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[homepage.git] / blog / index.rss

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-               <title>More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
-found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
-working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
-definitely helped freeing some time.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
-include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
-get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
-firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
-install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
-are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
-an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
-enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
-debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
-Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
-to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
-/cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
-found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
-going to work.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
-look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
-the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
-packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
-&quot;external&quot; media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
-/cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
-solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
-look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
-provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
-to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
-Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
-activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
-hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
-run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
-license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
-solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
-contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
-</description>
-       </item>
-       
-       <item>
-               <title>Magnetstripeinnhold i billetter fra Flytoget og Hurtigruten</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Magnetstripeinnhold_i_billetter_fra_Flytoget_og_Hurtigruten.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Magnetstripeinnhold_i_billetter_fra_Flytoget_og_Hurtigruten.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Fri, 21 May 2010 16:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
-               <description>
-&lt;p&gt;For en stund tilbake kjøpte jeg en magnetkortleser for å kunne
-titte på hva som er skrevet inn på magnetstripene til ulike kort.  Har
-ikke hatt tid til å analysere mange kort så langt, men tenkte jeg
-skulle dele innholdet på to kort med mine lesere.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;For noen dager siden tok jeg flyet til Harstad og Hurtigruten til
-Bergen.  Flytoget fra Oslo S til flyplassen ga meg en billett med
-magnetstripe.  Påtrykket finner jeg følgende informasjon:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
+sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
+clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
+Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;pre&gt;
-Flytoget Airport Express Train
-
-Fra - Til        : Oslo Sentralstasjon
-Kategori         : Voksen
-Pris             : Nok 170,00
-Herav mva. 8,00% : NOK 12,59
-Betaling         : Kontant
-Til - Fra        : Oslo Lufthavn
-Utstedt:         : 08.05.10
-Gyldig Fra-Til   : 08.05.10-07.11.10
-Billetttype      : Enkeltbillett
-
-102-1015-100508-48382-01-08
-&lt;/pre&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
+to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
+address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
+ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
+LTSP clients.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;På selve magnetstripen er innholdet
-&lt;tt&gt;;E?+900120011=23250996541068112619257138248441708433322932704083389389062603279671261502492655?&lt;/tt&gt;.
-Aner ikke hva innholdet representerer, og det er lite overlapp mellom
-det jeg ser trykket på billetten og det jeg ser av tegn i
-magnetstripen.  Håper det betyr at de bruker kryptografiske metoder
-for å gjøre det vanskelig å forfalske billetter.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
+in a &quot;computer&quot; LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
+allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;Den andre billetten er fra Hurtigruten, der jeg mistenker at
-strekkoden på fronten er mer brukt enn magnetstripen (det var i hvert
-fall den biten vi stakk inn i dørlåsen).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
+this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
+need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;Påtrykket forsiden er følgende:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
+# Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
+#
+# Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
+#
+# Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
+# the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
+# ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
+#
+# This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
+# existence of attribute names.
+#
+# The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
+# ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
+# To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
+#
+# Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
+# configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
+# 
+# objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME &#39;ltspClientAux&#39;
+#     SUP top
+#     AUXILIARY
+#     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
+
+LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
+if [ &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; ] ; then
+    LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
+    for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk &#39;{print $5}&#39;|sort -u) ; do
+       filter=&quot;(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))&quot;
+       ldapsearch -h &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; -b &quot;$LDAPBASE&quot; -v -x &quot;$filter&quot; | \
+           grep &#39;^ltspConfig&#39; | while read attr value ; do
+           # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
+           attr=$(echo $attr | sed &#39;s/^ltspConfig//i&#39; | tr a-z A-Z)
+           # bass value on to clients
+           eval &quot;$attr=$value; export $attr&quot;
+       done
+    done
+fi
+&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

 
 

