742 <blockquote><pre>
11743 #!/bin/sh
11744 set -ex
11745
11746 if [ "$1" ] ; then
11747     desktop=$1
11748 else
11749     desktop=gnome
11750 fi
11751
11752 from=lenny
11753 to=squeeze
11754
11755 exec &lt; /dev/null
11756 unset LANG
11757 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
11758 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
11759 fuser -mv .
11760 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
11761 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11762 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
11763 #!/bin/sh
11764 exit 101
11765 EOF
11766 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
11767 exit_cleanup() {
11768     umount $tmpdir/proc
11769 }
11770 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
11771 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
11772 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
11773
11774 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
11775
11776 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
11777 # to return the correct answers.
11778 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
11779     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
11780
11781 # Include the desktop and laptop task
11782 for test in desktop laptop ; do
11783     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
11784 #!/bin/sh
11785 exit 2
11786 EOF
11787     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
11788 done
11789
11790 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11791 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
11792 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
11793 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
11794
11795 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
11796 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11797 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11798 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
11799 fuser -mv
11800 </pre></blockquote>
11801
11802 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
11803 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
11804 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
11805 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
11806 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
11807 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
11808
11809 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
11810 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
11811 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
11812 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
11813 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
11814 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
11815 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
11816
11817 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
11818 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
11819 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
11820 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
11821 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
11822 packages.</p>
11823
11824       </div>
11825       <div class="tags">
11826
11827
11828         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>.
11829
11830
11831       </div>
11832     </div>
11833     <div class="padding"></div>
11834
11835     <div class="entry">
11836       <div class="title">
11837         <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>
11838       </div>
11839       <div class="date">
11840          6th June 2010
11841       </div>
11842       <div class="body">
11843         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
11844 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
11845 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
11846 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
11847 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
11848 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
11849 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
11850
11851 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
11852 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
11853 COLUMNS):</p>
11854
11855 <blockquote><pre>
11856 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
11857 previous=N
11858 PREVLEVEL=
11859 RUNLEVEL=
11860 runlevel=S
11861 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
11862 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
11863 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
11864 </pre></blockquote>
11865
11866 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
11867 script.</p>
11868
11869 <blockquote><pre>
11870 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
11871 previous=N
11872 PREVLEVEL=N
11873 RUNLEVEL=S
11874 runlevel=S
11875 </pre></blockquote>
11876
11877 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
11878 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
11879 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
11880
11881 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
11882 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
11883 choice.</p>
11884
11885       </div>
11886       <div class="tags">
11887
11888
11889         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>.
11890
11891
11892       </div>
11893     </div>
11894     <div class="padding"></div>
11895
11896     <div class="entry">
11897       <div class="title">
11898         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
11899       </div>
11900       <div class="date">
11901          6th June 2010
11902       </div>
11903       <div class="body">
11904         <p>Via the
11905 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
11906 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
11907 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
11908 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
11909 following the standards wars of today.</p>
11910
11911       </div>
11912       <div class="tags">
11913
11914
11915         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>.
11916
11917
11918       </div>
11919     </div>
11920     <div class="padding"></div>
11921
11922     <div class="entry">
11923       <div class="title">
11924         <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>
11925       </div>
11926       <div class="date">
11927          3rd June 2010
11928       </div>
11929       <div class="body">
11930         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
11931 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
11932 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
11933 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
11934 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
11935
11936 <blockquote><pre>
11937 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
11938   vendor                    count
11939   Dell Computer Corporation     1
11940     PowerEdge 1750              1
11941   IBM                           1
11942     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
11943   Intel                         2
11944   [no-dmi-info]                 3
11945 maintainer:~#
11946 </pre></blockquote>
11947
11948 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
11949 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
11950 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
11951 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
11952 option to list the individual machines.</p>
11953
11954 <p>A larger list is
11955 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
11956 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
11957 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
11958 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
11959 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
11960 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
11961 collector.</p>
11962
11963       </div>
11964       <div class="tags">
11965
11966
11967         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>.
11968
11969
11970       </div>
11971     </div>
11972     <div class="padding"></div>
11973
11974     <div class="entry">
11975       <div class="title">
11976         <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>
11977       </div>
11978       <div class="date">
11979          1st June 2010
11980       </div>
11981       <div class="body">
11982         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
11983 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
11984 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
11985 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
11986 wait.</p>
11987
11988 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
11989 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
11990 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
11991 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
11992 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
11993 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
11994
11995 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
11996 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
11997 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
11998 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
11999 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
12000 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
12001 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
12002 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
12003
12004 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
12005
12006       </div>
12007       <div class="tags">
12008
12009
12010         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>.
12011
12012
12013       </div>
12014     </div>
12015     <div class="padding"></div>
12016
12017     <div class="entry">
12018       <div class="title">
12019         <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>
12020       </div>
12021       <div class="date">
12022         27th May 2010
12023       </div>
12024       <div class="body">
12025         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
12026 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
12027 issues are known and should be solved:
12028
12029 <p><ul>
12030
12031 <li>The wicd package seen to
12032 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
12033 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
12034 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
12035 seem to be on the case.</li>
12036
12037 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
12038 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
12039 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
12040 maintainer is on the case.</li>
12041
12042 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
12043 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
12044 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
12045 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
12046 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
12047 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
12048 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
12049 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
12050
12051 </ul></p>
12052
12053 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
12054 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
12055 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
12056 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
12057
12058 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12059 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12060 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12061 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
12062
12063 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
12064
12065       </div>
12066       <div class="tags">
12067
12068
12069         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>.
12070
12071
12072       </div>
12073     </div>
12074     <div class="padding"></div>
12075
12076     <div class="entry">
12077       <div class="title">
12078         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
12079       </div>
12080       <div class="date">
12081         22nd May 2010
12082       </div>
12083       <div class="body">
12084         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
12085 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
12086 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
12087 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
12088
12089 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
12090 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
12091 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
12092 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
12093 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
12094 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
12095 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
12096 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
12097 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
12098 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
12099 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
12100 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
12101 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
12102 going to work.</p>
12103
12104 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
12105 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
12106 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
12107 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
12108 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
12109 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
12110 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
12111 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
12112 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
12113 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
12114 Edu.</p>
12115
12116 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
12117 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
12118 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
12119 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
12120 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
12121 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
12122
12123 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
12124 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
12125
12126       </div>
12127       <div class="tags">
12128
12129
12130         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>.
12131
12132
12133       </div>
12134     </div>
12135     <div class="padding"></div>
12136
12137     <div class="entry">
12138       <div class="title">
12139         <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>
12140       </div>
12141       <div class="date">
12142         14th May 2010
12143       </div>
12144       <div class="body">
12145         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
12146 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
12147 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
12148 expected, if I am to believe the
12149 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
12150 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
12151 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
12152 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
12153 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
12154 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
12155 version.</p>
12156
12157 More information about
12158 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
12159 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
12160 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
12161 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
12162
12163 <blockquote><pre>
12164 CONCURRENCY=none
12165 </pre></blockquote>
12166
12167 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12168 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12169 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12170 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
12171
12172       </div>
12173       <div class="tags">
12174
12175
12176         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>.
12177
12178
12179       </div>
12180     </div>
12181     <div class="padding"></div>
12182
12183     <div class="entry">
12184       <div class="title">
12185         <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>
12186       </div>
12187       <div class="date">
12188         14th May 2010
12189       </div>
12190       <div class="body">
12191         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
12192 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
12193 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
12194 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
12195 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
12196 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
12197 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
12198 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
12199
12200 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
12201 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
12202 this on the collector host:</p>
12203
12204 <blockquote><pre>
12205 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
12206 </pre></blockquote>
12207
12208 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
12209 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
12210
12211 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
12212 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
12213 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
12214 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
12215 written yet.</p>
12216
12217       </div>
12218       <div class="tags">
12219
12220
12221         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>.
