X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/14fb4053faf8143a66beec3c20fc517c075b0582..51d98ae3ba2fce3ed076d15c5ec88521669bccbc:/blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss b/blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss index 20962da3ca..baa8b0ac86 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss @@ -6,6 +6,315 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html + Sat, 27 Jul 2013 20:30:00 +0200 + <p>The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up +today. This is the release announcement:</p> + +<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released +2013-07-27</strong></p> + +<p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux +7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p> + +<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p> + +<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as +Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an +out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school +network. Immediately after installation a school server running all +services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users +and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting +environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of +the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be +installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP +database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home +directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The +desktop contains +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more +than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from +the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE +and Xfce desktop environment.</p> + +<p>This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically +this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the +Squeeze release.</p> + +<p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the +versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta +release.</p> + +<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p> + +<ul> + +<li>Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager + for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.</li> +<li>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.</li> +<li>Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).</li> +<li>Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).</li> +<li>Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of + crash bugs.</li> + +</ul> + +<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p> + +<ul> + +<li>Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break + desktop=gnome installations.</li> +<li>Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the + netinst CD.</li> +<li>Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific + setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.</li> +<li>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.</li> +<li>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.</li> +<li>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.</li> +<li>Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique + (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.</li> +<li>Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.</li> + +</ul> + +<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p> + +<ul> + +<li>Grub is missing the new artwork.</li> +<li>KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to + not use the http proxy as it should.</li> +<li>Chromium also fail to use the proxy.</li> + +</ul> + +<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p> + +<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li> + +<li><a href="http://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</a></li> + +<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .</li> + +</ul> + +<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109 +<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f</p> + +<p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li> +<li><a href="http://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</a></li> +<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .</li> + +</ul> + +<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69 +<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733</p> + + +<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p> + +<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a> + + + + + How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html + Wed, 17 Jul 2013 23:50:00 +0200 + <p>Today I switched to +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my +new laptop</a>. I've previously written about the problems I had with +my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180 +GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning. The +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source +for the ssd-setup package</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<ul> + +<li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk + (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li> + +<li>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.</li> + +<li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file + systems.</li> + +<li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to + /etc/fstab.</li> + +<li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li> + +<li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from + cron.daily).</li> + +<li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure + to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li> + +</ul> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why). +Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the +right thing to do.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as +this is already done by Debian Edu.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it +there.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + + Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html + Wed, 10 Jul 2013 13:30:00 +0200 + <p>A few days ago, I wrote about +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the +problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which +was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with +sustained write. My supplier is in contact with +<a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or +other large files. I look forward to hearing from my supplier with +the next proposal from Lenovo.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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).</p> + + + + + July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html + Tue, 9 Jul 2013 10:40:00 +0200 + <p>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 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the +member assosiation NUUG</a> and +<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux +project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space +Bitraf</a>.</p> + +<p>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 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event +wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p> + + + The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230? http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html @@ -80,6 +389,40 @@ fixed. :)</p> + + The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230 + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html + Thu, 4 Jul 2013 09:20:00 +0200 + <p>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 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad +X230</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, 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.</p> + +<p>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. :)</p> + +<p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p> + + + Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html