Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images

27th October 2013

The -vmdebootstrap -program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images. It -create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run -debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a -stick. Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for -Raspberry Pi, as part -of a plan to simplify the build system for -the FreedomBox -project. The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for -the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap -based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for -Raspberry Pi.

- -

Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native -architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap -code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64 -Debian laptop. I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options, -allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make -Debian -Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi. First, the ---foreign /path/to/binfm_handler option tell vmdebootstrap to -call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the -generated chroot before running the second stage. This allow -vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host. Next I added -two new options --bootsize size and --boottype -fstype to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the -given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat -partition for the /boot/ stuff. I also added a --variant -variant option to allow me to create smaller images without the -Debian base system packages installed. Finally, I added an option ---no-extlinux to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux -as a boot loader. It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably -most other non-x86 architectures. The changes were accepted by the -upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now -available from -the -upstream project page.

- -

To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first -create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free -binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source -list:

- -

-#!/bin/sh
-set -e # Exit on first error
-rootdir="$1"
-cd "$rootdir"
-cat <<EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
-deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
-EOF
-# Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
-# install a kernel somewhere too.
-wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
-    -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
-chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
-mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
-touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
-chroot $rootdir rpi-update
-

- -

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

- -

-sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
-    --variant minbase \
-    --arch armel \
-    --distribution jessie \
-    --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
-    --image test.img \
-    --size 600M \
-    --bootsize 64M \
-    --boottype vfat \
-    --log-level debug \
-    --verbose \
-    --no-kernel \
-    --no-extlinux \
-    --root-password raspberry \
-    --hostname raspberrypi \
-    --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
-    --customize `pwd`/customize \
-    --package netbase \
-    --package git-core \
-    --package binutils \
-    --package ca-certificates \
-    --package wget \
-    --package kmod
-

- -

The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by -rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the -exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find -/etc/hosts with the minbase variant. I really wish there was a way to -set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but -that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU -using a non-free binary blob.

- -

The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and -probably a few others installed. I have not checked the complete -build dependency list.

- -

The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit -on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not -optimized for that use. So the images created will be a bit slower -than Raspbian based images.

Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian

9th August 2017

On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian +web based ICT news magazine digi.no on +how +to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones using the cheap +DVB-T software defined radios. The article refered to instructions +and a recipe by +Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher, and I decided to test them out.

+ +

The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to +bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip), +and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from +scratch. I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent +Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build +stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or +some other version skew problem. While trying to get this recipe +working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour, +and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the +gr-gsm package. I also found out that the lead upstream developer of +gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of +Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository. All I needed to +do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.

+ +

The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the +loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM +packages with IMSI numbers in them. The code is fairly short and easy +to understand. The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool +to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick +and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a +network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by +default). This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the +collector for a few days now.

+ +

The updated and simpler recipe is thus to

+ +

start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,
build and install the gr-gsm package available from +http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/,
clone the git repostory from https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher,
run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal +where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you +found a GSM station).
go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.

+ +

To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and +running, I decided to package +the gr-gsm project +for Debian (WNPP +#871055), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today. +Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not +know much about gnuradio stuff yet.

+ +

I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as +commercial tools like +The +Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher or the +Harris +Stingray, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make +more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone +is easily tracked. Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that +I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also +wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to +track the position of the police officers to discover when there are +police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location +of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location +of government officials...

+ +

It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher +script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on +the GSM network. It will only collect one frequency at the time, +while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all +phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod +program. Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the +simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the +parser code. I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than +one frequency?

- Tags: debian, english, freedombox, mesh network. + Tags: debian, english, personvern, surveillance.

@@ -141,51 +117,37 @@ than Raspbian based images.

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

26th October 2013

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

- -

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

- -

Og jo flere nettsteder som bruker Google Analytics, jo bedre -oversikt over stortingsrepresentantenes lesevaner og interesse blir -tilgjengelig for svensk, britisk og USAs etterretning. Hva de kan -bruke den informasjonen til overlater jeg til leseren Ã¥ undres -over.

Norwegian BokmÃ¥l edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available

25th July 2017

+ +

I finally received a copy of the Norwegian BokmÃ¥l edition of +"The Debian Administrator's +Handbook". This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and +I am very happy to hold the result in my hand. We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition +is available +from lulu.com. If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list +price. The book is also available for download in electronic form as +PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be +read online +as a web page.

+ +

This is the second book I publish (the first was the book +"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig +in +English, +French +and +Norwegian +BokmÃ¥l), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this +project. I hope +"HÃ¥ndbok +for Debian-administratoren" will be well received.

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

@@ -193,93 +155,50 @@ over.

A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node

21st October 2013

The last few days I have been experimenting with -the -batman-adv mesh technology. I want to gain some experience to see -if it will fit the -Freedombox project, and together with my neighbors try to build a -mesh network around the park where I live. Batman-adv is a layer 2 -mesh system ("ethernet" in other words), where the mesh network appear -as if all the mesh clients are connected to the same switch.

- -

My hardware of choice was the Linksys WRT54GL routers I had lying -around, but I've been unable to get them working with batman-adv. So -instead, I started playing with a -Raspberry Pi, and tried to -get it working as a mesh node. My idea is to use it to create a mesh -node which function as a switch port, where everything connected to -the Raspberry Pi ethernet plug is connected (bridged) to the mesh -network. This allow me to hook a wifi base station like the Linksys -WRT54GL to the mesh by plugging it into a Raspberry Pi, and allow -non-mesh clients to hook up to the mesh. This in turn is useful for -Android phones using the Serval -Project voip client, allowing every one around the playground to -phone and message each other for free. The reason is that Android -phones do not see ad-hoc wifi networks (they are filtered away from -the GUI view), and can not join the mesh without being rooted. But if -they are connected using a normal wifi base station, they can talk to -every client on the local network.

- -

To get this working, I've created a debian package -meshfx-node -and a script -build-rpi-mesh-node -to create the Raspberry Pi boot image. I'm using Debian Jessie (and -not Raspbian), to get more control over the packages available. -Unfortunately a huge binary blob need to be inserted into the boot -image to get it booting, but I'll ignore that for now. Also, as -Debian lack support for the CPU features available in the Raspberry -Pi, the system do not use the hardware floating point unit. I hope -the routing performance isn't affected by the lack of hardware FPU -support.

- -

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

- -

-% wget -O build-rpi-mesh-node \
-    https://raw.github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/master/build-rpi-mesh-node
-% sudo bash -x ./build-rpi-mesh-node > build.log 2>&1
-% dd if=/root/rpi/rpi_basic_jessie_$(date +%Y%m%d).img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
-%
-

- -

Booting with the resulting SD card on a Raspberry PI with a USB -wifi card inserted should give you a mesh node. At least it does for -me with a the wifi card I am using. The default mesh settings are the -ones used by the Oslo mesh project at Hackeriet, as I mentioned in -an -earlier blog post about this mesh testing.

- -

The mesh node was not horribly expensive either. I bought -everything over the counter in shops nearby. If I had ordered online -from the lowest bidder, the price should be significantly lower:

- -

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

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

- -

Now my mesh network at home consist of one laptop in the basement -connected to my production network, one Raspberry Pi node on the 1th -floor that can be seen by my neighbor across the park, and one -play-node I use to develop the image building script. And some times -I hook up my work horse laptop to the mesh to test it. I look forward -to figuring out what kind of latency the batman-adv setup will give, -and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)

Â«Rapporten ser ikke pÃ¥ informasjonssikkerhet knyttet til personlig integritetÂ»

27th June 2017

Jeg kom over teksten +Â«Killing +car privacy by federal mandateÂ» av Leonid Reyzin pÃ¥ Freedom to +Tinker i dag, og det gleder meg Ã¥ se en god gjennomgang om hvorfor det +er et urimelig inngrep i privatsfÃ¦ren Ã¥ la alle biler kringkaste sin +posisjon og bevegelse via radio. Det omtalte forslaget basert pÃ¥ +Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) kalles Basic Safety Message +(BSM) i USA og Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM) i Europa, og det +norske Vegvesenet er en av de som ser ut til Ã¥ kunne tenke seg Ã¥ +pÃ¥legge alle biler Ã¥ fjerne nok en bit av innbyggernes privatsfÃ¦re. +Anbefaler alle Ã¥ lese det som stÃ¥r der. + +

Mens jeg tittet litt pÃ¥ DSRC pÃ¥ biler i Norge kom jeg over et sitat +jeg synes er illustrativt for hvordan det offentlige Norge hÃ¥ndterer +problemstillinger rundt innbyggernes privatsfÃ¦re i SINTEF-rapporten +Â«Informasjonssikkerhet +i AutoPASS-brikkerÂ» av Trond Foss:

+ +

+Â«Rapporten ser ikke pÃ¥ informasjonssikkerhet knyttet til personlig + integritet.Â» +

+ +

SÃ¥ enkelt kan det tydeligvis gjÃ¸res nÃ¥r en vurderer +informasjonssikkerheten. Det holder vel at folkene pÃ¥ toppen kan si +at Â«Personvernet er ivaretattÂ», som jo er den populÃ¦re intetsigende +frasen som gjÃ¸r at mange tror enkeltindividers integritet tas vare pÃ¥. +Sitatet fikk meg til Ã¥ undres pÃ¥ hvor ofte samme tilnÃ¦rming, Ã¥ bare se +bort fra behovet for personlig itegritet, blir valgt nÃ¥r en velger Ã¥ +legge til rette for nok et inngrep i privatsfÃ¦ren til personer i +Norge. Det er jo sjelden det fÃ¥r reaksjoner. Historien om +reaksjonene pÃ¥ Helse SÃ¸r-Ãsts tjenesteutsetting er jo sÃ¸rgelig nok et +unntak og toppen av isfjellet, desverre. Tror jeg fortsatt takker nei +til bÃ¥de AutoPASS og holder meg sÃ¥ langt unna det norske helsevesenet +som jeg kan, inntil de har demonstrert og dokumentert at de verdsetter +individets privatsfÃ¦re og personlige integritet hÃ¸yere enn kortsiktig +gevist og samfunnsnytte.

- Tags: english, freedombox, mesh network, nuug. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.

@@ -287,21 +206,66 @@ and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)

Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github

19th October 2013

Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to -the Spykee robot -(with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my -web page. Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is -easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github. If -you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out -the -libspykee-perl github repository.

Updated sales number for my Free Culture paper editions

12th June 2017

It is pleasing to see that the work we put down in publishing new +editions of the classic Free +Culture book by the founder of the Creative Commons movement, +Lawrence Lessig, is still being appreciated. I had a look at the +latest sales numbers for the paper edition today. Not too impressive, +but happy to see some buyers still exist. All the revenue from the +books is sent to the Creative +Commons Corporation, and they receive the largest cut if you buy +directly from Lulu. Most books are sold via Amazon, with Ingram +second and only a small fraction directly from Lulu. The ebook +edition is available for free from +Github.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Title / language	Quantity
Title / language	2016 jan-jun	2016 jul-dec	2017 jan-may
Culture Libre / French	3	6	15
Fri kultur / Norwegian	7	1	0
Free Culture / English	14	27	16
Total	24	34	31

+ +

A bit sad to see the low sales number on the Norwegian edition, and +a bit surprising the English edition still selling so well.

+ +

If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native +language, I would be happy to help make it happen. Please get in +touch.

- Tags: english, nuug, robot. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.

@@ -309,38 +273,59 @@ libspykee-perl github repository.

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

15th October 2013

The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get -wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of -these. :)

- -

Via Debian -Project News for 2013-10-14 I came across the Outreach Program for -Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get -more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered -to match any donation done to Debian -earmarked for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and -hope you will to. :)

- -

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

- -

For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og -Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a -statement under the heading -Bloggers United for Open -Access for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the -Norwegian government. So far 499 signatures. I hope you will sign it -too.

Release 0.1.1 of free software archive system Nikita announced

10th June 2017

I am very happy to report that the +Nikita Noark 5 +core project tagged its second release today. The free software +solution is an implementation of the Norwegian archive standard Noark +5 used by government offices in Norway. These were the changes in +version 0.1.1 since version 0.1.0 (from NEWS.md): + +

Continued work on the angularjs GUI, including document upload.
Implemented correspondencepartPerson, correspondencepartUnit and + correspondencepartInternal
Applied for coverity coverage and started submitting code on + regualr basis.
Started fixing bugs reported by coverity
Corrected and completed HATEOAS links to make sure entire API is + available via URLs in _links.
Corrected all relation URLs to use trailing slash.
Add initial support for storing data in ElasticSearch.
Now able to receive and store uploaded files in the archive.
Changed JSON output for object lists to have relations in _links.
Improve JSON output for empty object lists.
Now uses correct MIME type application/vnd.noark5-v4+json.
Added support for docker container images.
Added simple API browser implemented in JavaScript/Angular.
Started on archive client implemented in JavaScript/Angular.
Started on prototype to show the public mail journal.
Improved performance by disabling Sprint FileWatcher.
Added support for 'arkivskaper', 'saksmappe' and 'journalpost'.
Added support for some metadata codelists.
Added support for Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS).
Changed login method from Basic Auth to JSON Web Token (RFC 7519) + style.
Added support for GET-ing ny-* URLs.
Added support for modifying entities using PUT and eTag.
Added support for returning XML output on request.
Removed support for English field and class names, limiting ourself + to the official names.
...

+ +

If this sound interesting to you, please contact us on IRC (#nikita +on irc.freenode.net) or email +(nikita-noark +mailing list).

- Tags: debian, english, opphavsrett, surveillance. + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, standard.

@@ -348,142 +333,161 @@ too.

Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania

11th October 2013

Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing -networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large -areas, depending on the radio technology used. Normal wifi equipment -can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several -successful examples like -Freifunk and -Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network -(see -wikipedia -for a large list) around the globe. To give you an idea how it -work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which -can be seen from their -dynamically -updated node graph and map, where one can see how the mesh nodes -automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing. -There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway, -and that is the main topic of this blog post.

- -

I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped -to do it as part of my involvement with the NUUG member organisation community, and -my recent involvement in -the Freedombox project -finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a -Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family -when possible, given that most communication between people are -between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook -communication patterns). It also allow people to communicate without -any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the -private communication of citizens, which have become more and more -important over the years.

- -

So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo -working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space -Hackeriet at Husmania. They seem to -have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called -the Oslo -Freifunk project, but that effort is now dead and the people -behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called -meshfx. Unfortunately the wiki -site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to -reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to -the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people -from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I -came across this video where Hans JÃ¸rgen Lysglimt interview the -speakers about this talk (from -youtube):

- -

I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols. -There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to -figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but -given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it -is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a -completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on -batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool -Serval project in Australia -is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self -organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and -less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting -that project (from -youtube):

- -

According to the wikipedia page on -Wireless -mesh network there are around 70 competing schemes for routing -packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and -B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software -based community mesh networks.

- -

The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2 -(as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same -network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based -vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your -computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at -least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A -good -introduction is available from the Open Mesh project. These are -the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:

- -

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

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

- -

The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs -in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from -VillageTelco about -"Information -about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges! -for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some -other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh -network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to -any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)

- -

My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node, -but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a -firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old -wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.

- -

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

- -

While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old -research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research -and Innovation called -The -reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks and elsewhere -learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at -GrÃ¼nerlÃ¸kka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for -commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard -to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I -know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would -be interested in a cooperation?

- -

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

Idea for storing trusted timestamps in a Noark 5 archive

7th June 2017

This is a copy of +an +email I posted to the nikita-noark mailing list. Please follow up +there if you would like to discuss this topic. The background is that +we are making a free software archive system based on the Norwegian +Noark +5 standard for government archives.

+ +

I've been wondering a bit lately how trusted timestamps could be +stored in Noark 5. +Trusted +timestamps can be used to verify that some information +(document/file/checksum/metadata) have not been changed since a +specific time in the past. This is useful to verify the integrity of +the documents in the archive.

+ +

Then it occured to me, perhaps the trusted timestamps could be +stored as dokument variants (ie dokumentobjekt referered to from +dokumentbeskrivelse) with the filename set to the hash it is +stamping?

+ +

Given a "dokumentbeskrivelse" with an associated "dokumentobjekt", +a new dokumentobjekt is associated with "dokumentbeskrivelse" with the +same attributes as the stamped dokumentobjekt except these +attributes:

+ +

format -> "RFC3161" +
mimeType -> "application/timestamp-reply" +
formatDetaljer -> "<source URL for timestamp service>" +
filenavn -> "<sjekksum>.tsr" + +

+ +

This assume a service following +IETF RFC 3161 is +used, which specifiy the given MIME type for replies and the .tsr file +ending for the content of such trusted timestamp. As far as I can +tell from the Noark 5 specifications, it is OK to have several +variants/renderings of a dokument attached to a given +dokumentbeskrivelse objekt. It might be stretching it a bit to make +some of these variants represent crypto-signatures useful for +verifying the document integrity instead of representing the dokument +itself.

+ +

Using the source of the service in formatDetaljer allow several +timestamping services to be used. This is useful to spread the risk +of key compromise over several organisations. It would only be a +problem to trust the timestamps if all of the organisations are +compromised.

+ +

The following oneliner on Linux can be used to generate the tsr +file. $input is the path to the file to checksum, and $sha256 is the +SHA-256 checksum of the file (ie the ".tsr" value mentioned +above).

+ +

+openssl ts -query -data "$inputfile" -cert -sha256 -no_nonce \
+  | curl -s -H "Content-Type: application/timestamp-query" \
+      --data-binary "@-" http://zeitstempel.dfn.de > $sha256.tsr
+

+ +

To verify the timestamp, you first need to download the public key +of the trusted timestamp service, for example using this command:

+ +

+wget -O ca-cert.txt \
+  https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt
+

+ +

Note, the public key should be stored alongside the timestamps in +the archive to make sure it is also available 100 years from now. It +is probably a good idea to standardise how and were to store such +public keys, to make it easier to find for those trying to verify +documents 100 or 1000 years from now. :)

+ +

The verification itself is a simple openssl command:

+ +

+openssl ts -verify -data $inputfile -in $sha256.tsr \
+  -CAfile ca-cert.txt -text
+

+ +

Is there any reason this approach would not work? Is it somehow against +the Noark 5 specification?

+ + + Tags: english, offentlig innsyn, standard. + + +

+ +

NÃ¥r nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...

3rd June 2017

Aftenposten +melder i dag om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og +menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmÃ¥ls og nynorskutgaven ikke var +like. Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring +pÃ¥ om den fri oversetterlÃ¸sningen +Apertium ville gjort en bedre +jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet. Det kan se slik ut.

+ +

Her er bokmÃ¥lsoppgaven fra eksamenen:

+ +

+
DrÃ¸ft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktÃ¸rers +rolle og muligheter til Ã¥ hÃ¥ndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som +for eksempel flykningekrisen.
+ +
Vedlegge er eksempler pÃ¥ tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver +pÃ¥ temaet:
+
+
Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC +
Â«GrenselÃ¸st Europa for fallÂ» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015 +
+ +

+ +

Dette oversetter Apertium slik:

+ +

+
DrÃ¸ft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til +andre aktÃ¸rar og hÃ¸ve til Ã¥ handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som +til dÃ¸mes *flykningekrisen.
+ +
Vedleggja er dÃ¸me pÃ¥ tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv pÃ¥ +temaet:
+ +
+
*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC
+
Â«*GrenselÃ¸st Europa for fallÂ» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
+
+ +

+ +

Ord som ikke ble forstÃ¥tt er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger +ekstra sprÃ¥ksjekk. Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i +oppgaven elevene fikk presentert pÃ¥ eksamen. Jeg mistenker dog at +"andre aktÃ¸rers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vÃ¦rt oversatt til +"rolla til andre aktÃ¸rar og deira hÃ¸ve til ..." eller noe slikt, men +det er kanskje flisespikking. Det understreker vel bare at det alltid +trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.

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

@@ -491,37 +495,67 @@ mesh system.

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

8th October 2013

The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo -Salvador had published a -video on -Youtube showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu / -Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or -on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network -services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc, -in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long, -and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked). -Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium -showing the Zygote Body 3D model -of the human body, but I guess he did not know about those or find -other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the -advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian -Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of -computers without hard drives by installing one central -LTSP server.

- -

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

- - - -

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

Epost inn som arkivformat i Riksarkivarens forskrift?

27th April 2017

I disse dager, med frist 1. mai, har Riksarkivaren ute en hÃ¸ring pÃ¥ +sin forskrift. Som en kan se er det ikke mye tid igjen fÃ¸r fristen +som gÃ¥r ut pÃ¥ sÃ¸ndag. Denne forskriften er det som lister opp hvilke +formater det er greit Ã¥ arkivere i +Noark +5-lÃ¸sninger i Norge.

+ +

Jeg fant hÃ¸ringsdokumentene hos +Norsk +ArkivrÃ¥d etter Ã¥ ha blitt tipset pÃ¥ epostlisten til +fri +programvareprosjektet Nikita Noark5-Core, som lager et Noark 5 +Tjenestegresesnitt. Jeg er involvert i Nikita-prosjektet og takket +vÃ¦re min interesse for tjenestegrensesnittsprosjektet har jeg lest en +god del Noark 5-relaterte dokumenter, og til min overraskelse oppdaget +at standard epost ikke er pÃ¥ listen over godkjente formater som kan +arkiveres. HÃ¸ringen med frist sÃ¸ndag er en glimrende mulighet til Ã¥ +forsÃ¸ke Ã¥ gjÃ¸re noe med det. Jeg holder pÃ¥ med +egen +hÃ¸ringsuttalelse, og lurer pÃ¥ om andre er interessert i Ã¥ stÃ¸tte +forslaget om Ã¥ tillate arkivering av epost som epost i arkivet.

+ +

Er du igang med Ã¥ skrive egen hÃ¸ringsuttalelse allerede? I sÃ¥ fall +kan du jo vurdere Ã¥ ta med en formulering om epost-lagring. Jeg tror +ikke det trengs sÃ¥ mye. Her et kort forslag til tekst:

+ +

+ +
Viser til hÃ¸ring sendt ut 2017-02-17 (Riksarkivarens referanse + 2016/9840 HELHJO), og tillater oss Ã¥ sende inn noen innspill om + revisjon av Forskrift om utfyllende tekniske og arkivfaglige + bestemmelser om behandling av offentlige arkiver (Riksarkivarens + forskrift).
+ +
SvÃ¦rt mye av vÃ¥r kommuikasjon foregÃ¥r i dag pÃ¥ e-post.Â Vi + foreslÃ¥r derfor at Internett-e-post, slik det er beskrevet i IETF + RFC 5322, + https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322. bÃ¸r + inn som godkjent dokumentformat.Â Vi foreslÃ¥r at forskriftens + oversikt over godkjente dokumentformater ved innlevering i Â§ 5-16 + endres til Ã¥ ta med Internett-e-post.
+ +

+ +

Som del av arbeidet med tjenestegrensesnitt har vi testet hvordan +epost kan lagres i en Noark 5-struktur, og holder pÃ¥ Ã¥ skrive et +forslag om hvordan dette kan gjÃ¸res som vil bli sendt over til +arkivverket sÃ¥ snart det er ferdig. De som er interesserte kan +fÃ¸lge +fremdriften pÃ¥ web.

+ +

Oppdatering 2017-04-28: I dag ble hÃ¸ringuttalelsen jeg skrev + sendt + inn av foreningen NUUG.

- Tags: debian edu, english, video. + Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn, standard.

@@ -529,23 +563,52 @@ me know. :)

Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!

29th September 2013

A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of -Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team. The -complete announcement text can be found at -the Debian News -section, translated to several languages. Please check it out.

- -

There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon. One -can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/ -partition is too small. A workaround is to extend the partition (use -lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).

Offentlig elektronisk postjournal blokkerer tilgang for utvalgte webklienter

20th April 2017

Jeg oppdaget i dag at nettstedet som +publiserer offentlige postjournaler fra statlige etater, OEP, har +begynt Ã¥ blokkerer enkelte typer webklienter fra Ã¥ fÃ¥ tilgang. Vet +ikke hvor mange det gjelder, men det gjelder i hvert fall libwww-perl +og curl. For Ã¥ teste selv, kjÃ¸r fÃ¸lgende:

+ +

+% curl -v -s https://www.oep.no/pub/report.xhtml?reportId=3 2>&1 |grep '< HTTP'
+< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
+% curl -v -s --header 'User-Agent:Opera/12.0' https://www.oep.no/pub/report.xhtml?reportId=3 2>&1 |grep '< HTTP'
+< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
+%
+

+ +

Her kan en se at tjenesten gir Â«404 Not FoundÂ» for curl i +standardoppsettet, mens den gir Â«200 OKÂ» hvis curl hevder Ã¥ vÃ¦re Opera +versjon 12.0. Offentlig elektronisk postjournal startet blokkeringen +2017-03-02.

+ +

Blokkeringen vil gjÃ¸re det litt vanskeligere Ã¥ maskinelt hente +informasjon fra oep.no. Kan blokkeringen vÃ¦re gjort for Ã¥ hindre +automatisert innsamling av informasjon fra OEP, slik Pressens +Offentlighetsutvalg gjorde for Ã¥ dokumentere hvordan departementene +hindrer innsyn i +rapporten +Â«Slik hindrer departementer innsynÂ» som ble publiserte i januar +2017. Det virker usannsynlig, da det jo er trivielt Ã¥ bytte +User-Agent til noe nytt.

+ +

Finnes det juridisk grunnlag for det offentlige Ã¥ diskriminere +webklienter slik det gjÃ¸res her? Der tilgang gis eller ikke alt etter +hva klienten sier at den heter? Da OEP eies av DIFI og driftes av +Basefarm, finnes det kanskje noen dokumenter sendt mellom disse to +aktÃ¸rene man kan be om innsyn i for Ã¥ forstÃ¥ hva som har skjedd. Men +postjournalen +til DIFI viser kun to dokumenter det siste Ã¥ret mellom DIFI og +Basefarm. +Mimes brÃ¸nn neste, +tenker jeg.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn.

@@ -553,206 +616,221 @@ lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).

Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning

27th September 2013

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

Free software archive system Nikita now able to store documents

19th March 2017

The Nikita +Noark 5 core project is implementing the Norwegian standard for +keeping an electronic archive of government documents. +The +Noark 5 standard document the requirement for data systems used by +the archives in the Norwegian government, and the Noark 5 web interface +specification document a REST web service for storing, searching and +retrieving documents and metadata in such archive. I've been involved +in the project since a few weeks before Christmas, when the Norwegian +Unix User Group +announced +it supported the project. I believe this is an important project, +and hope it can make it possible for the government archives in the +future to use free software to keep the archives we citizens depend +on. But as I do not hold such archive myself, personally my first use +case is to store and analyse public mail journal metadata published +from the government. I find it useful to have a clear use case in +mind when developing, to make sure the system scratches one of my +itches.

+ +

If you would like to help make sure there is a free software +alternatives for the archives, please join our IRC channel +(#nikita on +irc.freenode.net) and +the +project mailing list.

+ +

When I got involved, the web service could store metadata about +documents. But a few weeks ago, a new milestone was reached when it +became possible to store full text documents too. Yesterday, I +completed an implementation of a command line tool +archive-pdf to upload a PDF file to the archive using this +API. The tool is very simple at the moment, and find existing +fonds, series and +files while asking the user to select which one to use if more than +one exist. Once a file is identified, the PDF is associated with the +file and uploaded, using the title extracted from the PDF itself. The +process is fairly similar to visiting the archive, opening a cabinet, +locating a file and storing a piece of paper in the archive. Here is +a test run directly after populating the database with test data using +our API tester:

+ +

+~/src//noark5-tester$ ./archive-pdf mangelmelding/mangler.pdf
+using arkiv: Title of the test fonds created 2017-03-18T23:49:32.103446
+using arkivdel: Title of the test series created 2017-03-18T23:49:32.103446
+
+ 0 - Title of the test case file created 2017-03-18T23:49:32.103446
+ 1 - Title of the test file created 2017-03-18T23:49:32.103446
+Select which mappe you want (or search term): 0
+Uploading mangelmelding/mangler.pdf
+  PDF title: Mangler i spesifikasjonsdokumentet for NOARK 5 Tjenestegrensesnitt
+  File 2017/1: Title of the test case file created 2017-03-18T23:49:32.103446
+~/src//noark5-tester$
+

+ +

You can see here how the fonds (arkiv) and serie (arkivdel) only had +one option, while the user need to choose which file (mappe) to use +among the two created by the API tester. The archive-pdf +tool can be found in the git repository for the API tester.

+ +

In the project, I have been mostly working on +the API +tester so far, while getting to know the code base. The API +tester currently use +the HATEOAS links +to traverse the entire exposed service API and verify that the exposed +operations and objects match the specification, as well as trying to +create objects holding metadata and uploading a simple XML file to +store. The tester has proved very useful for finding flaws in our +implementation, as well as flaws in the reference site and the +specification.

+ +

The test document I uploaded is a summary of all the specification +defects we have collected so far while implementing the web service. +There are several unclear and conflicting parts of the specification, +and we have +started +writing down the questions we get from implementing it. We use a +format inspired by how The +Austin Group collect defect reports for the POSIX standard with +their +instructions for the MANTIS defect tracker system, in lack of an official way to structure defect reports for Noark 5 (our first submitted defect report was a request for a procedure for submitting defect reports :). + +

The Nikita project is implemented using Java and Spring, and is +fairly easy to get up and running using Docker containers for those +that want to test the current code base. The API tester is +implemented in Python.

+ + + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, standard. + + +

+ +

+ -

FreedomBox - -2,5 minute marketing film (Youtube)

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