<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<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>
+ <title>Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 2 Nov 2013 22:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
+<a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
+init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
+init.d scripts at all. Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
+of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+#!/lib/init/init-d-script
+### BEGIN INIT INFO
+# Provides: rsyslog
+# Required-Start: $remote_fs $time
+# Required-Stop: umountnfs $time
+# X-Stop-After: sendsigs
+# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
+# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
+# Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
+# Description: Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
+# It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
+# used as a drop-in replacement.
+### END INIT INFO
+DESC="enhanced syslogd"
+DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
+script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
+info/comments.</p>
+
+<p>How to do this, you ask? Well, one create a new script
+/lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
+
+<p><pre>
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Define LSB log_* functions.
+# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
+# and status_of_proc is working.
+. /lib/lsb/init-functions
+
+#
+# Function that starts the daemon/service
+
+#
+do_start()
+{
+ # Return
+ # 0 if daemon has been started
+ # 1 if daemon was already running
+ # 2 if daemon could not be started
+ start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
+ || return 1
+ start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
+ $DAEMON_ARGS \
+ || return 2
+ # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
+ # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
+ # on this one. As a last resort, sleep for some time.
+}
+
+#
+# Function that stops the daemon/service
+#
+do_stop()
+{
+ # Return
+ # 0 if daemon has been stopped
+ # 1 if daemon was already stopped
+ # 2 if daemon could not be stopped
+ # other if a failure occurred
+ start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
+ RETVAL="$?"
+ [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
+ # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
+ # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
+ # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
+ # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
+ # needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to
+ # sleep for some time.
+ start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
+ [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
+ # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
+ rm -f $PIDFILE
+ return "$RETVAL"
+}
+
+#
+# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
+#
+do_reload() {
+ #
+ # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
+ # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
+ # then implement that here.
+ #
+ start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
+ return 0
+}
+
+SCRIPTNAME=$1
+scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
+echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
+if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
+ script="$1"
+ shift
+ . $script
+else
+ exit 0
+fi
+
+NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
+PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
+
+# Exit if the package is not installed
+#[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
+
+# Read configuration variable file if it is present
+[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
+
+# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
+. /lib/init/vars.sh
+
+case "$1" in
+ start)
+ [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
+ do_start
+ case "$?" in
+ 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
+ 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
+ esac
+ ;;
+ stop)
+ [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
+ do_stop
+ case "$?" in
+ 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
+ 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
+ esac
+ ;;
+ status)
+ status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
+ ;;
+ #reload|force-reload)
+ #
+ # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
+ # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
+ #
+ #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
+ #do_reload
+ #log_end_msg $?
+ #;;
+ restart|force-reload)
+ #
+ # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
+ # 'force-reload' alias
+ #
+ log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
+ do_stop
+ case "$?" in
+ 0|1)
+ do_start
+ case "$?" in
+ 0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
+ 1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
+ *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
+ esac
+ ;;
+ *)
+ # Failed to stop
+ log_end_msg 1
+ ;;
+ esac
+ ;;
+ *)
+ echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
+ exit 3
+ ;;
+esac
+
+:
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
+lot. I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
+work out of the box, but you get the idea. I did not try very hard to
+optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
+
+<p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
+the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
+get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
+robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially. The boot
+and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</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>
+ <title>Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 1 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
+remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
+Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
+that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
+missing in Debian. The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
+for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
+2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
+from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
+repository to get a package I could use. I would very much like
+others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
+mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
+NEW. I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
+
+<p>The source is now available from
+<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
</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>
+ <title>Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 27 Oct 2013 17:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
+program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images. It
+create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
+debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
+stick. Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
+<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
+of a plan to simplify the build system for
+<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
+project</a>. The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
+the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
+based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
+Raspberry Pi.</p>
+
+<p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
+architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
+code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
+Debian laptop. I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
+allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
+Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>. First, the
+<tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
+call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
+generated chroot before running the second stage. This allow
+vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host. Next I added
+two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
+fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
+given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
+partition for the /boot/ stuff. I also added a <tt>--variant
+variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
+Debian base system packages installed. Finally, I added an option
+<tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
+as a boot loader. It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
+most other non-x86 architectures. The changes were accepted by the
+upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
+available from
+<a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
+upstream project page</a>.</p>
+
+<p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
+create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
+binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
+list:</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
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e # Exit on first error
+rootdir="$1"
+cd "$rootdir"
+cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
+deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
+EOF
+# Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi. This
+# install a kernel somewhere too.
+wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
+ -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
+chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
+mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
+touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
+chroot $rootdir rpi-update
</pre></p>
-<p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
+<p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
+to build the image:</p>
-<p><pre>
-struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
- ...
- /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
- { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
- ...
-}
+<pre>
+sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
+ --variant minbase \
+ --arch armel \
+ --distribution jessie \
+ --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
+ --image test.img \
+ --size 600M \
+ --bootsize 64M \
+ --boottype vfat \
+ --log-level debug \
+ --verbose \
+ --no-kernel \
+ --no-extlinux \
+ --root-password raspberry \
+ --hostname raspberrypi \
+ --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
+ --customize `pwd`/customize \
+ --package netbase \
+ --package git-core \
+ --package binutils \
+ --package ca-certificates \
+ --package wget \
+ --package kmod
</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>
+<p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
+rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
+exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
+/etc/hosts with the minbase variant. I really wish there was a way to
+set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
+that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
+using a non-free binary blob.</p>
+
+<p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
+probably a few others installed. I have not checked the complete
+build dependency list.</p>
+
+<p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
+on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
+optimized for that use. So the images created will be a bit slower
+than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</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>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
-today. This is the release announcement:</p>
-
-<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
-2013-06-10</strong></p>
-
-<p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
-alpha2, 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 third 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>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
-<li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
-<li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
-<li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
-<li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
-
-</ul>
-
-<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
-<li>Updated translation of the installation.
-<li>New Romanian translation.
-<li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
-<li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
-<li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
-<li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
-<li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
-<li>More testsuite tests.
-<li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
-<li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
-
-<li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
-LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
-
-<li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
-them up with GOsa².</li>
-
-<li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
-
-<li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
-slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
-entered password). </li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
-
-<li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
-available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
-missing import feature).</li>
-
-<li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
-
-<li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
-own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
-unfixed.</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~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
-
-<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
-
-<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
-<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</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>
+ <title>Det er jo makta som er mest sårbar ved massiv overvåkning av Internett</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>De siste måneders eksponering av
+<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Her-er-Edvard-Snowdens-mest-omtalte-avsloringer-7351734.html">den
+totale overvåkningen som foregår i den vestlige verden dokumenterer
+hvor sårbare vi er</a>. Men det slår meg at de som er mest sårbare
+for dette, myndighetspersoner på alle nivåer, neppe har innsett at de
+selv er de mest interessante personene å lage profiler på, for å kunne
+påvirke dem.</p>
+
+<p>For å ta et lite eksempel: Stortingets nettsted,
+<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">www.stortinget.no</a> (og
+forsåvidt også
+<a href="http://data.stortinget.no/">data.stortinget.no</a>),
+inneholder informasjon om det som foregår på Stortinget, og jeg antar
+de største brukerne av informasjonen der er representanter og
+rådgivere på Stortinget. Intet overraskende med det. Det som derimot
+er mer skjult er at Stortingets nettsted bruker
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics">Google
+Analytics</a>, hvilket gjør at enhver som besøker nettsidene der også
+rapporterer om besøket via Internett-linjer som passerer Sverige,
+England og videre til USA. Det betyr at informasjon om ethvert besøk
+på stortingets nettsider kan snappes opp av svensk, britisk og USAs
+etterretningsvesen. De kan dermed holde et øye med hvilke
+Stortingssaker stortingsrepresentantene synes er interessante å sjekke
+ut, og hvilke sider rådgivere og andre på stortinget synes er
+interessant å besøke, når de gjør det og hvilke andre representanter
+som sjekker de samme sidene omtrent samtidig. Stortingets bruk av
+Google Analytics gjør det dermed enkelt for utenlands etteretning å
+spore representantenes aktivitet og interesse. Hvis noen av
+representantene bruker Google Mail eller noen andre tjenestene som
+krever innlogging, så vil det være enda enklere å finne ut nøyaktig
+hvilke personer som bruker hvilke nettlesere og dermed knytte
+informasjonen opp til enkeltpersoner på Stortinget.</p>
+
+<p>Og jo flere nettsteder som bruker Google Analytics, jo bedre
+oversikt over stortingsrepresentantenes lesevaner og interesse blir
+tilgjengelig for svensk, britisk og USAs etterretning. Hva de kan