12222
12223
12224       </div>
12225     </div>
12226     <div class="padding"></div>
12227
12228     <div class="entry">
12229       <div class="title">
12230         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
12231       </div>
12232       <div class="date">
12233         13th May 2010
12234       </div>
12235       <div class="body">
12236         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
12237 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
12238 has been
12239 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
12240
12241 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
12242 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
12243 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
12244 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
12245 based boot system.  Tollef is
12246 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
12247 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
12248 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
12249 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
12250 at the moment do not.</p>
12251
12252 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
12253 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
12254 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
12255 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
12256 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
12257 way forward.</p>
12258
12259 <p>In the mean time, based on the
12260 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
12261 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
12262 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
12263 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
12264 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
12265 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
12266 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
12267 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
12268
12269       </div>
12270       <div class="tags">
12271
12272
12273         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>.
12274
12275
12276       </div>
12277     </div>
12278     <div class="padding"></div>
12279
12280     <div class="entry">
12281       <div class="title">
12282         <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>
12283       </div>
12284       <div class="date">
12285          6th May 2010
12286       </div>
12287       <div class="body">
12288         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
12289 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
12290 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
12291 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
12292 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
12293 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
12294 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
12295
12296 <blockquote><pre>
12297 CONCURRENCY=makefile
12298 </pre></blockquote>
12299
12300 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
12301 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
12302 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
12303 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
12304 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
12305 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
12306 make this happen.</p>
12307
12308 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
12309 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
12310 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
12311 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
12312 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
12313
12314 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
12315 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
12316 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
12317 fix the remaining issues.</p>
12318
12319 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12320 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12321 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12322 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
12323
12324       </div>
12325       <div class="tags">
12326
12327
12328         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>.
12329
12330
12331       </div>
12332     </div>
12333     <div class="padding"></div>
12334
12335     <div class="entry">
12336       <div class="title">
12337         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
12338       </div>
12339       <div class="date">
12340         27th July 2009
12341       </div>
12342       <div class="body">
12343         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
12344 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
12345 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
12346 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
12347 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
12348 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
12349 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
12350
12351 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
12352 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
12353 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
12354
12355       </div>
12356       <div class="tags">
12357
12358
12359         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>.
12360
12361
12362       </div>
12363     </div>
12364     <div class="padding"></div>
12365
12366     <div class="entry">
12367       <div class="title">
12368         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
12369       </div>
12370       <div class="date">
12371         22nd July 2009
12372       </div>
12373       <div class="body">
12374         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
12375 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
12376 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
12377 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
12378 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
12379 the package up to date.</p>
12380
12381 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
12382 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
12383 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
12384 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
12385 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
12386 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
12387 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
12388 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
12389 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
12390 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
12391 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
12392 working on the future release.</p>
12393
12394 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
12395 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
12396
12397       </div>
12398       <div class="tags">
12399
12400
12401         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>.
12402
12403
12404       </div>
12405     </div>
12406     <div class="padding"></div>
12407
12408     <div class="entry">
12409       <div class="title">
12410         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
12411       </div>
12412       <div class="date">
12413         24th June 2009
12414       </div>
12415       <div class="body">
12416         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
12417 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
12418 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
12419 funded
12420 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
12421 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
12422 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
12423 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
12424 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
12425 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
12426
12427 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
12428 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
12429 boot:</p>
12430
12431 <ul>
12432
12433 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
12434
12435 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
12436    clock is in UTC.</li>
12437
12438 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
12439    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
12440    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
12441
12442 </ul>
12443
12444 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
12445 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
12446 Villegas</a>.
12447
12448 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
12449 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
12450 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
12451 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
12452 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
12453 using this.</p>
12454
12455 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
12456 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
12457 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
12458 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
12459 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
12460 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
12461 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
12462
12463       </div>
12464       <div class="tags">
12465
12466
12467         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>.
12468
12469
12470       </div>
12471     </div>
12472     <div class="padding"></div>
12473
12474     <div class="entry">
12475       <div class="title">
12476         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
12477       </div>
12478       <div class="date">
12479         17th May 2009
12480       </div>
12481       <div class="body">
12482         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
12483 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
12484 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
12485 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
12486 dager siden kom
12487 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
12488 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
12489 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
12490 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
12491 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
12492
12493 <blockquote>
12494 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
12495 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
12496 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
12497 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
12498 </blockquote>
12499
12500 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
12501 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
12502 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
12503 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
12504 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
12505
12506 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
12507 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
12508 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
12509
12510       </div>
12511       <div class="tags">
12512
12513
12514         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>.
