90 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture

2nd August 2013

It has been a while since my last update. Since last summer, I -have worked on a Norwegian -docbook version of the 2004 book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, -to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright -law. Yesterday, I finally broken the 90% mark, when counting the -number of strings to translate. Due to real life constraints, I have -not had time to work on it since March, but when the summer broke out, -I found time to work on it again. Still lots of work left, but the -first draft is nearing completion. I created a graph to show the -progress of the translation:

- -

When the first draft is done, the translated text need to be -proof read, and the remaining formatting problems with images and SVG -drawings need to be fixed. There are probably also some index entries -missing that need to be added. This can be done by comparing the -index entries listed in the SiSU version of the book, or comparing the -English docbook version with the paper version. Last, the colophon -page with ISBN numbers etc need to be wrapped up before the release is -done. I should also figure out how to get correct Norwegian sorting -of the index pages. All docbook tools I have tried so far (xmlto, -docbook-xsl, dblatex) get the order of symbols and the special -Norwegian letters ÃÃÃ wrong.

- -

There is still need for translators and people with docbook -knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle -with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft -translation and proof reading. And I would like the figures to be -redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them. Any SVG master -around? There are also some legal terms that are unfamiliar to me. -If you want to help, please get in touch with me, and check out the -project files currently available from -github.

- -

If you are curious what the translated book currently look like, -the updated -PDF -and -EPUB -are published on github. The HTML version is published as well, but -github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I -saw no point in linking to that version.

Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian

1st November 2013

The SPICE protocol 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 request +for a package 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.

+ +

The source is now available from +http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary.

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: debian, english.

@@ -78,137 +49,120 @@ saw no point in linking to that version.

First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy

27th July 2013

The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up -today. This is the release announcement:

- -

New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released -2013-07-27

- -

These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux -7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".

- -

About Debian Edu and Skolelinux

- -

Debian Edu, also known as -Skolelinux, 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 GOsaÂ², 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 -more -than 60 educational software packages and more are available from -the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE -and Xfce desktop environment.

- -

This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically -this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the -Squeeze release.

- -

ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the -versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta -release.

- -

Software updates

- -

Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager - for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.
Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser - packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced - by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those - installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa - and libpam-mklocaluser.
Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).
Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).
Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of - crash bugs.

- -

Other changes

- -

Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break - desktop=gnome installations.
Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the - netinst CD.
Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific - setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.
Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at - install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash - with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.
Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient - exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host - name setting at run time to work again.
Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL - fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by - updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.
Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique - (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.
Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.

- -

Known issues

- -

Grub is missing the new artwork.
KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to - not use the http proxy as it should.
Chromium also fail to use the proxy.

- -

Where to get it

- -

To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use

- -

ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .

- -

The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109 -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f

- -

To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use

- -

ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .

- -

The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69 -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733

Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images

27th October 2013

The +vmdebootstrap +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 +Raspberry Pi, as part +of a plan to simplify the build system for +the FreedomBox +project. 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.

+ +

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 +Debian +Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi. First, the +--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler 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 --bootsize size and --boottype +fstype 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 --variant +variant option to allow me to create smaller images without the +Debian base system packages installed. Finally, I added an option +--no-extlinux 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 +the +upstream project page.

+ +

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:

+#!/bin/sh
+set -e # Exit on first error
+rootdir="$1"
+cd "$rootdir"
+cat <<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
+

How to report bugs

Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this +to build the image:

+ +

+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
+

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 Raspbian based images.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, english, freedombox, mesh network.

@@ -216,112 +170,51 @@ release.

How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk

17th July 2013

Today I switched to -my -new laptop. I've previously written about the problems I had with -my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an -180 -GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware that did not handle -sustained writes. My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in -trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another -identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD -disk instead to fix it once and for all. The Samsung disk survived -the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with -random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus -decided to trust it with my data. I have installed it as a Debian Edu -Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main -server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work -station from now on.

- -

As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the -Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase -performance and increase life time of the disk. The Linux kernel and -user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such -environment. To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian -package ssd-setup to handle this tuning. The -source -for the ssd-setup package is available from collab-maint, and it -is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the -package. If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package -will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort -file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.

- -

I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best -set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD. It is adjusted to my use case, -where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in -addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on -top of this again. See the README file in the package source for the -references I used to pick the settings. At the moment these -parameters are tuned:

- -

Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk - (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)
Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in - this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from - 0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.
Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file - systems.
Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to - /etc/fstab.
Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.
Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from - cron.daily).
Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure - to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.

- -

During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill -the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for -little gain. My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure -those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working -computer. I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people -from getting the data on the disk (see -XKCD #538 for an explanation why). -Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the -right thing to do.

- -

I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended -it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found -indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.

- -

I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3 -and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a -file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day -instead of during my work.

- -

My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as -this is already done by Debian Edu.

- -

I have not yet started on the user space tuning. I expect -iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but -have not yet had time to investigate those parts.

- -

The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it -there.

- -

As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post, -as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the -disk. It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of -the Lenovo firmware. But I have not tried and did not want to do so -without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the -disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks -back.

Det er jo makta som er mest sÃ¥rbar ved massiv overvÃ¥kning av Internett

26th October 2013

De siste mÃ¥neders eksponering av +den +totale overvÃ¥kningen som foregÃ¥r i den vestlige verden dokumenterer +hvor sÃ¥rbare vi er. Men det slÃ¥r meg at de som er mest sÃ¥rbare +for dette, myndighetspersoner pÃ¥ alle nivÃ¥er, neppe har innsett at de +selv er de mest interessante personene Ã¥ lage profiler pÃ¥, for Ã¥ kunne +pÃ¥virke dem.

+ +

For Ã¥ ta et lite eksempel: Stortingets nettsted, +www.stortinget.no (og +forsÃ¥vidt ogsÃ¥ +data.stortinget.no), +inneholder informasjon om det som foregÃ¥r pÃ¥ Stortinget, og jeg antar +de stÃ¸rste brukerne av informasjonen der er representanter og +rÃ¥dgivere pÃ¥ Stortinget. Intet overraskende med det. Det som derimot +er mer skjult er at Stortingets nettsted bruker +Google +Analytics, hvilket gjÃ¸r at enhver som besÃ¸ker nettsidene der ogsÃ¥ +rapporterer om besÃ¸ket via Internett-linjer som passerer Sverige, +England og videre til USA. Det betyr at informasjon om ethvert besÃ¸k +pÃ¥ stortingets nettsider kan snappes opp av svensk, britisk og USAs +etterretningsvesen. De kan dermed holde et Ã¸ye med hvilke +Stortingssaker stortingsrepresentantene synes er interessante Ã¥ sjekke +ut, og hvilke sider rÃ¥dgivere og andre pÃ¥ stortinget synes er +interessant Ã¥ besÃ¸ke, nÃ¥r de gjÃ¸r det og hvilke andre representanter +som sjekker de samme sidene omtrent samtidig. Stortingets bruk av +Google Analytics gjÃ¸r det dermed enkelt for utenlands etteretning Ã¥ +spore representantenes aktivitet og interesse. Hvis noen av +representantene bruker Google Mail eller noen andre tjenestene som +krever innlogging, sÃ¥ vil det vÃ¦re enda enklere Ã¥ finne ut nÃ¸yaktig +hvilke personer som bruker hvilke nettlesere og dermed knytte +informasjonen opp til enkeltpersoner pÃ¥ Stortinget.

+ +

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 Ã¥ undres +over.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, stortinget, surveillance.

@@ -329,54 +222,93 @@ back.

Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes

10th July 2013

A few days ago, I wrote about -the -problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk, which -was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with -sustained write. My supplier is in contact with -Lenovo, and they wanted to send a -replacement disk to try to fix the problem. They decided to send an -identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.

- -

Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install -Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it. The new disk have the -same firmware version as the original. This time my hope raised -slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to -die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept -going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%. But around 60%, the disk -died again and I was back on square one. I still do not have a new -laptop with a disk I can trust. I can not live with a disk that might -lock up when I download a new -Debian Edu / Skolelinux ISO or -other large files. I look forward to hearing from my supplier with -the next proposal from Lenovo.

- -

The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB, -11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW: -LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722, -Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model: -SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU -P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.

- -

The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB, -11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW: -LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722, -Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model: -SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU -P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.

- -

The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN, -SA, date and WNPP values. Mentioning all the details here in case -someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the -failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually -exist).

A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node

21st October 2013

The last few days I have been experimenting with +the +batman-adv mesh technology. I want to gain some experience to see +if it will fit the +Freedombox project, 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.

+ +

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 +Raspberry Pi, 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 the Serval +Project 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.

+ +

To get this working, I've created a debian package +meshfx-node +and a script +build-rpi-mesh-node +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.

+ +

To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user +after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:

+ +

+% 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
+%
+

+ +

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 +an +earlier blog post about this mesh testing.

+ +

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:

+ +

+ + + + + + + + +
Supplier Model NOK
Teknikkmagasinet Raspberry Pi model B 349.90
Teknikkmagasinet Raspberry Pi type B case 99.90
Lefdal Jensen Air:Link 25150 295.-
Clas Ohlson Kingston 16 GB SD card 199.-
Total cost 943.80

Supplier	Model	NOK
Teknikkmagasinet	Raspberry Pi model B	349.90
Teknikkmagasinet	Raspberry Pi type B case	99.90
Lefdal	Jensen Air:Link 25150	295.-
Clas Ohlson	Kingston 16 GB SD card	199.-
Total cost		943.80

+ +

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. :)

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: english, freedombox, mesh network, nuug.

@@ -384,26 +316,21 @@ exist).

July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo

9th July 2013

The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined -Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing -party in Oslo. It is organised by the -member assosiation NUUG and -the Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project together with the hack space -Bitraf.

- -

It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening. Everyone is -welcome, and there is no fee to participate. There is on the other -hand limited space, and only room for 30 people. Please put your name -on the event -wiki page if you plan to join us.

Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github

19th October 2013

Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to +the Spykee robot +(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 +the +libspykee-perl github repository.

- Tags: debian, debian edu, english, nuug. + Tags: english, nuug, robot.

@@ -411,79 +338,38 @@ wiki page if you plan to join us.

The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?

5th July 2013

Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a -replacement -for my trusty old Thinkpad X41. Unfortunately I did not have much -time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe -will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived. I -ended up picking a -Thinkpad X230 -with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as -a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly. But my -second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful. More -on that below.

- -

I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most -important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never -listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search -feature at Prisjakt, which -allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other -requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according -to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of -disks from my search parameters. I also asked around among friends to -get their impression on keyboards and robustness.

- -

So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the -X41. I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is -significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my -hand a lot more to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly -good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope -I will get used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really -needed a new laptop now. :)

- -

Turning off the touch pad was simple. All it took was a quick -visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.

- -

But there is a fatal problem with the laptop. The 180 GB SSD disk -lock up during load. And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy -with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data. -I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I -reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by -default in Ubuntu). And the bug with is already known. It was -reported to Debian as BTS -report #691427 2012-10-25 (journal commit I/O error on brand-new -Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD). It is also reported to the Linux -kernel developers as -Kernel bugzilla -report #51861 2012-12-20 (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load -(SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the -Lenovo forums, both for -T430 -2012-11-10 and for -X230 -03-20-2013. The problem do not only affect installation. The -reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done -on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation -problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment. -There is even a -small C program -available that will lock up the hard drive after running a few -minutes by writing to a file.

- -

I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after -contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support -requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk -firmware. Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from -Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i). I -hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be -fixed. :)

Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway

15th October 2013

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. :)

+ +

Via Debian +Project News for 2013-10-14 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 any donation done to Debian +earmarked for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and +hope you will to. :)

+ +

And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to +create video +documentaries about the excessive spying on every Internet user that +take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already +donated. Are you next?

+ +

For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og +Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a +statement under the heading +Bloggers United for Open +Access 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.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: debian, english, opphavsrett, surveillance.

@@ -491,39 +377,142 @@ fixed. :)

The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230

4th July 2013

Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my -trusty old Thinkpad X41. Unfortunately I did not have much time to -spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived. I ended up -picking a Thinkpad -X230 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu -Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly. As I write -this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation, -with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up -with an expencive door stop.

- -

I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most -important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never -listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search -feature at Prisjakt, which -allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other -requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had -to drop number of disks from my search parameters.

- -

I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly -wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more -to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly good and the -individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get -used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a -new laptop now. :)

- -

I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.

Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania

11th October 2013

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 +Freifunk and +Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network +(see +wikipedia +for a large list) 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 +dynamically +updated node graph and map, 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.

+ +

I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped +to do it as part of my involvement with the NUUG member organisation community, and +my recent involvement in +the Freedombox project +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.

+ +

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 +Hackeriet at Husmania. They seem to +have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called +the Oslo +Freifunk project, but that effort is now dead and the people +behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called +meshfx. 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 JÃ¸rgen Lysglimt interview the +speakers about this talk (from +youtube):

+ +

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 +Serval project in Australia +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 +youtube):

+ +

According to the wikipedia page on +Wireless +mesh network 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.

+ +

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 +good +introduction is available from the Open Mesh project. These are +the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:

+ +

+ + + + + +
Setting Value
Protocol / kernel module batman-adv
ESSID meshfx@hackeriet
Channel / Frequency 11 / 2462
Cell ID 02:BA:00:00:00:01

Setting	Value
Protocol / kernel module	batman-adv
ESSID	meshfx@hackeriet
Channel / Frequency	11 / 2462
Cell ID	02:BA:00:00:00:01

+ +

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 +"Information +about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges! +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. :)

+ +

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.

+ +

If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join +us on IRC, either channel +#oslohackerspace +or #nuug on +irc.freenode.net.

+ +

While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old +research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research +and Innovation called +The +reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks and elsewhere +learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at +GrÃ¼nerlÃ¸kka 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?

+ +

Update 2013-10-12: I was just +told +by the Serval project developers that they no longer use +batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based +mesh system.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: english, freedombox, mesh network, nuug.

@@ -531,115 +520,37 @@ new laptop now. :)

Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy

3rd July 2013

The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up -today. This is the release announcement:

- -

New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released -2013-07-03

- -

These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux -7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".

- -

About Debian Edu and Skolelinux

- -

This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically -this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the -Squeeze release.

- -

Software updates

Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.
Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian - submenu. It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this - brings KDE in line with the others.
Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as - they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the - menu now that menu-xdg was removed.
Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on - multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a - X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users - too.
Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy - are too few to make the package useful.

Other changes

Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy -
Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.
Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed - up for some language options.
Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.
Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.
Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way - d-i is doing it.
Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the - debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.
Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft - script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a - Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.
Update system to install needed firmware packages during - installation, to work properly in Wheezy.
Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).
Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop - and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.
LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to - work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.

Known issues

No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) - available yet (698840).
Artwork not enabled for all desktops.

Where to get it

- -

To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use

ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .

- -

The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8

- -

To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use

ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .

- -

The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721

- -

How to report bugs

- -

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs

Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador

8th October 2013

The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo +Salvador had published a +video on +Youtube 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 Zygote Body 3D model +of the human body, 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 +LTSP server.

+ +

Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:

+ + + +

Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let +me know. :)

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian edu, english, video.

@@ -647,70 +558,23 @@ Squeeze release.

Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)

25th June 2013

It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is -perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things -working. One such task is to find out what firmware packages are -needed to get the hardware on my computer working. Most often this -affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID -controller or the ethernet card. Today I pushed version 0.4 of the -Isenkram package -including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the -process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files -they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the -debian packages. Here is a test run on my laptop:

- -

-# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware 
-info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
-info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
-info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
-info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
-info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
-firmware-ipw2x00
-firmware-ipw2x00
-Preconfiguring packages ...
-Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
-(Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
-Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
-Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
-# 
-

- -

When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is -printed instead:

- -

-# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware 
-info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
-# 
-

- -

It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving -me some time when setting up new machines. :)

- -

So, how does it work? It look at the set of currently loaded -kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find -the firmware files listed in the module meta-information. Next, it -download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for -the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the -requested firmware file. If the package is in the non-free section, a -non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using -apt-get install. The end result is a slightly better working -machine.

- -

I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of -this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to -finally fix BTS report -#655507. There really is no need to insert USB sticks with -firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available -from the nearby Debian mirror.

Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!

29th September 2013

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 +the Debian News +section, translated to several languages. Please check it out.

+ +

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).

- Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + Tags: debian edu, english.

@@ -718,50 +582,72 @@ from the nearby Debian mirror.

The value of a good distro wide test suite...

22nd June 2013

In the Debian Edu / -Skolelinux project, we include a post-installation test suite, -which check that services are running, working, and return the -expected results. It runs automatically just after the first boot on -test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production -installations (using non-test ISOs). It test that the LDAP service is -operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are -online resizable, etc, etc. And it check that the PXE service is -configured, which is the topic of this post.

- -

The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian -Edu Wheezy release. These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a -complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to -happen all the needed packages need to be on them. Thanks to our test -suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to -cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages. -When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to -using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require -working packages to get it working. And the packages changed name -from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to -debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the -packages during installation. Without our test suite, I suspect we -would never have discovered this before release. Now it is fixed -right after we got the ISOs operational.

- -

Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system -administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the -test suite using /usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install and see if -any errors are detected. This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing -the problem.

- -

If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create, -please join us on -#debian-edu on -irc.debian.org and the -debian-edu@ mailing -list.

Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning

27th September 2013

The Freedombox +project have been going on for a while, and have presented the +vision, ideas and solution several places. Here is a little +collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.

+ +

FreedomBox - +2,5 minute marketing film (Youtube)
Eben Moglen +discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011 (Youtube)
Eben Moglen - +Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for +Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010 +(Youtube)
Fosdem 2011 +Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox (Youtube)
Presentation of +the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011 (Youtube)
Freedombox - +Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New +York City in 2012 (Youtube)
Introduction +to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012 +(Youtube)
Freedom, Out +of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012 (Youtube)
Freedombox +1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013 (FOSDEM)
What is the +FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus +2013 (Youtube)

+ +

A larger list is available from +the +Freedombox Wiki.

+ +

On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian +Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using +Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In +a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian. +The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is +pending in NEW. The third and vital part of that puzzle is the +metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload. Join +us on IRC +(#freedombox on irc.debian.org) and +the +mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, english, freedombox, sikkerhet, surveillance, web.

@@ -793,7 +679,13 @@ list.

+ +

+ +

+ +

@@ -943,9 +835,9 @@ list.