<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 3 Jul 2013 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today. This is the release announcement:</p>
+
+<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
+2013-07-03</strong></p>
+
+<p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
+
+<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
+out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
+network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
+services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
+and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
+environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
+the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
+installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
+database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
+directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
+desktop contains
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
+than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
+this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
+Squeeze release.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
+ <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
+ submenu. It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
+ brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
+ <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
+ they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
+ menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
+ <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
+ multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
+ X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
+ too.</li>
+ <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
+ are too few to make the package useful.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
+ <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
+ <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
+ up for some language options.</li>
+ <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
+ <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
+ <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
+ d-i is doing it.</li>
+ <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
+ debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
+ <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
+ script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
+ Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
+ <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
+ installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
+ <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
+ <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
+ and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
+ <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
+ work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
+ available yet (698840).</li>
+ <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
+ <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
+ <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
+
+<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
+perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
+working. One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
+needed to get the hardware on my computer working. Most often this
+affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
+controller or the ethernet card. Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
+including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
+process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
+they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
+debian packages. Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
+info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
+info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
+info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
+info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
+info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
+firmware-ipw2x00
+firmware-ipw2x00
+Preconfiguring packages ...
+Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
+(Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
+Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
+Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
+#
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
+printed instead:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
+info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules. exiting
+#
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
+me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
+
+<p>So, how does it work? It look at the set of currently loaded
+kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
+the firmware files listed in the module meta-information. Next, it
+download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
+the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
+requested firmware file. If the package is in the non-free section, a
+non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
+<tt>apt-get install</tt>. The end result is a slightly better working
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
+this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
+finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
+#655507</a>. There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
+firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
+from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>The value of a good distro wide test suite...</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 22 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
+which check that services are running, working, and return the
+expected results. It runs automatically just after the first boot on
+test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
+installations (using non-test ISOs). It test that the LDAP service is
+operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
+online resizable, etc, etc. And it check that the PXE service is
+configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
+
+<p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
+Edu Wheezy release. These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
+complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
+happen all the needed packages need to be on them. Thanks to our test
+suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
+cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
+When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
+using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
+working packages to get it working. And ad the packages changed name
+from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
+debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
+packages during installation. Without our test suite, I suspect we
+would never have discovered this before release. Now it is fixed
+right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
+
+<p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
+administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
+test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
+any errors are detected. This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
+the problem.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
+please join us on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
+irc.debian.org</a> and the
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
+list.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
+globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
+#debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
+worked. We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
+help us with translations. And today I managed to get an interview
+with him, to learn more about him.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
+which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
+party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
+friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
+country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
+community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
+began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
+constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
+field.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
+provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
+activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
+of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
+software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
+the only one we have in our country.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
+even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
+it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
+educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
+love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
+technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
+ways to contribute.</p>
+
+<p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
+configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
+haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
+areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
+software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
+one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
+environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
+for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
+from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
+have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
+maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
+took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
+Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
+time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
+with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
+out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
+it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
+availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
+scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
+only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
+lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
+project.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
+disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
+project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
+a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story. I'd like to see
+Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
+ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
+lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
+opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
+to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
+
+<p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
+with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
+to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
+on.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
+daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
+am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
+Enlightenment project a lot!),
+<a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
+use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
+<a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
+get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
+stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
+now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
+that:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
+
+<li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
+ experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
+ of teenagers more?</li>
+
+<li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
+ be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
+ other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
+ them!)</li>
+
+<li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
+ lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
+ person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
+example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
+it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
+people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
+very hard to convert against their will.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>There is a certain cross-over between the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
+project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
+effort between the projects. One person with a foot in both camps is
+Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
+days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
+getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
+
+<p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
+opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
+each other.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
+first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
+[Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
+London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
+Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
+it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
+was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
+day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
+over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
+been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
+still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
+we'll get there one day.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
+it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
+that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
+very high quality work.</p>
+
+<p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
+set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
+with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
+helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
+community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
+separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
+what I originally rambled on about)</p>
+
+<p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
+project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
+think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
+content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
+on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
+years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
+concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
+more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
+myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
+currently.</p>
+
+<p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
+for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
+their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
+educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
+have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
+much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
+autonomous.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
+Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
+some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
+particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
+so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
+
+<p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
+git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
+which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
+while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
+Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
+it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
+up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
+X.</p>
+
+<p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
+using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
+people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
+it :p)
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
+many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
+don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
+that.</p>
+
+<p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
+problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
+advantage of that.</p>
+
+<p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
+some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
+Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
+general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
+Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
+that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
+best solution for them.</p>
+
+<p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
+educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
+make a decision that would work for them.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
+the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
+or on first boot from the hard disk. I've seen it once in a while the
+last few years, but only recently understood the cause. I've seen it
+on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
+The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops. The system to
+control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
+turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead. I do
+not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
+i915 driver used by the
+<a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
+EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
+
+<p>The problem can be worked around two ways. Either by adding
+i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
+/etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
+option when it load the i915 kernel module. On Debian and Ubuntu, it
+can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
+
+<pre>
+echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
+update-initramfs -u -k all
+</pre>
+
+<p>Since March 2012 there is
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
+mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
+hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
+brightness setting automatically. To use it, one need to add a row in
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
+intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
+<tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
+number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
+number.</p>
+
+<p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
+-vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
+ 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
+ (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
+ Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
+ Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
+ ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
+ <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
+ Latency: 0
+ Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
+ Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
+ Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
+ Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
+ Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
+ Capabilities: <access denied>
+ Kernel driver in use: i915
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
+ ...
+ /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
+ { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
+ ...
+}
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
+<tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
+invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
+(at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
+developers. But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
+yet shown up in
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
+web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
+emails from non-subscribers. Because of this, I sent my patch also to
+the Debian bug tracking system instead as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
+sure the patch is not lost.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
+with this problem working properly with Linux. If you use Gnome, your
+worries should be over at this point. But if you use KDE, there is
+something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
+the screen during login. I've reported it to Debian as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
+have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
+this. Perhaps you can help? Perhaps you know what the Gnome
+developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
+developers? Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
+during login? If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
+you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
</ul>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Educational applications included in Debian Edu / Skolelinux (the screenshot collection :-)</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 1 Jun 2013 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
-Skolelinux</a>, there are quite a lot of educational software.
-Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn. We have tried to
-tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
-the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
-educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
-debtag field. Here it is. Click on a image to learn more about the
-program.</p>
-
-<!-- for f in $(debtags tagcat|grep field::|awk '{print $2}'); do echo; echo "<p><strong>$f</strong></p>"; echo "<p>"; ( for p in $(debtags search --names "use::learning && interface::x11 && role::program && $f"); do img="<img src='http://screenshots.debian.net/thumbnail/$p' alt='$p'>"; if dpkg -s $p > /dev/null 2>&1; then echo "<a href='http://packages.qa.debian.org/$p'>$img</a>"; fi; done; ) | LANG=C sort; echo "</p>"; done -->
-
-<p><strong>field::arts</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=audacity'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/audacity.png' alt='audacity'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=denemo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/denemo.png' alt='denemo'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=freebirth'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/freebirth.png' alt='freebirth'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gimp'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gimp.png' alt='gimp'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=hydrogen'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/hydrogen.png' alt='hydrogen'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lilypond'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lilypond.png' alt='lilypond'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lmms'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lmms.png' alt='lmms'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rosegarden'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rosegarden.png' alt='rosegarden'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scribus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scribus.png' alt='scribus'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=solfege'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/solfege.png' alt='solfege'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stopmotion'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stopmotion.png' alt='stopmotion'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxpaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxpaint.png' alt='tuxpaint'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::astronomy</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=celestia-gnome'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/celestia-gnome.png' alt='celestia-gnome'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpredict'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gpredict.png' alt='gpredict'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kstars'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kstars.png' alt='kstars'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=planets'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/planets.png' alt='planets'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stellarium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stellarium.png' alt='stellarium'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::biology:structural</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::chemistry</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=atomix'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/atomix.png' alt='atomix'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=chemtool'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/chemtool.png' alt='chemtool'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=easychem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/easychem.png' alt='easychem'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gchempaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gchempaint.png' alt='gchempaint'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gdis'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gdis.png' alt='gdis'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ghemical'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ghemical.png' alt='ghemical'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gperiodic'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gperiodic.png' alt='gperiodic'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalzium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalzium.png' alt='kalzium'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=viewmol'>[viewmol]</a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xdrawchem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xdrawchem.png' alt='xdrawchem'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::electronics</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpsim'>[gpsim]</a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::geography</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kgeography'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kgeography.png' alt='kgeography'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=marble'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/marble.png' alt='marble'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::linguistics</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kanagram'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kanagram.png' alt='kanagram'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=khangman'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/khangman.png' alt='khangman'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=klettres'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/klettres.png' alt='klettres'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=parley'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/parley.png' alt='parley'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::mathematics</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=drgeo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/drgeo.png' alt='drgeo'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geogebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/geogebra.png' alt='geogebra'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geomview'>[geomview]</a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=grace'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/grace.png' alt='grace'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphmonkey'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphmonkey.png' alt='graphmonkey'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphthing'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphthing.png' alt='graphthing'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalgebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalgebra.png' alt='kalgebra'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kbruch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kbruch.png' alt='kbruch'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kig'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kig.png' alt='kig'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kmplot'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kmplot.png' alt='kmplot'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=mathwar'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/mathwar.png' alt='mathwar'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rocs'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rocs.png' alt='rocs'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxmath'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxmath.png' alt='tuxmath'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xabacus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xabacus.png' alt='xabacus'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::physics</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=step'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/step.png' alt='step'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p><strong>field::TODO</strong></p>
-<p>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=blinken'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/blinken.png' alt='blinken'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=cgoban'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/cgoban.png' alt='cgoban'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnuchess'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnuchess.png' alt='gnuchess'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnugo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnugo.png' alt='gnugo'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gtans'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gtans.png' alt='gtans'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ktouch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ktouch.png' alt='ktouch'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=librecad'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/librecad.png' alt='librecad'></a>
-<a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
-</p>
-
-<p>In total, 61 applications. 3 of them lacked screen shots on
-<a href="http://screenshot.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a>. If
-you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
-know on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu
-on irc.debian.org</a>, or our
-<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">mailing list
-debian-edu@</a>.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2013 15:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Two days ago, I asked
-<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
-I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
-preinstalled with Windows 8</a>. I found a solution, but am horrified
-with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
-and Windows 8.</p>
-
-<p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
-secure booting or fast boot. I suspect fast boot was the problem,
-causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
-key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
-enough to tell.</p>
-
-<p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
-opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive! This is as far as I
-can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
-without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement. I am told (and
-found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
-firmware setup once booted into Windows 8. But as I believe the terms
-of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
-was never an alternative. I do not enter agreements I do not intend
-to follow.</p>
-
-<p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
-waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
-work. But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
-it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops. Is
-this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
-it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
-accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms? Or at least not
-without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
-
-<p>I've updated the
-<a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
-wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
-do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
-machine.</p>
-
-<p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
-Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 25 May 2013 18:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days. I bought three
-new laptops for my parents and a few others. I bought Packard Bell
-Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer. But I
-am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it. The
-computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
-instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
-
-<p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
-to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick. I have yet
-to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work. when I turn on
-the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
-the normal boot menu. I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
-USB stick booting. When booting, it first ask for the language to
-use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
-Windows 8 terms of use. As these terms are completely unacceptable to
-me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
-to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
-
-<p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
-<a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
-EasyNote LV</a> model. If you have any idea how to get Linux
-installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
-page. If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
-the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
-
-<p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
-using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
-on new Laptops?</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Nirosan Thiyagalingam</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Nirosan_Thiyagalingam.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Nirosan_Thiyagalingam.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 21:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>En ting
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux-prosjektet</a> har
-hatt mye glede av er studentprosjekter. F.eks. er
-<a href="http://linuxstopmotion.org/">stillbildeanimasjonssystemet
-Stopmotion</a> resultat av et studentprosjekt i Skolelinux. De siste
-månedene har en ivrig student veiledet av Marius Kotsbak i
-<a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/">FRiSK</a> testet hva en
-kan få til med en datamaskin til NOK 400,- (antagelig 1700,- med
-skjerm, tastatur og mus) når det brukes i Skolelinux. Jeg spurte han
-om et intervju.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Jeg heter Nirosan Thiyagalingam. Jeg er 24 år og studerer
-dataingeniør studiet ved Høgskolen i Sør Trøndelag. Interessen for
-data har siden ung alder vært tilstede og jeg har i tillegg alltid
-vært glad i å lære nye ting. Med teknologi som endres svært hurtig er
-det alltid noe nytt å lære. Noe som igjen har gjort det svært
-interessant å følge med på utviklingen. Jeg valgte dataingeniør
-studiet grunnet ønske om å lære enda mer om programmering og utvikling
-av store systemer.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Skolelinux prosjektet hørte jeg først om i media. Men det var først
-når jeg skulle velge bacheloroppgave at jeg fattet mer interesse for
-prosjektet. Et enkelt søk på nettet førte meg til skolelinux sine
-hjemmesider. Informasjonen jeg fant der gjorde meg enda nysgjerrig og
-jeg valgte derfor en oppgave som gikk ut på å få en
-<a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry PI</a>. Altså en
-ultra-billig datamaskin til å kjøre Debian Edu på lik linje med
-vanlige datamaskiner. I løpet av prosjektet ble det gjort mye
-forskning på nettet. Det var mye jeg måtte forstå rundt hvordan
-operativsystemet Linux fungerte før jeg kunne angripe
-problemet. Prøvde først å finne ut hvordan man kunne transformere en
-vanlig installasjon av Skolelinux til Raspberry PI, men dette var
-altfor vanskelig å jeg endte opp med mer spørsmål enn svar. Det ble
-videre opprettet kontakt med Skolelinux utviklere på IRC der jeg fikk
-diskutert hvilken retning jeg burde gå for å få til en fullverdig
-løsning. Det ble bestemt at jeg skulle gå for å først installere
-<a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspian</a>. Dette er et
-operativsystem basert på Debian spesiallaget for Raspberry Pi sin
-maskinvare. Nå som Debian var installert på datamaskinen gjenstod det
-å installere de nødvendige Skolelinux pakkene for å få til et
-fullverdig system. Disse pakkene ble installert manuelt i første
-omgang, men ble senere installert automatisk via et script som Petter
-Reinholdtsen laget. Dette scriptet er så enkel å bruke at man er i
-gang med installasjonen i løpet av bare 5 minutter. Ikke nok med det,
-alt skjer helt automatisk. Alt i alt er jeg veldig fornøyd med
-resultatet av installasjonsprosessen. Raspberry Pi er en veldig svak
-maskin og det merkes godt når man har installert Skolelinux på
-den. Video og 3D-rendering fungerer utrolig dårlig, men nettsurfing og
-kontorprogrammer fungerer godt. Det kan derfor konkluderes med at
-datamaskinen er egnet for enkle oppgaver.
-
-<p>Jeg syns det er viktig påpeke at dette kun er startfasen av en slik
-løsning. På markedet finnes det nå maskiner som har bedre hardware enn
