X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/077f8315e2f15d59f26baadef824d42cc1c42935..28e1a84bb187444302ef885a48e28b9c81545604:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 9bd911e96b..9d566fe427 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,287 +20,30 @@
-
S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software
-
9th April 2014
-

For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup -solution for use at home. My requirements are simple, it must be -cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption -keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files). -One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud -storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage, -writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail -service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space. On top -of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have -lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage. But -I never found time to implement such system. But the last few weeks I -have looked at a system called -S3QL, a locally -mounted network backed file system with the features I need.

- -

S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage, -handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3, -Google Drive or OpenStack API. There are heaps of such storage -providers. S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which -combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server. S3QL -include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots -and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as -a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local, -while the content is stored in the cloud as well. This allow me to -have a backup that should survive fire. The file system can not be -shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can -mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and -access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.

- -

It is simple to use. I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the -package is included already. So to get started, run apt-get -install s3ql. Next, pick a storage provider. I ended up picking -Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on -how -to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service, because I trust the laws -in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal -data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company -in Iceland. Another nice recipe is available from the article -S3QL -Filesystem for HPC Storage by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of -Admin magazine. When the provider is picked, figure out how to get -the API key needed to connect to the storage API. With Greencloud, -the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my -account.

- -

Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file -system. First, create a new bucket in the cloud. This bucket is the -file system storage area. I picked a bucket name reflecting the -machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do. -I'll refer to it as bucket-name below. In addition, one need -the API login and password, and a locally created password. Store it -all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this: - -

-[s3c]
-storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-backend-login: API-login
-backend-password: API-password
-fs-passphrase: local-password
-

- -

I create my local passphrase using pwget 50 or similar, -but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it. -Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API -details and password to create it:

- -

-# mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
-# mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Enter backend login: 
-Enter backend password: 
-Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
-the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
-Enter encryption password: 
-Confirm encryption password: 
-Generating random encryption key...
-Creating metadata tables...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
-#

- -

The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available. - -

-# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 4 upload threads.
-Downloading and decompressing metadata...
-Reading metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Mounting filesystem...
-# df -h /s3ql
-Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
-s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
-#
-

- -

The file system is now ready for use. I use rsync to store my -backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at -mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by -running rsync. To unmount, one should not use the normal umount -command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but -instead running the umount.s3ql command like this: - -

-# umount.s3ql /s3ql
-# 
-

- -

There is a fsck command available to check the file system and -correct any problems detected. This can be used if the local server -crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already -mounted" flag. This is what it look like when processing a working -file system:

- -

-# fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Using cached metadata.
-File system seems clean, checking anyway.
-Checking DB integrity...
-Creating temporary extra indices...
-Checking lost+found...
-Checking cached objects...
-Checking names (refcounts)...
-Checking contents (names)...
-Checking contents (inodes)...
-Checking contents (parent inodes)...
-Checking objects (reference counts)...
-Checking objects (backend)...
-..processed 5000 objects so far..
-..processed 10000 objects so far..
-..processed 15000 objects so far..
-Checking objects (sizes)...
-Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
-Checking blocks (refcounts)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
-Checking inodes (refcounts)...
-Checking inodes (sizes)...
-Checking extended attributes (names)...
-Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
-Checking symlinks (inodes)...
-Checking directory reachability...
-Checking unix conventions...
-Checking referential integrity...
-Dropping temporary indices...
-Backing up old metadata...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
-# 
-

- -

Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very -quick, about the same speed as local file access. Uploading large -amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my -house. Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s, -which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same -Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed. -Both were measured using dd. So for me, the bottleneck is my -network, not the file system code. I do not know what a good cache -size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your -working set.

- -

I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the -time. If another machine try, it is told that the file system is -busy:

- -

-# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 8 upload threads.
-Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
-#
-

- -

The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the -metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default. To ensure the -file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the -file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using -s3qlctrl: - -

-# s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
-# s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
-# 
-

- -

If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the -cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the -storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get -a report:

- -

-# s3qlstat /s3ql
-Directory entries:    9141
-Inodes:               9143
-Data blocks:          8851
-Total data size:      22049.38 MB
-After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
-After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
-Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
-(some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
-#
-

- -

I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of -storage. I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least -Greenqloud, -Google Drive, -Amazon S3 web serivces, -Rackspace and -Crowncloud. The latter even -accept payment in Bitcoin. Pick one that suit your need. Some of -them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are -quire different and you will have to figure out what suit you -best.

- -

While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers -and posters discussing the S3QL file system. There are several, which -told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the -science community and increased my confidence in using it. One nice -poster is titled -"An -Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject -Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach" by Hsing-Bung -Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields -and Pamela Smith. Please have a look.

- -

Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to -check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as -a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when -it come to locking and umask handling etc). Running -my -test code to check file system semantics, I was happy to discover that -no error was found. So the file system can be used for home -directories, if one chooses to do so.

- -

If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that -work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the -Tarsnap service, which also -provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client. It have -a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write -access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to -only read from it.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+
Updated version of the Norwegian web service FiksGataMi
+
30th December 2014
+

I am very happy that we in the +Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG), +spearheaded by Marius Halden from NUUG and Matthew Somerville from +MySociety, finally managed to upgrade the code base for the Norwegian +version of FixMyStreet. This + +was the first major update since 2011. The refurbished +FiksGataMi is already live, and +seem to hold up the pressure. The +press +release and announcement went out this morning.

+ +

FixMyStreet is a web platform for allowing the citizens to easily +report problems with public infrastructure to the responsible +authorities. Think of it as a shared mail client with map support, +allowing everyone to see what already was reported and comment on the +reports in public.

- Tags: debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet. + Tags: english, fiksgatami, nuug.
@@ -308,86 +51,112 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
-
EU-domstolen bekreftet i dag at datalagringsdirektivet er ulovlig
-
8th April 2014
-

I dag kom endelig avgjørelsen fra EU-domstolen om -datalagringsdirektivet, som ikke overraskende ble dømt ulovlig og i -strid med borgernes grunnleggende rettigheter. Hvis du lurer på hva -datalagringsdirektivet er for noe, så er det -en -flott dokumentar tilgjengelig hos NRK som jeg tidligere -har -anbefalt alle å se.

- -

Her er et liten knippe nyhetsoppslag om saken, og jeg regner med at -det kommer flere ut over dagen. Flere kan finnes -via -mylder.

- -

-

- -

Jeg synes det er veldig fint at nok en stemme slår fast at -totalitær overvåkning av befolkningen er uakseptabelt, men det er -fortsatt like viktig å beskytte privatsfæren som før, da de -teknologiske mulighetene fortsatt finnes og utnyttes, og jeg tror -innsats i prosjekter som -Freedombox og -Dugnadsnett er viktigere enn -noen gang.

- -

Update 2014-04-08 12:10: Kronerullingen for å -stoppe datalagringsdirektivet i Norge gjøres hos foreningen -Digitalt Personvern, -som har samlet inn 843 215,- så langt men trenger nok mye mer hvis - -ikke Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet bytter mening i saken. Det var -kun -partinene Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet som stemte for -Datalagringsdirektivet, og en av dem må bytte mening for at det skal -bli flertall mot i Stortinget. Se mer om saken -Holder -de ord.

+
Lær kidsa koding har vanligvis ikke samtykkeerklæringer
+
21st December 2014
+

Bruken av samtykkeerklæring i forbindelse med Lær kidsa koding +(LKK), +som +jeg omtalte for noen dager siden, var så overraskende at jeg tok +kontakt med de som koordinerer LKK koding sentralt for å høre hvor +ofte foreldre har blitt bedt om a signere på samtykkeerklæringer i +forbindelse med LKK, og om jeg kunne få kopi av de som var brukt i +fjor og i år.

+ +

Simen Sommerfeldt svarte og fortalte at LKK koding sentralt ikke +hadde hørt om bruk av samtykkeerklæringer i sammenheng med LKK før +saken kom opp i Aftenposten, og at dette dermed var en helt ny +problemstilling som de ikke hadde noen rutiner og regler for. Slike +oppslag og protester var ikke en situasjon de ønsket å komme opp i +igjen, så de planlegger å lage en policy rundt dette som gjør at det +ikke gjentar seg. Han fortalte videre at de har bedt +Microsoft-folkene formulere et forslag til policy-tekst som ikke kan +misforstås nå som Microsoft har erfart hvor galt det kan gå.

+ +

Han fortalte også at Christine Korme hos Microsoft hadde +forfattet følgende tekst som hun ba om ble sendt til alle som spør:

+ +

+

«Først og fremst; vi beklager på det sterkeste at en feil hos oss + har ført til et slikt oppslag. I Microsoft Norge støtter vi LKK med + hjerte og sjel og ønsker på ingen må at det skal stilles spørsmål + ved det fantastiske arbeidet som gjøres av LKK! Jeg beklager dette + på det sterkeste og ber om å få lov til å forklare.

+ +

Microsoft var til stede i 5. klasse på Ruseløkka skole for å kjøre + en kodetime. Vi hadde med et TV-team fra TV2 God Morgen Norge og et + TV-team fra Microsoft. Foresatte ble bedt om å gi et skriftlig + samtykke for at opptak og bilder av barna kunne brukes. Microsoft + bruker ikke bilder eller opptak av barn uten at et skriftlig + samtykke gis av foresatte. Alle barna i klassen skulle delta i + kodetimen helt uavhengig av om det var gitt samtykke for filming + eller ikke. Barn som ikke skulle filmes ble plassert bakerst i + klassen slik at de ikke kom med på bilder. Men alle elever var med + og alle fikk hjelp av oss - selvfølgelig. Jeg var selv til stede og + tror jeg på vegne av alle kan si; dette var gøy! Det medfører altså + ikke på noen som helst måte riktighet at noen elever ble ekskludert + dersom deres foresatte ikke hadde skrevet under en + samtykkeerklæring. Klassen på Ruseløkka var det eneste stedet det + var med et Microsoft TV-team i løpet av kodeuken.

+ +

I går ettermiddag ble jeg ringt opp av en journalist fra + Aftenposten om saken. Foreldre hadde reagert på + samtykkeerklæringen. Hverken lærer for femteklassen, rektor eller + jeg hadde hørt fra noen foreldre før Aftenposten ringte onsdag + ettermiddag.

+ +

I Microsoft har vi kommet i skade for å bruke et standard formular + som samtykkeerklæring. Dette er ikke dekkende for Microsofts bruk av + denne filmen. Det beklager jeg sterkt. En ny samtykkeerklæring er i + dag sendt til skolen. Denne samtykkeerklæringen mener vi klargjør + bruken av opptakene.

+ +

Det har aldri vært vår hensikt å bruke opptakene i kommersiell + sammenheng. Filmen på 2-3 minutter lages for å vise hva Microsoft i + de nordiske landene bidro med under kodeuken. Filmen vil bli vist + internt i Microsoft og eksternt i forbindelse med arrangementer og + diskusjoner som handler om undervisning i koding og informatikk. + Filmen vil også være tilgjengelig på en Microsoft nettside som + handler om koding og undervisning av elever. I skrivende stund er + ingen bilder eller opptak brukt eller lagt ut noe sted. Disse vil + heller ikke bli brukt uten at foresatte til barn som medvirker har + skrevet under en ny samtykkeerklæring som understreker at bruken + ikke er kommersiell.

+ +

Jeg håper dette oppklarende og igjen beklager jeg på det sterkeste + at dette har inntruffet.

+ +

Microsoft Norge hjalp om lag 600 elever med å kode i kodeuken og + dette var en dugnad våre ansatte satte svært stor pris på å få + anledning til å støtte! Jeg håper ikke den uheldige delen av saken + overskygger det som hele tiden har vært det aller, aller viktigste + for oss: å lære kidsa å kode.»

