When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines, -the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation -or on first boot from the hard disk. I've seen it once in a while the -last few years, but only recently understood the cause. I've seen it -on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop. -The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops. The system to -control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to -turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead. I do -not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the -i915 driver used by the -Packard Bell -EasyNote LV, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.
- -The problem can be worked around two ways. Either by adding -i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in -/etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1 -option when it load the i915 kernel module. On Debian and Ubuntu, it -can be done by running these commands as root:
- --echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf -update-initramfs -u -k all -- -
Since March 2012 there is -a -mechanism in the Linux kernel to tell the i915 driver which -hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the -brightness setting automatically. To use it, one need to add a row in -the -intel_quirks array in the driver source -drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c (look for "static -struct intel_quirk intel_quirks"), specifying the PCI device -number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device -number.
- -My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from lspci --vvnn for the video card in question:
- --00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \ - 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \ - (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) - Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688] - Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \ - ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+ - Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \ -- -SERR- [disabled] - Capabilities: - Kernel driver in use: i915 -
The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:
- --struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = { - ... - /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */ - { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness }, - ... -} -- -
According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using -modinfo i915), information about hardware needing the -invert_brightness flag should be sent to the -dri-devel -(at) lists.freedesktop.org mailing list to reach the kernel -developers. But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not -yet shown up in -the -web archive for the mailing list, so I suspect they do not accept -emails from non-subscribers. Because of this, I sent my patch also to -the Debian bug tracking system instead as -BTS report #710938, to make -sure the patch is not lost.
- -Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops -with this problem working properly with Linux. If you use Gnome, your -worries should be over at this point. But if you use KDE, there is -something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on -the screen during login. I've reported it to Debian as -BTS report #711237, and -have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing -this. Perhaps you can help? Perhaps you know what the Gnome -developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE -developers? Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed -during login? If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if -you do not know how to update BTS).
+The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get +wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of +these. :)
+ +Via Debian +Project News for 2013-10-14 I came across the Outreach Program for +Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get +more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered +to match any donation done to Debian +earmarked for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and +hope you will to. :)
+ +And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to +create video +documentaries about the excessive spying on every Internet user that +take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already +donated. Are you next?
+ +For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og +Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a +statement under the heading +Bloggers United for Open +Access for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the +Norwegian government. So far 499 signatures. I hope you will sign it +too.
Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing +networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large +areas, depending on the radio technology used. Normal wifi equipment +can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several +successful examples like +Freifunk and +Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network +(see +wikipedia +for a large list) around the globe. To give you an idea how it +work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which +can be seen from their +dynamically +updated node graph and map, where one can see how the mesh nodes +automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing. +There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway, +and that is the main topic of this blog post.
+ +I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped +to do it as part of my involvement with the NUUG member organisation community, and +my recent involvement in +the Freedombox project +finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a +Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family +when possible, given that most communication between people are +between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook +communication patterns). It also allow people to communicate without +any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the +private communication of citizens, which have become more and more +important over the years.
+ +So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo +working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space +Hackeriet at Husmania. They seem to +have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called +the Oslo +Freifunk project, but that effort is now dead and the people +behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called +meshfx. Unfortunately the wiki +site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to +reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to +the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people +from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I +came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the +speakers about this talk (from +youtube):
+ + + +I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols. +There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to +figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but +given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it +is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a +completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on +batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool +Serval project in Australia +is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self +organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and +less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting +that project (from +youtube):
+ + + +According to the wikipedia page on +Wireless +mesh network there are around 70 competing schemes for routing +packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and +B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software +based community mesh networks.
+ +The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2 +(as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same +network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based +vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your +computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at +least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A +good +introduction is available from the Open Mesh project. These are +the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:
+ +Setting | Value |
---|---|
Protocol / kernel module | batman-adv |
ESSID | meshfx@hackeriet | Channel / Frequency | 11 / 2462 | +Cell ID | 02:BA:00:00:00:01 | +
The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs +in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from +VillageTelco about +"Information +about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges! +for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some +other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh +network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to +any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)
+ +My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node, +but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a +firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old +wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.
+ +If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join +us on IRC, either channel +#oslohackerspace +or #nuug on +irc.freenode.net.
+ +While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old +research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research +and Innovation called +The +reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks and elsewhere +learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at +Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for +commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard +to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I +know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would +be interested in a cooperation?
+ +Update 2013-10-12: I was just +told +by the Serval project developers that they no longer use +batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based +mesh system.
+The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up -today. This is the release announcement:
+ +The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo +Salvador had published a +video on +Youtube showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu / +Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or +on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network +services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc, +in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long, +and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked). +Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium +showing the Zygote Body 3D model +of the human body, but I guess he did not know about those or find +other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the +advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian +Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of +computers without hard drives by installing one central +LTSP server.
+ +Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:
+ + + +Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let +me know. :)
+A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of +Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team. The +complete announcement text can be found at +the Debian News +section, translated to several languages. Please check it out.
+ +There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon. One +can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/ +partition is too small. A workaround is to extend the partition (use +lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).
+The Freedombox +project have been going on for a while, and have presented the +vision, ideas and solution several places. Here is a little +collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.
-New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released -2013-06-10
+-
-
- FreedomBox - +2,5 minute marketing film (Youtube) -
- Eben Moglen +discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011 (Youtube) -
- Eben Moglen - +Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for +Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010 +(Youtube) -
- Fosdem 2011 +Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox (Youtube) -
- Presentation of +the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011 (Youtube) -
- Freedombox - +Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New +York City in 2012 (Youtube) -
- Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1) -
- Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703). -
- Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4. -
- Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default. -
- Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default. +
- Introduction +to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012 +(Youtube) -
- Freedom, Out +of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012 (Youtube) -
- Freedombox +1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013 (FOSDEM) -
- What is the +FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus +2013 (Youtube) -
- The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used. -
- Updated translation of the installation. -
- New Romanian translation. -
- Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat. -
- Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login). -
- Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments. -
- New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile. -
- Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS. -
- More testsuite tests. -
- Make automatic proxy configuration more robust. -
- Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration. +
- Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with -LTSP in Wheezy. +
This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu -alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".
+About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
+Debian Edu, also known as -Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an -out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school -network. Immediately after installation a school server running all -services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users -and machines being added via 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 -more -than 60 educational software packages and more are available from -the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE -and Xfce desktop environment.
+This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically -this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the -Squeeze release.
+Software updates
+-
+
Other changes
+-
+
A larger list is available from +the +Freedombox Wiki.
+ +On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian +Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using +Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In +a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian. +The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is +pending in NEW. The third and vital part of that puzzle is the +metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload. Join +us on IRC +(#freedombox on irc.debian.org) and +the +mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.
+The third wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up +today. This is the release announcement from Holger Levsen:
-+Hi,
-Update IMAP server setup. +it is my pleasure to announce the third beta release (beta 2 for +short) of Debian Edu / +Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy!
-Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in -slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly -entered password). +Please test these images extensivly, if no new problems are found +we plan to do this final Debian Edu Wheezy release this coming +weekend. We are not aware of any major problems or blockers in beta2, +if you find something, please notify us immediately!
- +(More about the remaining steps for the Edu Wheezy release in +another mail to the edu list tonight or tomorrow...)
-Known issues
+Noteworthy changes and software updates for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b2 +compared to beta1:
-
+ +- DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.
+- The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This +also gets Chromium to use this proxy.
+- Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer +understand ical/dav sources.
+- Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the +main server.
+- A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.
+- Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick +(6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug +(0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image +(3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).
+ +Where to get it:
-No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) -available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager: -missing import feature). +To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
-Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). ++
-- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso
+- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso
+- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso .
+KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents -own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain -unfixed. +The SHA1SUM of this image is: 3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f
+To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use +
+
-- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso
+- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso
+- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso .
Where to get it
+The SHA1SUM of this image is: 702d1718548f401c74bfa6df9f032cc3ee16597e
-To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
+The Source DVD image has the filename +debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-source-DVD.iso and the SHA1SUM +089eed8b3f962db47aae1f6a9685e9bb2fa30ca5 and is available the same way +as the other isos.
-+
+How to report bugs
-- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso
+For information how to report bugs please see +
-
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso
-- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .
+About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based +on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely +configured school network. Immediately after installation a school +server running all services needed for a school network is set up just +waiting for users and machines being added via 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 and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools +can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE and Xfce desktop environment.
-The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178 -
+
The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419This is the seventh test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically +this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the +Squeeze release.
-How to report bugs
+Notes for upgrades from Alpha Prereleases
-http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs +
Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the +versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta +release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or +deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep +gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined on the mailing list. (2) +Accept the new version of gosa.conf and replace both contained admin +password placeholders with the password hashes found in the old one +(backup copy!). In both cases all users need to change their password +to make sure a password is set for CIFS access to their home +directory.
+ + +cheers, +
+
Holger