12515
12516
12517       </div>
12518     </div>
12519     <div class="padding"></div>
12520
12521     <div class="entry">
12522       <div class="title">
12523         <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>
12524       </div>
12525       <div class="date">
12526          7th May 2009
12527       </div>
12528       <div class="body">
12529         <p>Kom over
12530 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
12531 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
12532 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
12533 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
12534 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
12535 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
12536 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
12537
12538       </div>
12539       <div class="tags">
12540
12541
12542         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>.
12543
12544
12545       </div>
12546     </div>
12547     <div class="padding"></div>
12548
12549     <div class="entry">
12550       <div class="title">
12551         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
12552       </div>
12553       <div class="date">
12554          2nd May 2009
12555       </div>
12556       <div class="body">
12557         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
12558 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
12559 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
12560 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
12561 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
12562 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
12563 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
12564 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
12565 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
12566 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
12567 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
12568 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
12569 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
12570 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
12571 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
12572 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
12573 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
12574 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
12575 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
12576 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
12577
12578 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
12579 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
12580 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
12581 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
12582 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
12583 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
12584 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
12585 betydelige.</p>
12586
12587       </div>
12588       <div class="tags">
12589
12590
12591         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>.
12592
12593
12594       </div>
12595     </div>
12596     <div class="padding"></div>
12597
12598     <div class="entry">
12599       <div class="title">
12600         <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>
12601       </div>
12602       <div class="date">
12603          2nd May 2009
12604       </div>
12605       <div class="body">
12606         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
12607 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
12608 do not yet know them.</p>
12609
12610 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
12611 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
12612 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
12613 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
12614 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
12615 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
12616 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
12617 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
12618 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
12619 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
12620 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
12621
12622 <p>The second one is
12623 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
12624 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
12625 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
12626 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
12627 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
12628 and the company behind it is running
12629 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
12630 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
12631 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
12632 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
12633 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
12634 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
12635 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
12636 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
12637
12638 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
12639 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
12640 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
12641 surrounded by today.</p>
12642
12643       </div>
12644       <div class="tags">
12645
12646
12647         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>.
12648
12649
12650       </div>
12651     </div>
12652     <div class="padding"></div>
12653
12654     <div class="entry">
12655       <div class="title">
12656         <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>
12657       </div>
12658       <div class="date">
12659         28th April 2009
12660       </div>
12661       <div class="body">
12662         <p>Julien Blache
12663 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
12664 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
12665 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
12666 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
12667 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
12668 properties.</p>
12669
12670       </div>
12671       <div class="tags">
12672
12673
12674         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>.
12675
12676
12677       </div>
12678     </div>
12679     <div class="padding"></div>
12680
12681     <div class="entry">
12682       <div class="title">
12683         <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>
12684       </div>
12685       <div class="date">
12686         30th March 2009
12687       </div>
12688       <div class="body">
12689         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
12690 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
12691 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
12692 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
12693 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
12694 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
12695 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
12696 application.</p>
12697
12698 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
12699 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
12700 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
12701 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
12702 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
12703 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
12704 blocked from doing so.</p>
12705
12706 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
12707 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
12708 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
12709 requirements change.</p>
12710
12711 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
12712 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
12713 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
12714
12715       </div>
12716       <div class="tags">
12717
12718
12719         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>.
12720
12721
12722       </div>
12723     </div>
12724     <div class="padding"></div>
12725
12726     <div class="entry">
12727       <div class="title">
12728         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
12729       </div>
12730       <div class="date">
12731         29th March 2009
12732       </div>
12733       <div class="body">
12734         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
12735 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
12736 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
12737 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
12738 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
12739 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
12740 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
12741 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
12742 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
12743 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
12744 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
12745 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
12746 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
12747 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
12748 now. :)</p>
12749
12750       </div>
12751       <div class="tags">
12752
12753
12754         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>.
12755
12756
12757       </div>
12758     </div>
12759     <div class="padding"></div>
12760
12761     <div class="entry">
12762       <div class="title">
12763         <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>
12764       </div>
12765       <div class="date">
12766         29th March 2009
12767       </div>
12768       <div class="body">
12769         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
12770 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
12771 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
12772 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
12773 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
12774 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
12775
12776 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
12777 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
12778 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
12779 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
12780 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
12781 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
12782 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
12783 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
12784 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
12785 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
12786 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
12787 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
12788 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
12789
12790 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
12791 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
12792 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
12793 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
12794
12795 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
12796 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
12797
12798 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
12799 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
12800 new IETF work group?</p>
12801
12802       </div>
12803       <div class="tags">
12804
12805
12806         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>.
12807
12808
12809       </div>
12810     </div>
12811     <div class="padding"></div>
12812
12813     <div class="entry">
12814       <div class="title">
12815         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
12816       </div>
12817       <div class="date">
12818         15th February 2009
12819       </div>
12820       <div class="body">
12821         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
12822 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
12823 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
12824 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
12825 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
12826 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
12827 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
12828 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
12829 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
12830 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
12831 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
12832 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
12833
12834       </div>
12835       <div class="tags">
12836
12837
12838         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>.
12839
12840
12841       </div>
12842     </div>
12843     <div class="padding"></div>
12844
12845     <div class="entry">
12846       <div class="title">
12847         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
12848       </div>
12849       <div class="date">
12850          7th December 2008
12851       </div>
12852       <div class="body">
12853         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
12854 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
12855 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
12856 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
12857 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
12858 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
12859 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
12860 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
12861
12862 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
12863 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
12864 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
12865 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
12866 of these cards.</p>
12867
12868       </div>
12869       <div class="tags">
12870
12871
12872         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
12873
12874
12875       </div>
12876     </div>
12877     <div class="padding"></div>
12878
12879     <div class="entry">
12880       <div class="title">
12881         <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>
12882       </div>
12883       <div class="date">
12884         25th November 2008
12885       </div>
12886       <div class="body">
12887         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
12888 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
12889 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
12890 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
12891 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
12892 notes are available on
12893 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
12894 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
12895 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
12896 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
12897 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
12898 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
12899 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
12900 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
12901 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
12902
12903 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12904 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
12905
12906       </div>
12907       <div class="tags">
12908
12909
12910         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>.
12911
12912
12913       </div>
12914     </div>
12915     <div class="padding"></div>
12916
12917     <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>
12918     <div id="sidebar">
12919
12920
12921
12922 <h2>Archive</h2>
12923 <ul>
12924
12925 <li>2018
12926 <ul>
12927
12928 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/01/">January (1)</a></li>
12929
12930 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/02/">February (5)</a></li>
12931
12932 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/03/">March (5)</a></li>
12933
12934 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/04/">April (3)</a></li>
12935
12936 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12937
12938 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/07/">July (1)</a></li>
12939
12940 </ul></li>
12941
12942 <li>2017
12943 <ul>
12944
12945 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
12946
12947 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
12948
12949 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
12950
12951 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
12952
12953 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
12954
12955 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
12956
12957 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
12958
12959 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
12960
12961 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
12962
12963 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12964
12965 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/12/">December (4)</a></li>
12966
12967 </ul></li>
12968
12969 <li>2016
12970 <ul>
12971
12972 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
12973
12974 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
12975
12976 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12977
12978 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
12979
12980 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
12981
12982 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12983
12984 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12985
12986 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
12987
12988 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12989
12990 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
12991
12992 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
12993
12994 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12995
12996 </ul></li>
12997
12998 <li>2015
12999 <ul>
13000
13001 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
13002
13003 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
13004
13005 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
13006
13007 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
13008
13009 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
13010
13011 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
13012
13013 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
13014
13015 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
13016
13017 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
13018
13019 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
13020
13021 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
13022
13023 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
13024
13025 </ul></li>
13026
13027 <li>2014
13028 <ul>
13029
13030 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
13031
13032 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
13033
13034 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
13035
13036 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
13037
13038 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
13039
13040 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
13041
13042 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
13043
13044 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
13045
13046 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
13047
13048 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
13049
13050 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
13051
13052 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
13053
13054 </ul></li>
13055
13056 <li>2013
13057 <ul>
13058
13059 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
13060
13061 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
13062
13063 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
13064
13065 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
13066
13067 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
13068
13069 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
13070
13071 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
13072
13073 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
13074
13075 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
13076
13077 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
13078
13079 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
13080
13081 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
13082
13083 </ul></li>
13084
13085 <li>2012
13086 <ul>
13087
13088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
13089
13090 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
13091
13092 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
13093
13094 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
13095
13096 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
13097
13098 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
13099
13100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
13101
13102 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
13103
13104 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
13105
13106 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
13107
13108 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
13109
13110 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
13111
13112 </ul></li>
13113
13114 <li>2011
13115 <ul>
13116
13117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
13118
13119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
13120
13121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
13122
13123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
13124
13125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
13126
13127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
13128
13129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
13130
13131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
13132
13133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
13134
13135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
13136
13137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
13138
13139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
13140
13141 </ul></li>
13142
13143 <li>2010
13144 <ul>
13145
13146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
13147
13148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
13149
13150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
13151
13152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
13153
13154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
13155
13156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
13157
13158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
13159
13160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
13161
13162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
13163
13164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
13165
13166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
13167
13168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
13169
13170 </ul></li>
13171
13172 <li>2009
13173 <ul>
13174
13175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
13176
13177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
13178
13179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
13180
13181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
13182
13183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
13184
13185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
13186
13187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
13188
13189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
13190
13191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
13192
13193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
13194
13195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
13196
13197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
13198
13199 </ul></li>
13200
13201 <li>2008
13202 <ul>
13203
13204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
13205
13206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
13207
13208 </ul></li>
13209
13210 </ul>
13211
13212
13213
13214 <h2>Tags</h2>
13215 <ul>
13216
13217  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (16)</a></li>
13218
13219  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
13220
13221  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
13222
13223  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
13224
13225  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
13226
13227  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (17)</a></li>
13228
13229  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
13230
13231  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
13232
13233  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (157)</a></li>
13234
13235  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
13236
13237  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (4)</a></li>
13238
13239  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
13240
13241  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (17)</a></li>
13242
13243  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (25)</a></li>
13244
13245  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
13246
13247  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (375)</a></li>
13248
13249  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
13250
13251  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (13)</a></li>
13252
13253  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (32)</a></li>
13254
13255  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
13256
13257  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
13258
13259  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
13260
13261  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
13262
13263  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
13264
13265  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
13266
13267  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
13268
13269  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (4)</a></li>
13270
13271  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
13272
13273  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
13274
13275  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
13276
13277  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
13278
13279  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (41)</a></li>
13280
13281  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (10)</a></li>
13282
13283  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (299)</a></li>
13284
13285  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (190)</a></li>
13286
13287  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (33)</a></li>
13288
13289  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
13290
13291  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (71)</a></li>
13292
13293  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (107)</a></li>
13294
13295  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (2)</a></li>
13296
13297  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
13298
13299  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
13300
13301  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
13302
13303  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
13304
13305  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
13306
13307  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (6)</a></li>
13308
13309  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
13310
13311  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (54)</a></li>
13312
13313  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
13314
13315  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
13316
13317  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (55)</a></li>
13318
13319  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (6)</a></li>
13320
13321  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (12)</a></li>
13322
13323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (55)</a></li>
13324
13325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (4)</a></li>
13326
13327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
13328
13329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
13330
13331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/verkidetfri">verkidetfri (11)</a></li>
13332
13333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (64)</a></li>
13334
13335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
13336
13337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (41)</a></li>
13338
13339 </ul>
13340
13341
13342     </div>
13343     <p style="text-align: right">
13344  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
13345 </p>
13346
13347   </body>
13348 </html>