+ +

+ +

Det betyr altså at vanligvis pleier Microsoft å be folk som sier ja +til å bli filmet om å holde på hemmelighetene til Microsoft, samt be +om lov til å bruke filmene kommersielt over hele verden i all fremtid, +men at de egentlig ikke hadde tenkt på om det var så lurt å gjøre det +samme med skoleelever i offentlig norsk skole. Og skolen tenkte +tydeligvis heller ikke så mye på problemstillingen da de lot Microsoft +dele ut forslaget til samtykkeerklæring til foreldrene. Altså svikt i +flere ledd, men alle hadde gode intensjoner og ønsker å støtte et godt +tiltak.

+ +

Jeg lurer på hvilke konsekvensen denne svikten får i skolenorge. +Blir det gjort bedre vurderinger i neste skole når noen vil filme? +Det høres i hvert fall ut som om Lær kidsa kode skal gjøre sitt, og +fortsatt sørge for at alle som ønsker det får lære å programmere, uten +å måtte akseptere urimelige vilkår.

+ +

Jeg har spurt Microsoft og skolen om kopi av opprinnelig og ny +samtykkeerklæring, men ikke fått svar ennå. Er spent på om det var +mer interessant i det opprinnelige, og hva som er endret i den nye.

- Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: norsk, personvern.
@@ -395,62 +164,39 @@ de ord.

-
ReactOS Windows clone - nice free software
-
1st April 2014
-

Microsoft have announced that Windows XP reaches its end of life -2014-04-08, in 7 days. But there are heaps of machines still running -Windows XP, and depending on Windows XP to run their applications, and -upgrading will be expensive, both when it comes to money and when it -comes to the amount of effort needed to migrate from Windows XP to a -new operating system. Some obvious options (buy new a Windows -machine, buy a MacOSX machine, install Linux on the existing machine) -are already well known and covered elsewhere. Most of them involve -leaving the user applications installed on Windows XP behind and -trying out replacements or updated versions. In this blog post I want -to mention one strange bird that allow people to keep the hardware and -the existing Windows XP applications and run them on a free software -operating system that is Windows XP compatible.

- -

ReactOS is a free software -operating system (GNU GPL licensed) working on providing a operating -system that is binary compatible with Windows, able to run windows -programs directly and to use Windows drivers for hardware directly. -The project goal is for Windows user to keep their existing machines, -drivers and software, and gain the advantages from user a operating -system without usage limitations caused by non-free licensing. It is -a Windows clone running directly on the hardware, so quite different -from the approach taken by the Wine -project, which make it possible to run Windows binaries on -Linux.

- -

The ReactOS project share code with the Wine project, so most -shared libraries available on Windows are already implemented already. -There is also a software manager like the one we are used to on Linux, -allowing the user to install free software applications with a simple -click directly from the Internet. Check out the -screen shots on the -project web site for an idea what it look like (it looks just like -Windows before metro).

- -

I do not use ReactOS myself, preferring Linux and Unix like -operating systems. I've tested it, and it work fine in a virt-manager -virtual machine. The browser, minesweeper, notepad etc is working -fine as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, my main test application -is the software included on a CD with the Lego Mindstorms NXT, which -seem to install just fine from CD but fail to leave any binaries on -the disk after the installation. So no luck with that test software. -No idea why, but hope someone else figure out and fix the problem. -I've tried the ReactOS Live ISO on a physical machine, and it seemed -to work just fine. If you like Windows and want to keep running your -old Windows binaries, check it out by -downloading the -installation CD, the live CD or the preinstalled virtual machine -image.

+
Of course USA loses in cyber war - NSA and friends made sure it would happen
+
19th December 2014
+

So, Sony caved in +(according +to Rob Lowe) and demonstrated that America lost its first cyberwar +(according +to Newt Gingrich). It should not surprise anyone, after the +whistle blower Edward Snowden documented that the government of USA +and their allies for many years have done their best to make sure the +technology used by its citizens is filled with security holes allowing +the secret services to spy on its own population. No one in their +right minds could believe that the ability to snoop on the people all +over the globe could only be used by the personnel authorized to do so +by the president of the United States of America. If the capabilities +are there, they will be used by friend and foe alike, and now they are +being used to bring Sony on its knees.

+ +

I doubt it will a lesson learned, and expect USA to lose its next +cyber war too, given how eager the western intelligence communities +(and probably the non-western too, but it is less in the news) seem to +be to continue its current dragnet surveillance practice.

+ +

There is a reason why China and others are trying to move away from +Windows to Linux and other alternatives, and it is not to avoid +sending its hard earned dollars to Cayman Islands (or whatever +tax haven +Microsoft is using these days to collect the majority of its +income. :)

- Tags: english, reactos. + Tags: english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -458,92 +204,64 @@ image.

-
Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal
-
30th March 2014
-

Debian Edu / Skolelinux -keep gaining new users. Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC, -#debian-edu, with a -wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great -contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.

- -

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

- -

My name is Roger Marsal, I'm 27 years old (1986 generation) and I -live in Barcelona, Spain. I've got a strong business background and I -work as a patrimony manager and as a real estate agent. Additionally, -I've co-founded a British based tech company that is nowadays on the -last development phase of a new social networking concept.

- -

I'm a Linux enthusiast that started its journey with Ubuntu four years -ago and have recently switched to Debian seeking rock solid stability -and as a necessary step to gain expertise.

- -

In a nutshell, I spend my days working and learning as much as I -can to face both my job, entrepreneur project and feed my Linux -hunger.

- -

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?

- -

I discovered the LTSP advantages -with "Ubuntu 12.04 alternate install" and after a year of use I -started looking for an alternative. Even though I highly value and -respect the Ubuntu project, I thought it was necessary for me to -change to a more robust and stable alternative. As far as I was using -Debian on my personal laptop I thought it would be fine to install -Debian and configure an LTSP server myself. Surprised, I discovered -that the Debian project also supported a kind of Edubuntu equivalent, -and after having some pain I obtained a Debian Edu network up and -running. I just loved it.

- -

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

I found a main advantage in that, once you know "the tips and -tricks", a new installation just works out of the box. It's the most -complete alternative I've found to create an LTSP network. All the -other distributions seems to be made of plastic, Debian Edu seems to -be made of steel.

- -

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

I found two main disadvantages.

- -

I'm not an expert but I've got notions and I had to spent a considerable -amount of time trying to bring up a standard network topology. I'm quite -stubborn and I just worked until I did but I'm sure many people with few -resources (not big schools, but academies for example) would have switched -or dropped.

- -

It's amazing how such a complex system like Debian Edu has achieved -this out-of-the-box state. Even though tweaking without breaking gets -more difficult, as more factors have to be considered. This can -discourage many people too.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and -Virtualbox.

- - -

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?

- -

I don't think there is a need for a particular strategy. The free -attribute in both "freedom" and "no price" meanings is what will -really bring free software to schools. In my experience I can think of -the "R" statistical language; a -few years a ago was an extremely nerd tool for university people. -Today it's being increasingly used to teach statistics at many -different level of studies. I believe free and open software will -increasingly gain popularity, but I'm sure schools will be one of the -first scenarios where this will happen.

+
Klarer ikke Microsoft å holde på hemmeligheter?
+
18th December 2014
+

Må Microsoft virkelig ha hjelp av unger for å holde på +hemmelighetene sine?

+ +

I dag kom det en fascinerende artikkel i Aftenposten om +hva +Microsoft har foreslått at foreldre går med på for å la ungene +delta på Lær kidsa koding på +skolen. De ber foreldrene om å få bruke bilder og video av ungene +kommersielt og gratis i all fremtid, hvilket var så drøyt at +Arbeiderpartiets bystyrerepresentant +Per Anders +Torvik Langerød tok opp saken opp under bystyrets muntlige +spørretime onsdag. Resultatet av dette er at Microsoft har trukket +tilbake teksten i samtykkeerklæringen og kommunikasjonsdirektør +Christine Korme i Microsoft sier i artikkelen at «Vi vil presentere en +ny erklæring som gjør det helt klart i hvilken forbindelse materialet +skal brukes, altså ikke-kommersielt», hvilket jo er fint. Jeg lurer +virkelig på hvordan teksten kunne slippe ut til foreldrene i første +omgang. Her har noen på skolen ikke fulgt med i timen, eller mangler +grunnleggende personverntrening.

+ +

Men bildet av samtykkeerklæringen inneholder også en annen +problematisk klausul, som ikke omtales overhodet i +Aftenposten-artikkelen. Neste punkt i erklæringen lyder:

+ +

+«Du aksepterer ikke å bruke eller videreformidle til en tredjepart +noen hemmelige eller fortrolige opplysninger som gis av Microsoft i +løpet av elevens deltagelse.» +

+ +

Mener Microsoft virkelig at foreldre og barn skal ta ansvar for at +Microsoft ikke klarer å holde hemmelig og fortrolig informasjon for +seg selv når de besøker en offentlig norsk skole? Jeg ville nektet +plent å signert på en avtale med en slik klausul, da det er Microsofts +ansvar å holde på sine hemmeligheter, og ikke noe mine barn og min +familie tar på oss erstatningsansvar for hvis de kommer på avveie.

+ +

Jeg lurer på om noen har fått se den nye samtykkeerklæringen? +Inneholder den fortsatt klausul om hemmelighold? Hvor mange er det +som hittil har signert på den gamle samtykkeerklæringen? Hvor har den +vært brukt? Savnet svar på disse spørsmålene i artikkelen, da de som +har signert på den gamle vel vil være bundet av den selv om ingen +flere signerer på den.

+ +

Lær kidsa koding er et glimrende initiativ, og jeg skulle ønske +noen av foreningen NUUGs medlemmer +hadde kapasitet til å delta i initiativet på NUUGs vegne. Selv tar +jobb, familie og eksisterende prosjekter allerede all tid. Slik +Microsoft tydeligvis holder på er det behov for noen med et annet syn +på livet som bidragsyter her.

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: norsk, nuug, personvern.
@@ -551,39 +269,115 @@ first scenarios where this will happen.

-
Dokumentaren om Datalagringsdirektivet sendes endelig på NRK
-
26th March 2014
-

Foreningen NUUG melder i natt at -NRK nå har bestemt seg for -når -den norske dokumentarfilmen om datalagringsdirektivet skal -sendes (se IMDB -for detaljer om filmen) . Første visning blir på NRK2 mandag -2014-03-31 kl. 19:50, og deretter visninger onsdag 2014-04-02 -kl. 12:30, fredag 2014-04-04 kl. 19:40 og søndag 2014-04-06 kl. 15:10. -Jeg har sett dokumentaren, og jeg anbefaler enhver å se den selv. Som -oppvarming mens vi venter anbefaler jeg Bjørn Stærks kronikk i -Aftenposten fra i går, -Autoritær -gjøkunge, der han gir en grei skisse av hvor ille det står til med -retten til privatliv og beskyttelsen av demokrati i Norge og resten -verden, og helt riktig slår fast at det er vi i databransjen som -sitter med nøkkelen til å gjøre noe med dette. Jeg har involvert meg -i prosjektene dugnadsnett.no -og FreedomBox for å -forsøke å gjøre litt selv for å bedre situasjonen, men det er mye -hardt arbeid fra mange flere enn meg som gjenstår før vi kan sies å ha -gjenopprettet balansen.

- -

Jeg regner med at nettutgaven dukker opp på -NRKs -side om filmen om datalagringsdirektivet om fem dager. Hold et -øye med siden, og tips venner og slekt om at de også bør se den.

+
Opphavsretts-status for «Empty Socks» fra 1927?
+
12th December 2014
+

For noen dager siden +annonserte +Nasjonalbiblioteket gladnyheten om at de i sine arkiver hadde +funnet et nitratfilm-eksemplar av en 87 år gammel Disney-film ved navn +Empty Socks, en film som tidligere var antatt tapt og der det i følge +nyhetsmeldinger var kun ca. 25 sekunder bevart for ettertiden. +Nasjonalbiblioteket hadde 5 minutter og 30 sekunder av filmen i sitt +magasin. Dette er flott for bevaringen av verdens kulturarv. 5,5 +minutter mindre tapt enn vi trodde av vår felles historie.

+ +

Men hvordan kunne filmen gå tapt, når arkivlovene i USA krevde at +publiserte filmer på den tiden ble deponert i bibliotek? Forklaringen +har jeg fra Lawrence Lessig og boken +Free Culture, som jeg holder på +å +oversette til norsk:

+ +

+

Dette er delvis på grunn av loven. Opphavsrettseiere var tidlig i + amerikansk opphavsrettslov nødt til å deponere kopier av sine verk i + biblioteker. Disse kopiene skulle både sikre spredning av kunnskap, + og sikre at det fantes en kopi av verket tilgjengelig når vernetiden + utløp, slik at andre kunne få tilgang til og kopiere verket.

+ +

Disse reglene gjaldt også for filmer. Men i 1915 gjorde + kongressbiblioteket et unntak for film. Filmer kunne bli + opphavsrettsbeskyttet så lenge det ble gjort slik deponering. Men + filmskaperne fikk så lov til å låne tilbake de deponerte filmene - + så lenge de ville uten noe kostnad. Bare i 1915 var det mer enn 5475 + filmer deponert og “lånt tilbake”. Dermed var det ikke noe eksemplar + i noe bibliotek når vernetiden til filmen utløp. Eksemplaret + eksisterer - hvis den finnes i det hele tatt - i arkivbiblioteket + til filmselskapet.

+

+ +

Nyheten gjorde meg nysgjerrig på om filmen kunne være falt i det +fri. En 87 år gammel film kunne jo tenkes å ha blitt en del av +allemannseiet, slik at vi alle kan bruke den til å bygge videre på vår +felles kultur uten å måtte be om tillatelse - slik Walt Disney gjorde +det i starten av sin karriere. Jeg spurte nasjonalbiblioteket, og de +sa nei. Hvordan kan det ha seg med en så gammel film? Jeg besteme +meg for å undersøke nærmere. En kan finne informasjon om den norske +vernetiden på +Lovdata +og Wikipedia. Her er et relevant utsnitt fra +siden om opphavsrett i den norske Wikipedia:

+ +

+ Ifølge åndsverkloven §§ 40-41 utløper vernetiden for et åndsverk 70 + år etter utløpet av opphavspersonens dødsår. [...] For filmverk + gjelder særlige regler: Her kommer ikke alle mulige opphavspersoner + i betraktning, men kun hovedregissøren, manusforfatteren, + dialogforfatteren og komponisten av filmmusikken. Vernetiden + begynner å løpe etter utgangen av dødsåret til den lengstlevende av + disse. [...] Der opphavspersonen er ukjent, utløper opphavsretten 70 + år etter første kjente offentliggjørelse av verket. Det er kun de + økonomiske rettighetene som faller bort i det vernetiden er + utløpt. De ideelle rettighetene må fortsatt respekteres, noe som + blant annet innebærer at man plikter å navngi opphavspersonen ved + tilgjengeliggjøring. +

+ +

I følge nettstedet +The +Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts er følgende personer gitt +æren for denne kortfilmen:

+ +
+ +
Regissør
+
Walt Disney (1901-12-05 – 1966-12-15) +70 år = 2037
+ +
Animasjon +
Ub Iwerks (1901-03-24 – 1971-07-07) +70 år = 2042 +
Rollin "Ham" Hamilton (1898-10-28 - 1951-06-03) +70 år = 2022 +
Hugh Harman (1903-08-31 – 1982-11-25) +70 år = 2053
+ +
Kamera +
Mike Marcus (?-?)
+ +
+ +

Alle fødsels- og dødsdatoene er fra engelske Wikipedia. Det er +ikke oppgitt navn på manusforfatter, dialogforfatter og komponist, men +jeg mistenker at tegnerne vil få opphavsrettigheter på tegnefilmer her +i Norge, og tar derfor med disse. Kameramannen vil ikke få noen +rettigheter så vidt jeg forstår, og er derfor ignorert her.

+ +

Slik jeg forstår den norske opphavsretten vil dermed dette +filmverket bli allemannseie (også kalt å falle i det fri) i 2053, 126 +år etter at det ble utgitt. Hvis kun regissørens rettigheter er +relevante, vil det skje i 2037, 110 år etter at det ble utgitt. Etter +det vil enhver kunne dele det med alle de har lyst til, fremføre det +offentlig eller klippe og lime i det for å lage sin egen film basert +på det - helt uten å måtte spørre noen om lov.

+ +

Måtte så Nasjonalbiblioteket spørre om lov før de kunne kopiere +sitt nitrat-eksemplar over på mer varig format? Nei, heldigvis. +Åndsverklovens § 16 sier at arkiv, bibliotek, museer og undervisnings- +og forskningsinstitusjoner har rett til å fremstille eksemplar av verk +for konserverings- og sikringsformål og andre særskilte formål.

- Tags: freedombox, mesh network, norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: freeculture, norsk, opphavsrett, video.
@@ -591,102 +385,70 @@ side om filmen om datalagringsdirektivet om fem dager. Hold et
-
Public Trusted Timestamping services for everyone
-
25th March 2014
-

Did you ever need to store logs or other files in a way that would -allow it to be used as evidence in court, and needed a way to -demonstrate without reasonable doubt that the file had not been -changed since it was created? Or, did you ever need to document that -a given document was received at some point in time, like some -archived document or the answer to an exam, and not changed after it -was received? The problem in these settings is to remove the need to -trust yourself and your computers, while still being able to prove -that a file is the same as it was at some given time in the past.

