- <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>Større PC-tetthet i skolen med Skolelinux?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Den siste uka har det vært en del skriverier om hvor store
+forskjeller det er mellom skolene når det gjelder digital kompetanse.
+Et eksempel er
+<a href="http://www.digi.no/891660/bekymret-for-it-i-skolen">oppslaget
+i Digi</a>. Diskusjonen fikk meg til å bli litt nysgjerrig på om
+Linux-skoler har større PC-tettet enn snittet i landet. Grunnlaget
+for diskusjonen har vært undersøkelsen
+<a href="https://iktsenteret.no/ressurser/monitor-2011-skolens-digitale-tilstand">Monitor
+2011</a>, som bruker informasjon fra
+<a href="https://www.wis.no/gsi">Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem</a>
+(GSI). GSI-data kan lastes ned fra web og jeg lastet ned en Excel-fil
+(intet åpen standard-valg tilgjengelig) med navn på alle skoler,
+hvilke kommune de befinner seg i og hvor mange elever pr. elev-PC de
+har rapportert inn. For å få en ide om svaret trenger jeg deretter å
+vite hvilke skoler i landet som bruker Linux, slik at jeg kan slå dem
+opp i GSI og finne ut hvor stor PC-tetthet de har.</p>
+
+<p>Jeg vet om skoler i Balsfjord, Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik,
+Nittedal, Nord-Odal, Randaberg og Sunndal som bruker Skolelinux eller
+andre Linux-varianter. Jeg tror det er flere enn de 56 skolene jeg
+har klart å identifisere de siste dagene, men har ikke klart å få det
+bekreftet med offentlige kilder.</p>
+
+<p>Monitor 2011-rapporteres side 95 forteller at det "ifølge GSI
+(20120-2011) er det 3,11 elever per datamaskin når vi tar med alle
+grunnskoler (1.-10.trinn)". For de 56 Linux-skolene jeg har klart å
+koble mot informasjon i GSI er det 2,28 elever per elevdatamaskin,
+hvilket betyr at det er 36% høyere PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler enn
+landsgjennomsnittet. Linux-skolen med høyest tettet blant de jeg har
+notert -skole er Flora ungdomsskule i Flora kommune med 0.82 elev
+pr. PC (482 elever, 588 elevdatamaskiner).</p>
+
+<p>Skolelinux gir datamaskiner lengre levetid, og en kan dermed få
+flere operative datamaskiner for samme budsjett, i tillegg til en
+rekke andre fordeler. Kan det være forklaringen på forskjellen?</p>
+
+<p>Tallene må tas med en liten klype, da GSI ser ut til å ha endel
+feilføringer. Jeg synes i hvert fall en skole med 423 elever og 9
+elevmaskiner ser mistenkelig ut. Eller en skole med 346 elever, 0
+elevmaskiner, som er et annet ekstremt eksempel jeg fant.</p>
+
+<p>Takk til Sturle Sunde, Klaus Ade Johnstad, Ole-Anders Andreassen og
+Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
+users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
+Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
+long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
+Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
+author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
+contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
+encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
+years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
+weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
+installations.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
+London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
+just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
+along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
+mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
+well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
+have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
+LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
+these things we decided to try it.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
+from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
+goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
+would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
+low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
+that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
+Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
+proprietary software everywhere.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
+how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
+various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
+English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
+users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
+OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
+desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
+use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
+that counts...)</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
+and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
+the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
+applications". However, schools today are experiencing budget
+constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
+XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
+iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
+longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
+realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
+putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
+first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
+
+<p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
+free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>