-Raspberry Pi. Det er store muligheter for at man kan klare å
-installere Skolelinux på disse også, og da forsvinner nok mest
-sannsynlig ytelsesproblemene med Video og 3D rendering også.</p>
-
-<p>Det ble også prøvd med en løsning som gjorde at Raspberry Pi
-fungerte som en tynnklient. Denne løsningen hadde langt bedre ytelse
-med tanke på hastighet og brukeropplevelse. Men også her var video og
-3D rendering dårlig. Det ble brukt en liten Linux distribusjon kalt
-<a href="http://www.berryterminal.com/">BerryTerminal</a> for å få til
-dette.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Fordelen med Skolelinux er mange. At det er gratis er en stor
-fordel, men at det er så mange som er med på å utvikle det og
-vedlikeholde det er en enda større fordel. Allerede før jeg startet
-med prosjektet så jeg mange fordeler, og når jeg nærmet meg sluttfasen
-så jeg langt flere. At prosjektet skulle inneha en så høy kvalitet
-hadde jeg aldri trodd. En vanlig Skolelinux installasjon har de
-nødvendige programmene og funksjonen som både små og store skoler i
-tillegg til organisasjoner kan klare seg med. At prosjektet tilbyr en
-så komplett løsning er en kjempefordel. Installasjonen er knirkefri
-og det er svært enkelt å installere og komme i gang.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Ulempene jeg ser med prosjektet er ryddigheten av websidene. Selv
-om websidene er enkle og konsise er det allikevel ikke appellerende i
-like stor grad som for eksempel
-<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu</a> sine sider. Deres side
-tilbyr, i tillegg til godt design og presentasjon, en nettbasert
-emulator av deres operativsystem. Dette er en stor fordel slik jeg ser
-det. Bortsett fra dette ser jeg absolutt ingen ulemper med
-Skolelinux-prosjektet.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Til daglig er jeg en flittig bruker av det åpne media
-sentersystemet <a href="http://xbmc.org/">XBMC</a>. Det enorme
-samfunnet rundt dette prosjektet har gjort dette til et program som
-dekker alles behov. Man kan tilpasse det akkurat slik man vil både med
-tanke på utseende og funksjoner ved installere plug-ins eller
-scripts.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
-skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Strategien som burde brukes sett fra mine øyne er
-markedsføring. Jeg er sikker på at om flere skoler fikk et lite innsyn
-i hvor bra Skolelinux er så ville de ikke nølt med å gå over fra noe
-annet som koster de store summer. At skolelinux til de grader tilbyr
-en så komplett løsning bure komme frem. Enten via reklamekampanjer
-eller ved å sende ut folk til skoler for så å la skolenettverk
-ansvarlige få teste ut hvordan Skolelinux fungerer i praksis. Om det
-i tillegg ble utviklet gode websider og en emulator for å la brukere
-prøve operativsystemet ville nok dette ha styrket inntrykket
-betraktelig.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
-an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools. It
-contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
-pupils in the primary schools. It provide both the central server,
-network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
-educational software. The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
-2001-07-02. If you want to support the project, which is in need for
-cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
-<a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
-donate some money</a>.
-
-<p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
-lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
-Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation. It isn't very
-hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
-the Debian Edu installer.</p>
-
-<p>The script,
-<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/>
-in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
-transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
-into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
-
-<ol>
-
-<li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
-<li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
-<li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
- our configuration.</li>
-<li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
- /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
- according to the profile specified in the config above,
- overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
-<li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
- that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
-<li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
-
-</ol>
-
-<p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
-replicated like this. Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
-So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
-the needed packages.</p>
-
-<p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
-setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
-Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
-<a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage">Raspbian</a> installation and
-transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
-Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
-
-<p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
-If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
-PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
-
-<p><pre>
-PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
-DESKTOP="lxde"
-</pre></p>
-
-<p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
-the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
-virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
-boot.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Second alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
-project</a> is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
-release today. This is the release announcement:</p>
-
-<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
-2013-05-14</strong></p>
-
-<p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
-alpha1, based on <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> with
-codename "Wheezy".</p>
-
-<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
-
-<p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
-on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
-configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
-server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
-waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
-Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
-initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
-other machines can be installed via the network.</p>
-
-<p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
-not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
-version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
-<ul>
- <li>Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
- default.</li>
- <li>Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.</li>
- <li>Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.</li>
- <li>Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
- ibus-anthy.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
-<ul>
-
- <li>Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
- reliability improvements.</li>
- <li>Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
- of <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706434">706434</a>.</li>
- <li>Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
- problems.</li>
- <li>Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
- direct:// URL.</li>
- <li>Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.</li>
- <li>Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.</li>
- <li>Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.</li>
- <li>Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
- servers, to make room for all the software installed.</li>
- <li>Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
- log in (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706753">706753</a>).</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
-<ul>
-
- <li>IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
- (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/705900">705900</a>). Only install
- libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.</li>
- <li>DVD images are not yet ready.</li>
- <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
- available yet (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">698840</a>).</li>
- <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).</li>
- <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.</li>
- <li>LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
- (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.</li>
- <li>Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
- password submission problem
- (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">700257</a>).</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
-
-<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
-<ul>
-
- <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
- <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b</p>
-
-<p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c</p>
-
-<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
-
-<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
</description>
</item>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff