X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/10debe066a2b5541ad45a7d533c20240c1c3e78a..d6886f7be80b96366e231e17e1aba1aa839e969e:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 01d9528229..12d04c8d16 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,6 +19,244 @@ +
+
LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI
+
2010-06-28 00:30
+
+

The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP +directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI +tool to browse the LDAP tree. The only one I was able to find in +Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is +LUMA, which has proved to +be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory +populated by default in Skolelinux. Thanks to it, I have been able to +find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate +objects. It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze. If you +are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)

+ +

I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to +the BTS yet. There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do +not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the +Debian submenu in KDE. I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is +released.

+ +

I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet. I would +like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have +not found a way to do that with LUMA yet. So in the mean time, I use +ldapvi for that.

+ +

If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful +in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

+
+
+ + + + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, ldap, nuug. + +
+
+
+ +
+
Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object
+
2010-06-24 00:35
+
+

A while back, I +complained +about the fact that it is not possible with the provided schemas +for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets +of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.

+ +

In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make +the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with +the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one +computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.

+ +

If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change +without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I +do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for +Debian Edu.

+ +

Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change +the +DHCP +schema to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas +available today from IETF.

+ +
+--- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
++++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
+@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
+ objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
+        NAME 'dhcpHost'
+        DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
+-       SUP top
++       SUP top AUXILIARY
+        MUST cn
+        MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
+        X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
+
+ +

I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian +Edu/Squeeze. We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config +package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.

+ +

If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, +please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

+
+
+ + + + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, ldap, nuug. + +
+
+
+ +
+
Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output
+
2010-06-16 14:55
+
+

A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel +installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now, +I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem +of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a +conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like +this: + +

+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+tasksel --new-install
+
+ +This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the +tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without +any output what so ever. + +Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic +package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without +any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it +happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel +when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line +printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using +code like this: + +
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
+$cmd
+
+ +

The content of $cmd is typically something like "aptitude -q +--without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install +~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired +~pimportant", which will install the gnome desktop task, the +laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and +important, just like tasksel would have done it during +installation.

+ +

A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to +install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases +like this.

+
+
+ + + + Tags: debian, english, nuug. + +
+
+
+ +
+
Vinmonopolet bryter loven åpenlyst - og flere planlegger å gjøre det samme
+
2010-06-16 11:00
+
+

Dagbladet +melder at Vinmonopolet med bakgrunn i vekterstreiken som pågår i +Norge for tiden, har bestemt seg for med vitende og vilje å bryte +sentralbanklovens paragraf 14 ved å nekte folk å betale med +kontanter, og at flere butikker planlegger å følge deres eksempel. +Jeg synes det er hårreisende hvis de slipper unna med et slikt +soleklart lovbrudd, og lurer på hva slags muligheter jeg vil ha hvis +jeg blir nektet å handle med kontanter. Jeg handler i hovedsak med +kontanter selv, da jeg anser det som en borgerrett å kunne handle +anonymt uten at det blir registrert. For meg er det et angrep på mitt +personvern å nekte å ta imot kontant betaling.

+ +

Paragrafen +i sentralbankloven lyder:

+ +
+

§ 14. Tvungent betalingsmiddel

+ +

Bankens sedler og mynter er tvungent betalingsmiddel i Norge. Ingen +er pliktig til i én betaling å ta imot mer enn femogtyve mynter av +hver enhet.

+ +

Sterkt skadde sedler og mynter er ikke tvungent +betalingsmiddel. Banken gir nærmere forskrifter om erstatning for +bortkomne, brente eller skadde sedler og mynter.

+ +

Selv om en avtale inneholder klausul om betaling av en +pengeforpliktelse i gullverdi, kan skyldneren frigjøre seg med tvungne +betalingsmidler uten hensyn til denne klausul.

+
+ +

Det er med bakgrunn i denne lovet ikke tillatt å nekte å ta imot +kontakt betaling. Det er en lov jeg har sans for, og som jeg mener må +håndheves strengt.

+
+
+ + + + Tags: norsk, personvern. + +
+
+
+ +
+
Officeshots taking shape
+
2010-06-13 11:40
+
+

For those of us caring about document exchange and +interoperability, OfficeShots +is a great service. It is to ODF documents what +BrowserShots is for web +pages.

+ +

A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia +that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project +and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be +interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his +request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with +a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut +arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is +administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily +contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to +see how the project is doing.

+ +

Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our +machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as +OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents +in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and +Windows. This is great.

+
+
+ + + + Tags: english, standard. + +
+
+
+
Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude
2010-06-13 09:05
@@ -519,188 +757,6 @@ choice.

-
-
A manual for standards wars...
-
2010-06-06 14:15
-
-

Via the -blog -of Rob Weir I came across the very interesting essay named -The Art of -Standards Wars (PDF 25 pages). I recommend it for everyone -following the standards wars of today.

-
-
- - - - Tags: debian, debian edu, english, standard. - -
-
-
- -
-
Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site
-
2010-06-03 12:05
-
-

When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible -to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI -information extracted from each machine. The script to do so is -included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from -the Skolelinux build servers:

- -
-maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
-  vendor                    count
-  Dell Computer Corporation     1
-    PowerEdge 1750              1
-  IBM                           1
-    eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
-  Intel                         2
-  [no-dmi-info]                 3
-maintainer:~#
-
- -

The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables -provided in each machine. Here there are Intel machines without model -information listed with Intel as vendor and mo model, and virtual Xen -machines listed as [no-dmi-info]. One can add -l as a command line -option to list the individual machines.

- -

A larger list is -available from the the -city of Narvik, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also -provide the basic sitesummary report publicly. In their report there -are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on -their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions, -it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central -collector.

-
-
- - - - Tags: debian, debian edu, english, sitesummary. - -
-
-
- -
-
Togsatsing på norsk, mot sykkel
-
2010-06-02 23:45
-
-

Det står dårlig til med toget når en finner på å la det -kappkjøre -med sykkel... Jeg tror det trengs strukturendringer for å få -fikset på togproblemene i Norge.

- -

Mon tro hva toglinje mellom Narvik og Tromsø ville hatt slags -effekt på området der?

-
-
- - - - Tags: norsk. - -
-
-
- -
-
KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?
-
2010-06-01 17:05
-
-

It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to -start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled. The -problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to -initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to -wait.

- -

I came across two bugs related to this issue, -#583312 initially filed -against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious -that the nvidia drivers were involved, and -#524751 initially filed against -kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.

- -

To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the -problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian -distribution work out of the box for these users. The nvidia driver -maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect -the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and -while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a -distribution that work for them. I have no idea what the solution is, -but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.

- -

I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.

-
-
- - - - Tags: bootsystem, debian, debian edu, english. - -
-
-
- -
-
Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing
-
2010-05-27 23:55
-
-

A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing. -The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious -issues are known and should be solved: - -

- -

All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem -solvable before Squeeze is released. In addition to these there are -some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings, -which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.

- -

If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to -the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at -the -list of usertagged bugs related to this.

- -

Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.

-
-
- - - - Tags: bootsystem, debian, debian edu, english. - -
-
-
-

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