It is a while since I posted a summary of the free software and +open culture activities and projects I have worked on. Here is a +quick summary of the major ones from last year.
+ +I guess the biggest project of the year has been migrating orphaned +packages in Debian without a version control system to have a git +repository on salsa.debian.org. When I started in April around 450 +the orphaned packages needed git. I've since migrated around 250 of +the packages to a salsa git repository, and around 40 packages were +left when I took a break. Not sure who did the around 160 conversions +I was not involved in, but I am very glad I got some help on the +project. I stopped partly because some of the remaining packages +needed more disk space to build than I have available on my +development machine, and partly because some had a strange build setup +I could not figure out. I had a time budget of 20 minutes per +package, if the package proved problematic and likely to take longer, +I moved to another package. Might continue later, if I manage to free +up some disk space.
+ +Another rather big project was the translation to Norwegian Bokmål +and publishing of the first book ever published by a Sámi woman, the +«Møter +vi liv eller død?» book by Elsa Laua, with a PD0 and CC-BY +license. I released it during the summer, and to my surprise it has +already sold several copies. As I suck at marketing, I did not expect +to sell any.
+ +A smaller, but more long term project (for more than 10 years now), +and related to orphaned packages in Debian, is my project to ensure a +simple way to install hardware related packages in Debian when the +relevant hardware is present in a machine. It made a fairly big +advance forward last year, partly because I have been poking and +begging package maintainers and upstream developers to include +AppStream metadata XML in their packages. I've also released a few +new versions of the isenkram system with some robustness improvements. +Today 127 packages in Debian provide such information, allowing +isenkram-lookup to propose them. Will keep pushing until the +around 35 package names currently hard coded in the isenkram package +are down to zero, so only information provided by individual packages +are used for this feature.
+ +As part of the work on AppStream, I have sponsored several packages +into Debian where the maintainer wanted to fix the issue but lacked +direct upload rights. I've also sponsored a few other packages, when +approached by the maintainer.
+ +I would also like to mention two hardware related packages in +particular where I have been involved, the megactl and mfi-util +packages. Both work with the hardware RAID systems in several Dell +PowerEdge servers, and the first one is already available in Debian +(and of course, proposed by isenkram when used on the appropriate Dell +server), the other is waiting for NEW processing since this autumn. I +manage several such Dell servers and would like the tools needed to +monitor and configure these RAID controllers to be available from +within Debian out of the box.
+ +Vaguely related to hardware support in Debian, I have also been +trying to find ways to help out the Debian ROCm team, to improve the +support in Debian for my artificial idiocy (AI) compute node. So far +only uploaded one package, helped test the initial packaging of +llama.cpp and tried to figure out how to get good speech recognition +like Whisper into Debian.
+ +
I am still involved in the LinuxCNC project, and organised a +developer gathering in Norway last summer. A new one is planned the +summer of 2025. I've also helped evaluate patches and uploaded new +versions of LinuxCNC into Debian.
+ +After a 10 years long break, we managed to get a new and improved +upstream version of lsdvd released just before Christmas. As +I use it regularly to maintain my DVD archive, I was very happy to +finally get out a version supporting DVDDiscID useful for uniquely +identifying DVDs. I am dreaming of a Internet service mapping DVD IDs +to IMDB movie IDs, to make life as a DVD collector easier.
+ +My involvement in Norwegian archive standardisation and the free +software implementation of the vendor neutral Noark 5 API continued +for the entire year. I've been pushing patches into both the API and +the test code for the API, participated in several editorial meetings +regarding the Noark 5 Tjenestegrensesnitt specification, submitted +several proposals for improvements for the same. We also organised a +small seminar for Noark 5 interested people, and is organising a new +seminar in a month.
+ +Part of the year was spent working on and coordinating a Norwegian +Bokmål translation of the marvellous children's book +«Ada and +Zangemann», which focus on the right to repair and control your own +property, and the value of controlling the software on the devices you +own. The translation is mostly complete, and is now waiting for a +transformation of the project and manuscript to use Docbook XML +instead of a home made semi-text based format. Great progress is +being made and the new book build process is almost complete.
+ +I have also been looking at how to companies in Norway can use free +software to report their accounting summaries to the Norwegian +government. Several new regulations make it very hard for companies +to do use free software for accounting, and I would like to change +this. Found a few drafts for opening up the reporting process, and +have read up on some of the specifications, but nothing much is +working yet.
+ +These were just the top of the iceberg, but I guess this blog post +is long enough now. If you would like to help with any of these +projects, please get in touch, either directly on the project mailing +lists and forums, or with me via email, IRC or Signal. :)
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
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