- -

A solution to these problems is to have a trusted third party -"stamp" the document and verify that at some given time the document -looked a given way. Such -notarius service -have been around for thousands of years, and its digital equivalent is -called a -trusted -timestamping service. The Internet -Engineering Task Force standardised how such service could work a -few years ago as RFC -3161. The mechanism is simple. Create a hash of the file in -question, send it to a trusted third party which add a time stamp to -the hash and sign the result with its private key, and send back the -signed hash + timestamp. Both email, FTP and HTTP can be used to -request such signature, depending on what is provided by the service -used. Anyone with the document and the signature can then verify that -the document matches the signature by creating their own hash and -checking the signature using the trusted third party public key. -There are several commercial services around providing such -timestamping. A quick search for -"rfc 3161 -service" pointed me to at least -DigiStamp, -Quo -Vadis, -Global Sign -and Global -Trust Finder. The system work as long as the private key of the -trusted third party is not compromised.

- -

But as far as I can tell, there are very few public trusted -timestamp services available for everyone. I've been looking for one -for a while now. But yesterday I found one over at -Deutches -Forschungsnetz mentioned in -a -blog by David Müller. I then found -a -good recipe on how to use the service over at the University of -Greifswald.

- -

The OpenSSL library contain -both server and tools to use and set up your own signing service. See -the ts(1SSL), tsget(1SSL) manual pages for more details. The -following shell script demonstrate how to extract a signed timestamp -for any file on the disk in a Debian environment:

+
How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie
+
22nd November 2014
+

By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using +sysvinit as its boot system by default. But how can one keep using +sysvinit in Jessie? It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes, +courtesy of +Erich +Schubert and +Simon +McVittie. + +

If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and +keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file +/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit with this content before +you upgrade:

-#!/bin/sh
-set -e
-url="http://zeitstempel.dfn.de"
-caurl="https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt"
-reqfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsq)
-resfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsr)
-cafile=chain.txt
-if [ ! -f $cafile ] ; then
-    wget -O $cafile "$caurl"
-fi
-openssl ts -query -data "$1" -cert | tee "$reqfile" \
-    | /usr/lib/ssl/misc/tsget -h "$url" -o "$resfile"
-openssl ts -reply -in "$resfile" -text 1>&2
-openssl ts -verify -data "$1" -in "$resfile" -CAfile "$cafile" 1>&2
-base64 < "$resfile"
-rm "$reqfile" "$resfile"
-

+Package: systemd-sysv +Pin: release o=Debian +Pin-Priority: -1 +

+ +

This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider +installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade +solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid +systemd as a default boot system. The end result should be that the +upgraded system keep using sysvinit.

+ +

If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to +get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by +debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the +installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot. Either by +using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the +preseed file used. First, the kernel command line argument: -

The argument to the script is the file to timestamp, and the output -is a base64 encoded version of the signature to STDOUT and details -about the signature to STDERR. Note that due to -a bug -in the tsget script, you might need to modify the included script -and remove the last line. Or just write your own HTTP uploader using -curl. :) Now you too can prove and verify that files have not been -changed.

- -

But the Internet need more public trusted timestamp services. -Perhaps something for Uninett or -my work place the University of Oslo -to set up?

+

+preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
+

+ +

Next, the line to use in a preseed file:

+ +

+d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
+

+ +

One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing +the sysvinit-core package.

+ +

I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the +sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs +on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware +devices show up during boot. But on the other hand, the new default +boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before +Jessie is released.

+ +

Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by +a +blog post by Torsten Glaser, added --purge to the preseed +line.

- Tags: english, sikkerhet. + Tags: bootsystem, debian, english.
@@ -694,54 +456,75 @@ to set up?

-
Video DVD reader library / python-dvdvideo - nice free software
-
21st March 2014
-

Keeping your DVD collection safe from scratches and curious -children fingers while still having it available when you want to see a -movie is not straight forward. My preferred method at the moment is -to store a full copy of the ISO on a hard drive, and use VLC, Popcorn -Hour or other useful players to view the resulting file. This way the -subtitles and bonus material are still available and using the ISO is -just like inserting the original DVD record in the DVD player.

- -

Earlier I used dd for taking security copies, but it do not handle -DVDs giving read errors (which are quite a few of them). I've also -tried using -dvdbackup -and genisoimage, but these days I use the marvellous python library -and program -python-dvdvideo -written by Bastian Blank. It is -in Debian -already and the binary package name is python3-dvdvideo. Instead -of trying to read every block from the DVD, it parses the file -structure and figure out which block on the DVD is actually in used, -and only read those blocks from the DVD. This work surprisingly well, -and I have been able to almost backup my entire DVD collection using -this method.

- -

So far, python-dvdvideo have failed on between 10 and -20 DVDs, which is a small fraction of my collection. The most common -problem is -DVDs -using UTF-16 instead of UTF-8 characters, which according to -Bastian is against the DVD specification (and seem to cause some -players to fail too). A rarer problem is what seem to be inconsistent -DVD structures, as the python library -claim -there is a overlap between objects. An equally rare problem claim -some -value is out of range. No idea what is going on there. I wish I -knew enough about the DVD format to fix these, to ensure my movie -collection will stay with me in the future.

- -

So, if you need to keep your DVDs safe, back them up using -python-dvdvideo. :)

+
Hvordan vurderer regjeringen H.264-patentutfordringen?
+
16th November 2014
+

For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke +juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da +H.264 ble tatt inn i statens +referansekatalog over standarder. Stig Hornnes i FAD tipset meg +om følgende som står i oppsumeringen til høringen om +referansekatalogen versjon 2.0, som jeg siden ved hjelp av en +innsynsforespørsel fikk tak i +PDF-utgaven av +datert 2009-06-03 (saksnummer 200803291, saksbehandler Henrik +Linnestad).

+ +

Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:

+ +

+4.4 Patentproblematikk + +

NUUG og Opera ser det som særlig viktig at forslagene knyttet til +lyd og video baserer seg på de royalty-frie standardene Vorbis, Theora +og FLAC.

+ +

Kommentarene relaterer seg til at enkelte standarder er åpne, men +inneholder tekniske prosedyrer som det i USA (og noen andre land som +Japan) er gitt patentrettigheter til. I vårt tilfelle berører dette +spesielt standardene Mp3 og H.264, selv om Politidirektoratet peker på +at det muligens kan være tilsvarende problematikk også for Theora og +Vorbis. Dette medfører at det i USA kan kreves royalties for bruk av +tekniske løsninger knyttet til standardene, et krav som også +håndheves. Patenter kan imidlertid bare hevdes i de landene hvor +patentet er gitt, så amerikanske patenter gjelder ikke andre steder +enn USA.

+ +

Spesielt for utvikling av fri programvare er patenter +problematisk. GPL, en "grunnleggende" lisens for distribusjon av fri +programvare, avviser at programvare kan distribueres under denne +lisensen hvis det inneholder referanser til patenterte rutiner som +utløser krav om royalties. Det er imidlertid uproblematisk å +distribuere fri programvareløsninger under GPL som benytter de +aktuelle standardene innen eller mellom land som ikke anerkjenner +patentene. Derfor finner vi også flere implementeringer av Mp3 og +H.264 som er fri programvare, lisensiert under GPL.

+ +

I Norge og EU er patentlovgivningen langt mer restriktiv enn i USA, +men det er også her mulig å få patentert metoder for løsning av et +problem som relaterer seg til databehandling. Det er AIF bekjent ikke +relevante patenter i EU eller Norge hva gjelder H.264 og Mp3, men +muligheten for at det finnes patenter uten at det er gjort krav om +royalties eller at det senere vil gis slike patenter kan ikke helt +avvises.

+ +

AIF mener det er et behov for å gi offentlige virksomheter mulighet +til å benytte antatt royaltyfrie åpne standarder som et likeverdig +alternativ eller i tillegg til de markedsledende åpne standardene.

+ +

+ +

Det ser dermed ikke ut til at de har vurdert patentspørsmålet i +sammenheng med opphavsrettsvilkår slik de er formulert for f.eks. +Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Sorenson-verktøyene, +der det kreves brukstillatelse for patenter som ikke er gyldige i +Norge for å bruke disse verktøyene til annet en personlig og ikke +kommersiell aktivitet når det gjelder H.264-video. Jeg må nok lete +videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.

- Tags: english, multimedia, opphavsrett, video. + Tags: multimedia, norsk, opphavsrett, standard, video, web.
@@ -749,56 +532,81 @@ python-dvdvideo. :)

-
Norsk utgave av Alaveteli / WhatDoTheyKnow på trappene
-
16th March 2014
-

Det offentlige Norge har mye kunnskap og informasjon. Men hvordan -kan en få tilgang til den på en enkel måte? Takket være et lite -knippe lover og tilhørende forskrifter, blant annet -offentlighetsloven, -miljøinformasjonsloven -og -forvaltningsloven -har en rett til å spørre det offentlige og få svar. Men det finnes -intet offentlig arkiv over hva andre har spurt om, og dermed risikerer en -å måtte forstyrre myndighetene gang på gang for å få tak i samme -informasjonen på nytt. Britiske -mySociety har laget tjenesten -WhatDoTheyKnow som gjør -noe med dette. I Storbritannia blir WhatdoTheyKnow brukt i -ca -15% av alle innsynsforespørsler mot sentraladministrasjonen. -Prosjektet heter Alaveteli, og -er takk i bruk en rekke steder etter at løsningen ble generalisert og -gjort mulig å oversette. Den hjelper borgerne med å be om innsyn, -rådgir ved purringer og klager og lar alle se hvilke henvendelser som -er sendt til det offentlige og hvilke svar som er kommet inn, i et -søkpart arkiv. Her i Norge holder vi i foreningen NUUG på å få opp en -norsk utgave av Alaveteli, og her trenger vi din hjelp med -oversettelsen.

- -

Så langt er 76 % av Alaveteli oversatt til norsk bokmål, men vi -skulle gjerne vært oppe i 100 % før lansering. Oversettelsen gjøres -på Transifex, -der enhver som registrerer seg og ber om tilgang til -bokmålsoversettelsen får bidra. Vi har satt opp en test av tjenesten -(som ikke sender epost til det offentlige, kun til oss som holder på å -sette opp tjenesten) på maskinen -alaveteli-dev.nuug.no, der -en kan se hvordan de oversatte meldingen blir seende ut på nettsiden. -Når tjenesten lanseres vil den hete -Mimes brønn, etter -visdomskilden som Odin måtte gi øyet sitt for å få drikke i. Den -nettsiden er er ennå ikke klar til bruk.

- -

Hvis noen vil oversette til nynorsk også, så skal vi finne ut -hvordan vi lager en flerspråklig tjeneste. Men i første omgang er -fokus på bokmålsoversettelsen, der vi selv har nok peiling til å ha -fått oversatt 76%, men trenger hjelp for å komme helt i mål. :)

+
A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4
+
10th November 2014
+

The right to communicate with your friends and family in private, +without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal +democracy. But this right is under serious attack these days.

+ +

A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet +surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by +the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email, +is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor. Such SMTP option would be +a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email +between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails +to the people peeking on the wire. I +proposed +this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October and got a +lot of useful feedback and suggestions. It also became obvious to me +that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and +documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both +the +Mailpile and the Cables systems +propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.

+ +

To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service +providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses +looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion. With such addresses +the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will +go to the correct SMTP server. To do this, one need to configure the +Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept +emails for this .onion domain. To learn more about Exim configuration +in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I +set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to +set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian. Getting it to work +were fairly easy, and +the +source code for the Debian package is available from github. I +plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a +useful approach.

+ +

If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any +mail system installed (or run apt-get purge exim4-config to +get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned +above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run +/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service and follow +the instructions to get the service up and running. Restart tor and +exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like +this:

+ +

+torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
+  --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
+

+ +

This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email +address with your own address to test your server. :)

+ +

The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made +easier and more automatic. Especially the tor setup need more work. +Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task +should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb +architecture independent. It would probably also make the code easier +to review. The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for +exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd. It would be better if +no daemon and no socket is needed. I suspect it is possible to get +exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a +socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this +system.

+ +

Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the +fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion mail address, deliverable over +SMTorP. :)

- Tags: norsk, nuug, offentlig innsyn. + Tags: debian, english, freedombox, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -806,70 +614,192 @@ fått oversatt 76%, men trenger hjelp for å komme helt i mål. :)

-
Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine
-
14th March 2014
-

The Freedombox -project is working on providing the software and hardware for -making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and -communication at home, and being able to communicate with their -friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes. It has been -going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test -release (0.2).

- -

And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the -new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for -Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization -system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed -file. The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie, -where most of the needed packages used are already present. Only one, -the freedombox-setup package, is missing. To try to build your own -boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts -and build using -vmdebootstrap -with a user with sudo access to become root: +

First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)
+
27th October 2014
+

I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just +sent out +this +announcement:

-git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
-  freedom-maker
-sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
-  mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
-  u-boot-tools
-make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
-
+The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu +Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0 + +Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its +various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations +and laptops which will work together on the school network. With +Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can +roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within +hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications +pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian. + +For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and +installation instructions are available, including detailed +instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as +setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password +for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length +of at least 5 characters! + + [1] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie > + +Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you +tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer +reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all +the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week? +Check out Debian Edu Jessie! + +Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world, +mostly in Germany and Norway. + +About Debian Edu and Skolelinux +=============================== + +Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based +on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely +configured school network. Immediately after installation a school +server running all services needed for a school network is set up just +waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable +Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after +initial installation of the main server from CD 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[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and +schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop +environment. + + [2] <URL: http://www.skolelinux.org/ > + [3] <URL: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html > + +Full release notes and manual +============================= + +Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features +and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full +list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for +the English version.) For some languages manual translations are +available, see the manual translation overview[5]. + + [4] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features > + [5] <URL: http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ > + +Where to get it +--------------- + +To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use + + * ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso + * http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso + * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso . + +The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095 + +New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27 +=============================================================================== + + +Installation changes +-------------------- + + * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present. + +Software updates +---------------- + +Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg: + + * Linux kernel 3.16.x + * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10, + LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to + choose one of the others see manual.) + * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 + * !LibreOffice 4.3.3 + * GOsa 2.7.4 + * LTSP 5.5.4 + * CUPS print system 1.7.5 + * new boot framework: systemd + * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 + * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02 + * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14 + * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0 + * golearn 0.9 + * tuxpaint 0.9.22 + * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie. + * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for + installation. + * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release + notes[6] and the installation manual[7]. + + [6] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes > + [7] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual > + +Fixed bugs +---------- + + * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break + DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect + information is corrected (Debian bug #710362) + * and many others. + +Documentation and translation updates +------------------------------------- + + * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French, + Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for + Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish. + +Other changes +------------- + + * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main + server takes more time. + * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631 + doesn't work. + +Regressions / known problems +---------------------------- + + * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about + exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694 + and Debian bug #762103). + * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug + #764594). The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node. + * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not + work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access. + Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie. -

Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback -devices. See the README for more details on the build. If you do not -want all three images, trim the make line. But note that thanks to a race condition in -vmdebootstrap, the build might fail without the patch to the -kpartx call.

+See the status page[8] for the complete list. -

If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed -method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load -the preseed values:

+ [8] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie > -
-url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat
-
+How to report bugs +------------------ + +<URL: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs > -

But note that due to a -recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie, the installer will -currently hang while setting up APT sources. Killing the -'apt-cdrom ident' process when it hang a few times during the -installation will get the installation going. This affect all -installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.

- -

Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help -us get the new release published. :) Please join us on -IRC (#freedombox on -irc.debian.org) and -the -mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

+About Debian +============ + +The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly +free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of +the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of +volunteers from all over the world work together to create and +maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a +huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal +operating system. + +Contact Information +For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send +mail to press@debian.org. + + [9] <URL: http://www.debian.org/ > +
- Tags: debian, english, freedombox, sikkerhet, surveillance, web. + Tags: debian edu, english.
@@ -877,94 +807,32 @@ mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

-
How to add extra storage servers in Debian Edu / Skolelinux
-
12th March 2014
-

On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for -storing user home directories and data. The design for handling this -in Debian Edu / Skolelinux, is -to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on -the clients take care of the rest. I was reminded about the need to -document this better when one of the customers of -Skolelinux Drift AS, where I am -on the board of directors, asked about how to do this. The steps to -get this working are the following:

- -

    - -
  1. Add new storage server in DNS. I use nas-server.intern as the -example host here.
    2. - -
  2. Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow -all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust.
    3. - -
  3. Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because -tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops.
    4. - -

- -

DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here. Follow the -instructions -in the manual (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting -started).

- -

Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the -relevant subnets or machines:

- -

-root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server
-Export list for nas-server:
-/storage         10.0.0.0/8
-root@tjener:~#
-

- -

Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the -/storage export. With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to -netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the -NFS access.

- -

The next step is to update LDAP. This can not be done using GOsa², -because it lack a module for automount. Instead, use ldapvi and add -the required LDAP objects using an editor.

- -

-ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD '(cn=admin)' -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-

- -

When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the -bottom of the document. The "/&" part in the last LDAP object is a -wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the -need to list individual mount points in LDAP.

- -

-add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-objectClass: automount
-cn: nas-server
-automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-
-add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-objectClass: top
-objectClass: automountMap
-ou: auto.nas-server
-
-add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-objectClass: automount
-cn: /
-automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/&
-

- -

The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in -tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount -directories using mkdir and running "mount -a" to mount them.

- -

When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on -the storage server directly by just visiting the -/tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any -workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.

+
I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic
+
23rd October 2014
+

I spent last weekend at Makercon +Nordic, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and +the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the +Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we +had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in +a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the +regular video equipment for NUUG, with a +dvswitch, a +camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides +live.

+ +

Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the +around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is +now becoming +public on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license +NUUG always use on our recordings, which is +Creative +Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge. Many great +talks available. Check it out! :)

- Tags: debian edu, english, ldap. + Tags: english, nuug, video.
@@ -988,7 +856,23 @@ workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.

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    • @@ -1163,61 +1047,65 @@ workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.

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