-&lt;pre&gt;
-Romnummer 727
-Hurtigruten
-Midnatsol
-Reinholdtsen
-Petter
-Bookingno: SAX69   0742193
-Harstad-Bergen
-Dep: 09.05.2010 Arr: 12.05.2010
-Lugar fra Risøyhamn
-Kost: FRO=4
-&lt;/pre&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
+the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
+there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
+the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
+I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;På selve magnetstripen er innholdet
-&lt;tt&gt;;1316010007421930=00000000000000000000?+E?&lt;/tt&gt;.  Heller ikke her
-ser jeg mye korrespondanse mellom påtrykk og magnetstripe.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:55:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
-Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html&quot;&gt;libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/a&gt;
-package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
-into unstable.  The
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html&quot;&gt;pam-python&lt;/a&gt;
-package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package
-passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
-package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
-hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
-roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
-nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
-which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
-for nscd in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;BTS report
-#485282&lt;/a&gt; is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
-libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
-care of the caching of passwords and group information.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
-at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
-problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
-package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
-find time to make sure the next release will include both the
-Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
-and I am sure we will find a good solution.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
-LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
-when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
-cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
-memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
-libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
-directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
-be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
-with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
-to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
-on the home directory servers.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
-message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
-is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
-message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
-a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
-type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
-please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html&quot;&gt;my
+last post&lt;/a&gt; about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
+LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://jxplorer.org/&quot;&gt;jXplorer&lt;/a&gt; is claimed to be capable of
+moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
+authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
+authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
+LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html&quot;&gt;available in
+Debian&lt;/a&gt; testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
+have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
+non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
+and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 22:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>MS Word krøller det til for politiet?</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MS_Word_kr__ller_det_til_for_politiet_.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MS_Word_kr__ller_det_til_for_politiet_.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Thu, 8 Jul 2010 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
-Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
-Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
-expected, if I am to believe the
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html&quot;&gt;input
-on debian-devel@&lt;/a&gt;, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
-with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
-remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
-detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
-The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
-version.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-More information about
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
-based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt; is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
-currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
-problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
-CONCURRENCY=none
-&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
-the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
-list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;De siste dagene har Aftenposten
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3718597.ece&quot;&gt;fortalt&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3724249.ece&quot;&gt;hvordan&lt;/a&gt;
+politet har brukt skriveverktøy som ikke håndterer arabisk tekst og
+tekst som skal skrives fra høyre mot venstre når de har laget
+løpeseddel for å be om informasjon fra publikum.  Resultatet har vært
+en uleselig arabisk-bit på løpeseddelen.  Feilen har oppstått når
+teksten har blitt &quot;kopiert inn i programvare som ikke har støtte for
+språk som skrives fra høyre mot venstre&quot;, og jeg er ganske sikker på
+at det er snakk om Microsoft Office i dette tilfellet.  Er det slik at
+MS Office i norsk språkdrakt ikke har støtte for tekst som skal
+skrives fra høyre mot venstre?  Jeg tror alle utgaver av
+OpenOffice.org har slik støtte, og det er jo ikke veldig vanskelig å
+la slik støtte finnes i alle utgaver av et program hvis støtten først
+er utviklet.  Aftenpostens melding får meg til å undre om problemet
+ville vært unngått hvis politiet brukte OpenOffice.org i stedet for MS
+Office.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Mon tro om det er flere eksempler på at MS Office har ødelagt for
+offentlig myndighet?&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 21:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Sat, 3 Jul 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary&quot;&gt;sitesummary
-system&lt;/a&gt; is used to keep track of the machines in the school
-network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
-central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
-also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
-MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
-to update the DHCP configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
-ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
-this on the collector host:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here is a short update on my &lt;a
+href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;my
+Debian Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrade testing&lt;/a&gt;.  Here is a summary of the
+difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I&#39;m
+not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
+aptitude try because of missing conflicts
+(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584861&quot;&gt;#584861&lt;/a&gt; and
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/585716&quot;&gt;#585716&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
+complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
+differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
+know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
+publish the difference.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
+  at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
+  libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
+  libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
+  libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
+  libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
+  libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
+  python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
+  python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
+&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
+  bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
+  gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
+  libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
+  libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
+  libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
+  libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
+  libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
+  libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
+  libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
+  libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
+  libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
+  libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
+  libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
+  libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
+  libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
+  libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
+  libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
+  libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
+  libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
+  mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
+&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
+  gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
+  python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
+  xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
+  xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
+  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
+  xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
+  xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
+  xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
+  xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
+  xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
+  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
+  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
+  xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
+  xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
+  xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
+  xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
+  xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
+  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
+  xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
+  xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
+  xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
+&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
+  deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
+  xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
+  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
+&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120&quot;&gt;changed
+in git&lt;/a&gt; today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
+No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
+the difference somewhat.
+</description>
+       </item>
+       
+       <item>
+               <title>Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <description>
+&lt;p&gt;For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
+a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
+to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
+unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
+This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
+and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
+in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
+It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
+setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
+provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
+Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
+lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
+Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
+replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
+local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
+pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
+using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
+pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/568577&quot;&gt;bug #568577&lt;/a&gt; is in the
+archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
+directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
+prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
+is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured&lt;/p&gt;

 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;

-perl -MSiteSummary -e &#39;for_all_hosts(sub { print join(&quot; &quot;, get_macaddresses(shift)), &quot;\n&quot;; });&#39;
+libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser

 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 
 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 

-&lt;p&gt;This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
-line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
+one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
+PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
+sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I&#39;ve been unable to get TLS
+certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
+LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
+is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
+on how to get this working.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
+caching until &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;bug #485282&lt;/a&gt;
+is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
+currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
+reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
+instructions I found in the
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/&quot;&gt;LDAP for Mobile Laptops&lt;/a&gt;
+instructions by Flyn Computing.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
-addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
-machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
-tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
-written yet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
+       debug-level             0
+       reload-count            unlimited
+       paranoia                no
+
+       enable-cache            passwd          yes
+       positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
+       negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
+       suggested-size          passwd          211
+       check-files             passwd          yes
+       persistent              passwd          yes
+       shared                  passwd          yes
+       max-db-size             passwd          33554432
+       auto-propagate          passwd          yes
+
+       enable-cache            group           yes
+       positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
+       negative-time-to-live   group           20
+       suggested-size          group           211
+       check-files             group           yes
+       persistent              group           yes
+       shared                  group           yes
+       max-db-size             group           33554432
+       auto-propagate          group           yes
+
+       enable-cache            hosts           no
+       positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
+       negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
+       suggested-size          hosts           211
+       check-files             hosts           yes
+       persistent              hosts           yes
+       shared                  hosts           yes
+       max-db-size             hosts           33554432
+
+       enable-cache            services        yes
+       positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
+       negative-time-to-live   services        20
+       suggested-size          services        211
+       check-files             services        yes
+       persistent              services        yes
+       shared                  services        yes
+       max-db-size             services        33554432
+&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
+automatically like the one provided in
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/496915&quot;&gt;bug #496915&lt;/a&gt;, the file
+content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
+directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
+look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
+passwd:         files ldap
+group:          files ldap
+shadow:         files ldap
+hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
+networks:       files
+protocols:      files
+services:       files
+ethers:         files
+rpc:            files
+netgroup:       files ldap
+&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
+shadow and netgroup.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
+in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
+directory created and have the password as well as user and group
+attributes cached.
+
+&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
+  libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
+problems doing proper caching, I&#39;ve seen suggestions and recipes to
+use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
+LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
+discovered sssd.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
+mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package from Redhat.
+It is part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freeipa.org/&quot;&gt;FreeIPA&lt;/A&gt; project
+to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
+machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
+information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
+libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
+1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
+in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd package&lt;/a&gt;
+was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
+version 1.2 is now in testing.
+
+&lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
+roaming setup I want&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
+libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
+&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
+&lt;tt&gt;/etc/sssd/sssd.conf&lt;/tt&gt;.
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
+[sssd]
+config_file_version = 2
+reconnection_retries = 3
+sbus_timeout = 30
+services = nss, pam
+domains = INTERN
+
+[nss]
+filter_groups = root
+filter_users = root
+reconnection_retries = 3
+
+[pam]
+reconnection_retries = 3
+
+[domain/INTERN]
+enumerate = false
+cache_credentials = true
+
+id_provider = ldap
+auth_provider = ldap
+chpass_provider = ldap
+
+ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
+ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+ldap_tls_reqcert = never
+ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
+&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
+&quot;ldap_tls_reqcert = never&quot; to get it working.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
+nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
+modify it manually.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2010 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;The last few days a new boot system called
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd&quot;&gt;systemd&lt;/a&gt;
-has been
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html&quot;&gt;introduced&lt;/a&gt;
-
-to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
-with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://upstart.ubuntu.com/&quot;&gt;upstart&lt;/a&gt;, and might prove to be
-a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
-based boot system.  Tollef is
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/580814&quot;&gt;in the process&lt;/a&gt; of getting
-systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
-like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
-information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
-at the moment do not.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
-platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
-some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
-kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
-system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
-way forward.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;In the mean time, based on the
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html&quot;&gt;input
-on debian-devel@&lt;/a&gt; regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
-decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
-soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
-there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
-new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
-already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
-with parallel booting enabled by default.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
+directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
+tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
+Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://luma.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;LUMA&lt;/a&gt;, which has proved to
+be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
+populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
+find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
+objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
+are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
+the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
+not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
+Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
+released.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
+like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
+not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/&quot;&gt;ldapvi&lt;/a&gt; for that.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
+in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html&quot;&gt;gq&lt;/a&gt; package as a
+useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
+in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
+changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Thu, 6 May 2010 23:25:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
-complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
-init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
-to test your Squeeze system, make sure
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
-based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt; is enabled, and add this line to
-/etc/default/rcS:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A while back, I
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html&quot;&gt;complained
+about the fact&lt;/a&gt; that it is not possible with the provided schemas
+for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
+of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
+the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
+the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
+computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
+without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
+do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
+Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
+the
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00&quot;&gt;DHCP
+schema&lt;/a&gt; to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
+available today from IETF.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
-CONCURRENCY=makefile
-&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;pre&gt;
+--- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
++++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
+@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
+ objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
+        NAME &#39;dhcpHost&#39;
+        DESC &#39;This represents information about a particular client&#39;
+-       SUP top
++       SUP top AUXILIARY
+        MUST cn
+        MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
+        X-NDS_CONTAINMENT (&#39;dhcpService&#39; &#39;dhcpSubnet&#39; &#39;dhcpGroup&#39;) )
+&lt;/pre&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
+Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
+package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.&lt;/p&gt;

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
-scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
-/etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
-/etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
-to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
-start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
-make this happen.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
-fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
-init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
-dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
-the package maintainers to fix it. :)&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
-manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
-expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
-fix the remaining issues.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
-the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
-list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
+please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Forcing new users to change their password on first login</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Sun, 2 May 2010 13:47:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
-create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
-change the password on the first login attempt.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
-Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
-and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
-unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
-passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
-settings in /etc/shadow:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
+installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
+I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
+of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
+conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
+this:

 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;

-root@tjener:~# chage -l test
-Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
-Password expires                                        : never
-Password inactive                                       : never
-Account expires                                         : never
-Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
-Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
-Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
-root@tjener:~#
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+tasksel --new-install

 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 
 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 

-&lt;p&gt;The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
-account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
-lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
-to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
-simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
-avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).&lt;/p&gt;
+This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
+tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
+any output what so ever.

 
 

-&lt;p&gt;After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
-intended:&lt;/p&gt;
+Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
+package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
+any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
+happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
+when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
+printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
+code like this:

 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 
 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;

-root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
-root@tjener:~# chage -l test
-Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
-Password expires                                        : never
-Password inactive                                       : never
-Account expires                                         : never
-Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
-Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
-Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
-root@tjener:~#  
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+cmd=&quot;$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed &#39;s/debconf-apt-progress -- //&#39;)&quot;
+$cmd

 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 
 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 

-&lt;p&gt;So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
-Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
-user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
-sure only the user itself have the account password?&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
-Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
-shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
-last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
-on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
-I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
-Squeeze, and &#39;&lt;tt&gt;chage -d 0 username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; do work there.  I have not
-tested it on Lenny yet.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
-equivalent command to expire a password is &#39;&lt;tt&gt;passwd -e
-username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;, which insert zero into the date of the last password
-change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The content of $cmd is typically something like &quot;&lt;tt&gt;aptitude -q
+--without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
+~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
+~pimportant&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;, which will install the gnome desktop task, the
+laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
+important, just like tasksel would have done it during
+installation.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
+install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
+like this.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Vinmonopolet bryter loven åpenlyst - og flere planlegger å gjøre det samme</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven___penlyst___og_flere_planlegger____gj__re_det_samme.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Vinmonopolet_bryter_loven___penlyst___og_flere_planlegger____gj__re_det_samme.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
-Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
-handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
-and go.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
-Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
-example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
-The setup would consist of the following:&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;ul&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
-   the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
-   the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
-   server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
-   central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
-   request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
-   automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
-   and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
-   hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
-   request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
-   can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
-   the fish protocol in KDE?&lt;/li&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
-   authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
-   to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
-   to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
-   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
-   or the Fedora developed
-   &lt;a href=&quot;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD&quot;&gt;System
-   Security Services Daemon&lt;/a&gt; packages.&lt;/li&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
-   using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
-   directory, using unison.&lt;/li&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
-   their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
-   the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
-   system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
-   implemented.&lt;/li&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
-   sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.&lt;/li&gt;
-
- &lt;li&gt;It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
-   cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
-   local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.&lt;/li&gt;
-
-&lt;/ul&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
-the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
-in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
-tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
-(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/566718&quot;&gt;#566718&lt;/a&gt;) and nslcd (or
-perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
-its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
-when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
-to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.&lt;/p&gt;
-
-&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
-please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/06/16/nyheter/innenriks/streik/arbeidsliv/12157858/&quot;&gt;Dagbladet
+melder&lt;/a&gt; at Vinmonopolet med bakgrunn i vekterstreiken som pågår i
+Norge for tiden, har bestemt seg for med vitende og vilje å bryte
+sentralbanklovens paragraf 14 ved å nekte folk å betale med
+kontanter, og at flere butikker planlegger å følge deres eksempel.
+Jeg synes det er hårreisende hvis de slipper unna med et slikt
+soleklart lovbrudd, og lurer på hva slags muligheter jeg vil ha hvis
+jeg blir nektet å handle med kontanter.  Jeg handler i hovedsak med
+kontanter selv, da jeg anser det som en borgerrett å kunne handle
+anonymt uten at det blir registrert.  For meg er det et angrep på mitt
+personvern å nekte å ta imot kontant betaling.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19850524-028-003.html#14&quot;&gt;Paragrafen
+i sentralbankloven&lt;/a&gt; lyder:&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;§ 14. Tvungent betalingsmiddel&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Bankens sedler og mynter er tvungent betalingsmiddel i Norge. Ingen
+er pliktig til i én betaling å ta imot mer enn femogtyve mynter av
+hver enhet.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Sterkt skadde sedler og mynter er ikke tvungent
+betalingsmiddel. Banken gir nærmere forskrifter om erstatning for
+bortkomne, brente eller skadde sedler og mynter.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Selv om en avtale inneholder klausul om betaling av en
+pengeforpliktelse i gullverdi, kan skyldneren frigjøre seg med tvungne
+betalingsmidler uten hensyn til denne klausul.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Det er med bakgrunn i denne lovet ikke tillatt å nekte å ta imot
+kontakt betaling.  Det er en lov jeg har sans for, og som jeg mener må
+håndheves strengt.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
 </description>
        </item>
        
        <item>

-               <title>Great book: &quot;Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future&quot;</title>
-               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html</link>
-               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html</guid>
-                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <title>Officeshots taking shape</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html</link>
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>

                <description>
                <description>

-&lt;p&gt;The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
-thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
-touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
-conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
-book titled &quot;Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
-Copyright, and the Future of the Future&quot; is available with few
-restrictions on the web, for example from
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://craphound.com/content/&quot;&gt;his own site&lt;/a&gt;. I read the
-epub-version from
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883&quot;&gt;feedbooks&lt;/a&gt; using
-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fbreader.org/&quot;&gt;fbreader&lt;/a&gt; and my N810. I
-strongly recommend this book.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those of us caring about document exchange and
+interoperability, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.officeshots.org/&quot;&gt;OfficeShots&lt;/a&gt;
+is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
+&lt;a href=&quot;http://browsershots.org/&quot;&gt;BrowserShots&lt;/a&gt; is for web
+pages.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
+that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
+and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
+interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
+request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
+a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
+arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
+administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
+contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
+see how the project is doing.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
+machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
+OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
+in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
+Windows.  This is great.&lt;/p&gt;

 </description>
        </item>
        
 </description>
        </item>