- <div class="title"><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></div>
- <div class="date"> 4th August 2011</div>
- <div class="body"><p>Wouter Verhelst have some
-<a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
-comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
-need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
-default KDE desktop in Debian</a>. I only have time to address one
-small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
-misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
-single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
-this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
-and booting into runlevel 1 is the same. I am not surprised he
-believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
-thing to believe. But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
-runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
-mode. I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
-hard to explain.</p>
-
-<p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
-"<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>". This means the only thing that is
-executed in single user mode is sulogin. Single user mode is a boot
-state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
-only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
-enters the single user state. When switching to runlevel 1, the state
-is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
-and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
-runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
-1. It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
-mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
-mode).</p>
-
-<p>This summary might make it clearer. When booting for the first
-time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
-"<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>". When booting into
-runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
-S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>". A problem show up when
-trying to continue after visiting single user mode. Not all services
-are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
-unpredicatble state. This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
-after visiting single user mode.</p>
-
-<p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
-scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/. When switching from say runlevel 2
-to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
-stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
-started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
-2-5. I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
-out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
-functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
-
-<p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
-and discovered this problem a few years ago. I suspect it originates
-from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
+ <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a></div>
+ <div class="date"> 9th March 2012</div>
+ <div class="body"><p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
+interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
+interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+community. This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
+more international audience.</p>
+
+<p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
+Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away
+from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
+and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
+work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions,
+and am happy to share the response with you. :)
+
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
+and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
+Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
+teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
+Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
+I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
+primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
+so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
+also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
+to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
+appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
+server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
+samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
+Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
+did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
+and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
+there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
+problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
+previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
+Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
+downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
+Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
+my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
+workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
+ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
+designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
+doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
+school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
+Japan.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
+have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
+make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
+who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
+important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
+instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
+default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
+kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
+Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A
+second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
+customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
+multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
+took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
+I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
+help.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
+studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
+(customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
+still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
+house, that's very useful for the family photos and music. At school
+the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
+have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
+day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
+installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also
+have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
+and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
+and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
+popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
+to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
+file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago. The Edu aspect is
+also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
+Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is
+budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
+compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
+is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
+are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
+doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff