- <title>How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Thu, 4 Aug 2011 12:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><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>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Germany is a core area for the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
+Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
+Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
+"<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
+Dortmund</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
+the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
+examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
+second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
+or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
+
+<p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
+blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
+information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
+teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
+school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
+the end of April this year.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
+attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
+Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
+using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
+2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
+clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
+reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
+Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
+two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
+known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
+Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
+better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
+clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
+was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
+and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
+the admin teachers.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
+Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
+So it was a perfect choice.</p>
+
+<p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
+possible to point teachers and students to programs like
+OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
+high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
+a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Nothing yet.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
+Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
+Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
+LibreOffice.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
+that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
+interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>