+bruke den informasjonen til overlater jeg til leseren å undres
+over.</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Is there a PHP expert in the building? Debian Edu need help!</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Wed, 5 Jun 2013 17:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
-We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
-hope to get released soon. The two problems require some with PHP
-skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
-the project:
-
-<ol>
-
-<li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
- (slbackup-php) using the root user and password. This is
- <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
- This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
- Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
-
-<li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
- using ldif nor using CSV files. The feature was disabled after a
- major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
- This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
- #698840</a>.</li>
-
-</ol>
-
-<p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
-(<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
-irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
+ <title>A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The last few days I have been experimenting with
+<a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki">the
+batman-adv mesh technology</a>. I want to gain some experience to see
+if it will fit <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the
+Freedombox project</a>, and together with my neighbors try to build a
+mesh network around the park where I live. Batman-adv is a layer 2
+mesh system ("ethernet" in other words), where the mesh network appear
+as if all the mesh clients are connected to the same switch.</p>
+
+<p>My hardware of choice was the Linksys WRT54GL routers I had lying
+around, but I've been unable to get them working with batman-adv. So
+instead, I started playing with a
+<a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a>, and tried to
+get it working as a mesh node. My idea is to use it to create a mesh
+node which function as a switch port, where everything connected to
+the Raspberry Pi ethernet plug is connected (bridged) to the mesh
+network. This allow me to hook a wifi base station like the Linksys
+WRT54GL to the mesh by plugging it into a Raspberry Pi, and allow
+non-mesh clients to hook up to the mesh. This in turn is useful for
+Android phones using <a href="http://servalproject.org/">the Serval
+Project</a> voip client, allowing every one around the playground to
+phone and message each other for free. The reason is that Android
+phones do not see ad-hoc wifi networks (they are filtered away from
+the GUI view), and can not join the mesh without being rooted. But if
+they are connected using a normal wifi base station, they can talk to
+every client on the local network.</p>
+
+<p>To get this working, I've created a debian package
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node">meshfx-node</a>
+and a script
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/build-rpi-mesh-node">build-rpi-mesh-node</a>
+to create the Raspberry Pi boot image. I'm using Debian Jessie (and
+not Raspbian), to get more control over the packages available.
+Unfortunately a huge binary blob need to be inserted into the boot
+image to get it booting, but I'll ignore that for now. Also, as
+Debian lack support for the CPU features available in the Raspberry
+Pi, the system do not use the hardware floating point unit. I hope
+the routing performance isn't affected by the lack of hardware FPU
+support.</p>
+
+<p>To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user
+after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+% wget -O build-rpi-mesh-node \
+ https://raw.github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/master/build-rpi-mesh-node
+% sudo bash -x ./build-rpi-mesh-node > build.log 2>&1
+% dd if=/root/rpi/rpi_basic_jessie_$(date +%Y%m%d).img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
+%
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>Booting with the resulting SD card on a Raspberry PI with a USB
+wifi card inserted should give you a mesh node. At least it does for
+me with a the wifi card I am using. The default mesh settings are the
+ones used by the Oslo mesh project at Hackeriet, as I mentioned in
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">an
+earlier blog post about this mesh testing</a>.</p>
+
+<p>The mesh node was not horribly expensive either. I bought
+everything over the counter in shops nearby. If I had ordered online
+from the lowest bidder, the price should be significantly lower:</p>
+
+<p><table>
+
+<tr><th>Supplier</th><th>Model</th><th>NOK</th></tr>
+<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi model B</td><td>349.90</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi type B case</td><td>99.90</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lefdal</td><td>Jensen Air:Link 25150</td><td>295.-</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Clas Ohlson</td><td>Kingston 16 GB SD card</td><td>199.-</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Total cost</td><td></td><td>943.80</td></tr>
+
+</table></p>
+
+<p>Now my mesh network at home consist of one laptop in the basement
+connected to my production network, one Raspberry Pi node on the 1th
+floor that can be seen by my neighbor across the park, and one
+play-node I use to develop the image building script. And some times
+I hook up my work horse laptop to the mesh to test it. I look forward
+to figuring out what kind of latency the batman-adv setup will give,
+and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>It has been a while since my last English
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
-interview last November. But the developers and translators are still
-pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
-time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
-in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
-professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
-mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
-probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
-
-<p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
-and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
-packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
-
-<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
-project?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
-<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
-Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
-then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
-manual.
-
-<p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
-virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
-shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
-how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
-
-<p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
-ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
-by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>. What pleased
-me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
-there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
-to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
-artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
-<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
-movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
-<a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
-
-<p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
-<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
-Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
-beautiful project.</p>
-
-<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
-
-<p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
-community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
-fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
-
-<p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
-distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
-of educational free software.</p>
-
-<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
-project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
-not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
-solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
-is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
-
-<p>One can find support from a company by looking at
-<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
-wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
-companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
-Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
-for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
-consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
-support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
-most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
-scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice. I am
-also using the mathematical software
-<a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about">Scilab</a> and
-<a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html">Sage</a> (built from
-source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
-
-<p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
-using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
-statistics?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
-university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/">R</a> and
-Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
-geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
-<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig">kig</a> to do
-constructions in planar geometry
-
-<li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
-to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
-groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p>I like also
-<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
-provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
-<a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
-
-<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
-get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
-
-<p>My suggestions would be to</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
-
-<li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
- well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
- OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
-
-<li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
-
-<li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
- system.</li>
-
-</ul>
+ <title>Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee">the Spykee robot</a>
+(with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my
+web page. Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is
+easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github. If
+you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl">the
+libspykee-perl github repository</a>.</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Åpent møte på onsdag om bruken av Microsoft Exchange ved Universitetet i Oslo</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pent_m_te_p__onsdag_om_bruken_av_Microsoft_Exchange_ved_Universitetet_i_Oslo.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pent_m_te_p__onsdag_om_bruken_av_Microsoft_Exchange_ved_Universitetet_i_Oslo.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Mon, 3 Jun 2013 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Jeg jobber til daglig ved <a href="http://www.uio.no/">Universitetet
-i Oslo</a>, en institusjon som lenge har vektlagt verdien av åpne
-standarder og fri programvare. Men noe har endret seg, og for en
-liten stund tilbake annonserte USIT at dagens fungerende e-postsystemet
-basert på fri programvare skulle byttes ut med Microsoft Exchange og
-at Microsoft Outlook skulle bli den best fungerende men antagelig ikke
-eneste støttede e-postklienten. Annonseringen har ført til flere
-protester og <a href="http://folk.uio.no/dssantos/nooutlookatuio/">en
-underskriftskampanje</a>, initiert av Diana Santos, der så langt 253
-personer har signert. Prosjektet
-<a href="http://www.usit.uio.no/prosjekter/nike/">NIKE (Ny integrert
-kalender/e-post)</a> ble initiert for å se på mulige løsninger med
-utgangspunkt i at en kombinert epost/kalenderløsning var påkrevd, og
-prosjektet
-<a href="http://www.usit.uio.no/prosjekter/nike-implementasjon/">NIKE-implementasjon</a>
-er igang med å rulle ut MS Exchange ved Universitetet i Oslo.</p>
-
-<p>For kun kort tid siden ble det annonsert at det blir et åpent møte
-med ledelsen hos universitetet i Oslo med disse planene som tema:</p>
-
-<p>Tid: <strong>Onsdag 2013-06-05 kl. 10:00</strong>
-<br>Sted: <strong>9. etasje i Lucy Smiths hus (admin-bygget)</strong></p>
-
-<p> Det kan være en god plass å stille opp hvis en som meg ikke tror
-valget av Microsoft Exchange som sentral epostinfrastruktur er et
-heldig valg for Norges ledende forskningsuniversitet, men at en er mer
-tjent med å selv
-<a href="http://nuug.no/dokumenter/kronikk-friprog-itsikkerhet.shtml">beholde
-kontrollen over egen infrastruktur</a>.</p>
-
-<p>Saken har ført til endel presseoppslag så langt. Her er de jeg har
-fått med meg:</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>2013-05-29
- <a href="http://universitas.no/nyhet/58462/forsvarer-nytt-it-system">Forsvarer
- nytt IT-system</a> - Universitas</li>
-
-<li>2013-05-23
- <a href="http://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2013/05/uio-innforer-nytt-epost-og-kalendersystem.html">UiO
- innfører nytt epost- og kalenderverktøy</a> - Uniforum</li>
-
-
-<li>2013-05-22
- <a href="http://universitas.no/nyhet/58424/protestgruppe-vil-stanse-it-system">Protestgruppe
- vil stanse IT-system</a> - Universitas</li>
-
-
-<li>2013-05-15
- <a href="http://www.uniforum.uio.no/leserbrev/2013/uio-ma-ha-kontroll-over-sitt-eget-epostsystem.html">UiO
- må ha kontroll over sitt eget epostsystem</a> - Uniforum</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-
+ <title>Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
+wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of
+these. :)</p>
+
+<p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
+Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
+Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
+more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered
+to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
+earmarked</a> for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and
+hope you will to. :)</p>
+
+<p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
+create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
+documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
+take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already
+donated. Are you next?</p>
+
+<p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
+Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
+statement under the heading
+<a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
+Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
+Norwegian government. So far 499 signatures. I hope you will sign it
+too.</p>
</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>
+ <title>Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing
+networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large
+areas, depending on the radio technology used. Normal wifi equipment
+can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several
+successful examples like
+<a href="http://www.freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a> and
+<a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network</a>
+(see
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region#Greece">wikipedia
+for a large list</a>) around the globe. To give you an idea how it
+work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which
+can be seen from their
+<a href="http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/ffmap/nodes.html">dynamically
+updated node graph and map</a>, where one can see how the mesh nodes
+automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing.
+There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway,
+and that is the main topic of this blog post.</p>
+
+<p>I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped
+to do it as part of my involvement with the <a
+href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member organisation</a> community, and
+my recent involvement in
+<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the Freedombox project</a>
+finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a
+Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family
+when possible, given that most communication between people are
+between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook
+communication patterns). It also allow people to communicate without
+any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the
+private communication of citizens, which have become more and more
+important over the years.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo
+working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space
+<a href="http://hackeriet.no/">Hackeriet</a> at Husmania. They seem to
+have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called
+<a href="http://oslo.freifunk.net/index.php?title=Main_Page">the Oslo
+Freifunk project</a>, but that effort is now dead and the people
+behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called
+<a href="http://meshfx.org/trac">meshfx</a>. Unfortunately the wiki
+site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to
+reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to
+the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people
+from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I
+came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the
+speakers about this talk (from
+<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Kd7CLkhSY">youtube</a>):</p>
+
+<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
+
+<p>I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols.
+There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to
+figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
+given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
+is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
+completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on
+batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool
+<a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
+is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
+organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and
+less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting
+that project (from
+<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>):</p>
+
+<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
+
+<p>According to the wikipedia page on
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless
+mesh network</a> there are around 70 competing schemes for routing
+packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and
+B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
+based community mesh networks.</p>
+
+<p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
+(as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
+network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
+vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
+computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at
+least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A
+<a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good
+introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project. These are
+the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
+
+<p><table>
+<tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
+<tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
+<tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
+<td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
+<td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
+</table></p>
+
+<p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
+in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from
+VillageTelco about
+"<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information
+about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a>
+for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some
+other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh
+network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to
+any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)</p>
+
+<p>My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node,
+but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a
+firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old
+wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.</p>
+
+<p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join
+us on IRC, either channel
+<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a>
+or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on
+irc.freenode.net.</p>
+
+<p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old
+research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research
+and Innovation called
+<a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The
+reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere
+learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at
+Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for
+commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard
+to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
+know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would
+be interested in a cooperation?</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-10-12</strong>: I was just
+<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2013-October/005900.html">told
+by the Serval project developers</a> that they no longer use
+batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based
+mesh system.</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>
+ <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 8 Oct 2013 17:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
+Salvador had published a
+<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on
+Youtube</a> showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or
+on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
+services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
+in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long,
+and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
+Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
+showing the <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model
+of the human body</a>, but I guess he did not know about those or find
+other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
+advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
+Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
+computers without hard drives by installing one central
+<a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p>
+
+<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+<p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let
+me know. :)</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>
+ <title>Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 29 Sep 2013 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of
+Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team. The
+complete announcement text can be found at
+<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130928">the Debian News
+section</a>, translated to several languages. Please check it out.</p>
+
+<p>There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon. One
+can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/
+partition is too small. A workaround is to extend the partition (use
+lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).</p>
</description>
</item>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff