X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/31e78b216f079bfa709d1aa5fa4a5d91da9f46bd..d43db7a267b6df284ce765acf305588a3313e98a:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 2f02129b6d..e9f4e96bcf 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,736 +7,971 @@ - Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html - Wed, 23 Mar 2016 22:10:00 +0100 - <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an -extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for -later processing and graphing. The original collector store the -battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new -collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design -full level, last full level and current battery level. This make it -possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise -the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p> - -<p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt> -in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable. Get the new battery level graph -and lifetime prediction by running: + Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html + Fri, 25 Nov 2016 14:50:00 +0100 + <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian +installation system, observing how using +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata +could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit. My testing measured +speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around +1000 packages from within the installer. The eatmydata package +provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing. This is a bit +risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will +stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a +machine crashes at an inconvenient time. But for an installation, if +the machine crashes during installation the process is normally +restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed +up the process make perfect sense. + +<p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>, +but did not have time to push it any further. But a few months ago I +picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer +Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation +speedup in Debian. Thanks to our cooperation There is now an +eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply +enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the +quicker installations. It can be enabled using preseeding. The +following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p> -<p><pre> -/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv -</pre></p> - -<p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p> - -<p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu -entry yet):</p> +<blockquote><pre> +preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb" +</pre></blockquote> -<p><pre> -/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow -</pre></p> +<p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i +environment early in the installation sequence. Having it installed +in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just +after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian +system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata. This is enough to +speed up the installation process. There is a proposal to +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further +by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not +tested its impact.</p> -<p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least -when there are few data points. The graphs look a bit better with a -few years of data.</p> - -<p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats -collector broke in Debian. The scripts in -<tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed. I -suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not -know. The issue is reported as bug #818649 against pm-utils. I -managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call the collector -script every time the power connector is connected and disconnected. -With this fix in place it was finally time to make a new release of -the package, and get it into Debian.</p> - -<p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please -check out the -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a> -in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on -Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>. -As always, patches are very welcome.</p> - UsingQR - "Electronic" paper invoices using JSON and QR codes - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/UsingQR____Electronic__paper_invoices_using_JSON_and_QR_codes.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/UsingQR____Electronic__paper_invoices_using_JSON_and_QR_codes.html - Sat, 19 Mar 2016 09:40:00 +0100 - <p>Back in 2013 I proposed -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">a -way to make paper and PDF invoices easier to process electronically by -adding a QR code with the key information about the invoice</a>. I -suggested using vCard field definition, to get some standard format -for name and address, but any format would work. I did not do -anything about the proposal, but hoped someone one day would make -something like it. It would make it possible to efficiently send -machine readable invoices directly between seller and buyer.</p> - -<p>This was the background when I came across a proposal and -specification from the web based accounting and invoicing supplier -<a href="http://www.visma.com/">Visma</a> in Sweden called -<a href="http://usingqr.com/">UsingQR</a>. Their PDF invoices contain -a QR code with the key information of the invoice in JSON format. -This is the typical content of a QR code following the UsingQR -specification (based on a real world example, some numbers replaced to -get a more bogus entry). I've reformatted the JSON to make it easier -to read. Normally this is all on one long line:</p> - -<p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-19-qr-invoice.png" align="right"><pre> -{ - "vh":500.00, - "vm":0, - "vl":0, - "uqr":1, - "tp":1, - "nme":"Din Leverandør", - "cc":"NO", - "cid":"997912345 MVA", - "iref":"12300001", - "idt":"20151022", - "ddt":"20151105", - "due":2500.0000, - "cur":"NOK", - "pt":"BBAN", - "acc":"17202612345", - "bc":"BIENNOK1", - "adr":"0313 OSLO" -} -</pre></p> - -</p>The interpretation of the fields can be found in the -<a href="http://usingqr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/UsingQR_specification1.pdf">format -specification</a> (revision 2 from june 2014). The format seem to -have most of the information needed to handle accounting and payment -of invoices, at least the fields I have needed so far here in -Norway.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, the site and document do not mention anything about -the patent, trademark and copyright status of the format and the -specification. Because of this, I asked the people behind it back in -November to clarify. Ann-Christine Savlid (ann-christine.savlid (at) -visma.com) replied that Visma had not applied for patent or trademark -protection for this format, and that there were no copyright based -usage limitations for the format. I urged her to make sure this was -explicitly written on the web pages and in the specification, but -unfortunately this has not happened yet. So I guess if there is -submarine patents, hidden trademarks or a will to sue for copyright -infringements, those starting to use the UsingQR format might be at -risk, but if this happen there is some legal defense in the fact that -the people behind the format claimed it was safe to do so. At least -with patents, there is always -<a href="http://www.paperspecs.com/paper-news/beware-the-qr-code-patent-trap/">a -chance of getting sued...</a></p> - -<p>I also asked if they planned to maintain the format in an -independent standard organization to give others more confidence that -they would participate in the standardization process on equal terms -with Visma, but they had no immediate plans for this. Their plan was -to work with banks to try to get more users of the format, and -evaluate the way forward if the format proved to be popular. I hope -they conclude that using an open standard organisation like -<a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> is the correct place to -maintain such specification.</p> - -<p><strong>Update 2016-03-20</strong>: Via Twitter I became aware of -<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11319492">some comments -about this blog post</a> that had several useful links and references to -similar systems. In the Czech republic, the Czech Banking Association -standard #26, with short name SPAYD, uses QR codes with payment -information. More information is available from the Wikipedia page on -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Payment_Descriptor">Short -Payment Descriptor</a>. And in Germany, there is a system named -<a href="http://www.bezahlcode.de/">BezahlCode</a>, -(<a href="http://www.bezahlcode.de/wp-content/uploads/BezahlCode_TechDok.pdf">specification -v1.8 2013-12-05 available as PDF</a>), which uses QR codes with -URL-like formatting using "bank:" as the URI schema/protocol to -provide the payment information. There is also the -<a href="http://www.ferd-net.de/front_content.php?idcat=231">ZUGFeRD</a> -file format that perhaps could be transfered using QR codes, but I am -not sure if it is done already. Last, in Bolivia there are reports -that tax information since november 2014 need to be printed in QR -format on invoices. I have not been able to track down a -specification for this format, because of my limited language skill -sets.</p> + Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html + Thu, 24 Nov 2016 10:50:00 +0100 + <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk. +Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster +der det er krav om skriftspråk. I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som +elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år. Det mange ikke +vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene +<a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og +<a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan +bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et +utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan. Oversetterverktøyet +Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være +den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan +en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller +nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket. +Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt. Av og til +er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer. Jeg vet +f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp +Apertium. Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for? Besøk i så fall +<a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn +teksten din i webskjemaet der. + +<p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende +teknologien kan du enten installere pakken +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a> +på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra +api.apertium.org. Se +<a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a> +for detaljer om web-API-et. Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for +denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til +nynorsk.</p> + +<hr/> + +<p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk. +Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der +det er krav om skriftspråk. I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som +elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år. Det mange ikkje +veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa +<a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og +<a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje +kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit +utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan. Omsetjarverktøyet +*Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera +den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan +ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller +nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket. +Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt. Av og +til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar. Eg veit +t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp +*Apertium. Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for? Besøk i så +fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn +teksta di i *webskjemaet der. + +<p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende +teknologien kan du anten installera pakken +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a> +på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå +*api.*apertium.org. Sjå +<a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a> +for detaljar om *web-*API-eit. Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert +for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til +nynorsk.</p> - Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html - Tue, 15 Mar 2016 15:00:00 +0100 - <p>Back in September, I blogged about -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the -system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and -how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced). I -created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing, -but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats -package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see -a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be -fixed instead. I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and -hoped someone would step in and fix it. But no-one did.</p> - -<p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own -hands. The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of -battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining -battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally -able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt> -information provided by the Linux kernel. If you install the -battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a -graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the -status of the battery. The source package build and work just fine in -Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not -tested). The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p> - -<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p> - -<p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the -battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details -about the battery. The scripts are merged into the upstream -battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work -yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way. Will have to test a -bit more before I make a new release.</p> - -<p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I -suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it -impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing -and graphing.</p> - -<p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop -battery, check out the battery-stats package in -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and -on -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>. -I would love some help to improve the system further.</p> + Hyperions magasin Pegasus går for Creative Commons + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hyperions_magasin_Pegasus_g_r_for_Creative_Commons.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hyperions_magasin_Pegasus_g_r_for_Creative_Commons.html + Tue, 22 Nov 2016 20:10:00 +0100 + <p>For noen dager siden ble jeg tipset av min venn Andreas +Aanerud om at <a href="http://magasinetpegasus.no">magasinet +Pegasus</a> skulle ta i bruk +<a href="https://creativecommons.org/">Creative +Commons</a>-lisensiering på sine artikler. Han fortalte at den +direkte årsaken var at han hadde blitt inspirert av å lese +<a href=" http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">boken +Fri kultur</a> +(<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>) +og foreslått endringen. Jeg ble veldig glad for å høre +dette, da det er det første konkrete tilfellet jeg har hørt om der den +norske oversettelsen av <a href="http://www.free-culture.cc/"> +Lawrence Lessigs bok Free Culture</a> som jeg ga ut i fjor høst hadde +fått noen til å ta i bruk Creative Commons.</p> + +<p>Andreas fikk boken av meg som takk for at han inviterte meg til +<a href="http://www.gathering.org/">The Gathering</a>, og jeg er veldig +glad for at den falt i smak. Jeg ble nysgjerrig på hva som var +bakgrunnen for denne policy-endringen hos Hyperion og han sa seg +villig til å la seg intervjue til bloggen min. </p> + +<blockquote> + +<p><strong>Hvilke tanker gjorde du deg da boken lå i hånden første +gang?</strong></p> + +<p>Jeg husker da jeg fikk boken, etter en omvisning på The Gathering i +2016, der jeg var Core Organizer. The Gathering er jo et sted hvor en +fremmer delingskultur, i alt fra kode, til løsninger og «hacks», så en +kan vel si at boken er veldig relevant!</p> + +<p>Mine første tanker om boken, var at den trengte et grafisk løft. +Selv har jeg dysleksi og er ikke verdens beste i å lese, men for meg +så skal ikke det bety at jeg ikke klarer å lese. Jeg har jo også mine +egne tanker om «Fri kultur», ettersom jeg har jobbet med noen norske +filmer via NRK og TV2 og nå sitter som en teknisk leder i +filmavdelingen til Schjærven Reklamebyrå.</p> + +<p><strong>Har du lest boken, og hva tenker du om den nå?</strong></p> + +<p>Jeg har lest boken, og for meg er det jo veldig moro å kunne si at +Disney var en pirat og nå ha bevisene. Men det å gå fra Disney via +RIAA, og så igjennom en jungel av teknikk og programmering og ende opp +med spørsmålet om vi alle piratkopierer litt, er enda bedre. For ja, +boken klarer å få frem en diskusjon om åndsverk på en god måte +gjennom en samling historier, men den viste meg også et bilde, hvor +teknologi blir kneblet, og ikke får lov til å utvikle seg, ettersom +«opphavsrettsinnehaverne» bryr seg mer om sin industri enn om verden +går fremover. Ta f.eks. internettradio! Hvorfor tuller vi med DAB+ +og alt det der, når radio kan være en app på alle telefoner i dag. +Men den største tanken som jeg satt igjen med, er at vi må få færre +advokater og flere tenkere som kan dra oss vekk fra de feilene vi er i +ferd med å ende opp i.</p> + +<p><strong>Har budskapet i boken påvirker deg og det du holder på +med?</strong></p> + +<p>The Gathering sin moderforening er +<a href="http://www.kandu.no/">KANDU</a>, som er et stolt medlem av <a +href="http://n4f.no/">Hyperion</a>. Hyperion har et mandat igjennom +sitt interne magasin Pegasus å fremme Hyperion sine +medlemsarrangementer og kultur. Dette tror jeg er veldig viktig, og en +av de viktigste virkemidlene det magasinet nå har fått, er pålegget om +å publisere alt under de forskjellige Creative Commons +retningslinjer. Grunnen til at Pegasus kan velge fritt blant lisensene +til Creative Commons er deres bruk av freelancere m.m. som også må få +sine rettigheter dekket.</p> + +<p>Det er et steg i riktig retning som jeg håper, vil gi lokalaviser, +nasjonale aviser, bloggere m.m. muligheten til å referere til Pegasus +sitt innhold uten å måtte be om tillatelse først, som i bunnen vil +hjelpe oss å spre vår kultur i Hyperion.</p> + +<p><strong>Hva fikk Pegasus til å vedta retninglinjer om bruk av +Creative Commons, og hvordan kom dere frem til en slik +policy?</strong></p> + +<p>Dette skjedde på Hyperion sitt landsting, hvor jeg ønsket å fremme +Creative Commons som en retning som flere mener magasinet burde ta, +hvordan Pegasus tar det i bruk er mer opp til redaksjonen. Det som var +trist er at en del har misforstått hva Creative Commons er. Vi fikk +en veldig het «debatt» på facebook i etterkant hvor noen blant annet +mener at dette vedtaket har drept Pegasus.</p> + +<p>Personlig syntes jeg disse reaksjonene er rare, ettersom Pegasus er +et medlemsmagasin og magasinet sitt mål er å spre vår fantastiske +kultur. Jeg mener at Ceative Commons-bruksvilkår på artikler skaper +en veldig god mulighet til å spre denne kulturen. Det gjør at større +og mindre aviser kan låne artikler fra medlemsmagasinet og publisere +det hos seg, slik at effekten nettopp er fremme vår kultur.</p> + +<p>Jeg gleder meg til å se hvordan redaksjonen håndhever bruken av +Creative Commons.</p> + +<p><strong>Hvem tror du kunne ha mest nytte av å lese Fri +kultur?</strong></p> + +<p>Jeg tror at boken Fri kultur bør leses av de som ønsker en debatt +om nye medier, samt de som jobber med medier og føler seg «truet» av +utviklingen. Kanskje det kan være et lysglimt om at vi må heller være +med å utvikle oss, enn å stoppe opp og «beskytte» våre eier-, penge- +og materielle interesser.</p> + +<p>Spørsmålet for redaksjoner vil vel være om de «tjener» på klikk og +sine artikler via annonser, i så fall ville jeg tenkt litt rundt +spredningen. Nettavisen Digi.no gjorde en analyse i 2015 som var +veldig fin. Hvor de måtte konkludere med at de fikk ut budskapet +bedre, men de mistet inntekter på annonsevisning.</p> + +<p>Derfor for et magasin som skal «spre» kultur, så burde Creative +Commons være en no-brainer, en kunne også kanskje argumentere med at +NRK også burde gjøre dette, ettersom de ikke lever av reklame, og vi +betaler for innholdet deres.</p> + +<p><strong>Kommer du til å anbefale boken til noen du +kjenner?</strong></p> + +<p>Absolutt! Jeg har faktisk tenkt å gi den videre som en vandrebok, +til redaksjonen i Pegasus slik at de kan lese den og få noen ider og +tanker om fri kultur.</p> + +<p><strong>Du sier at boken klarer å få frem viktig en diskusjon om + vern av åndsverk. Boken er jo skrevet med bakgrunn i USAs + Copyright-lovgiving og ikke den norske åndsverksloven. Hva gjør at + du mener boken er relevant for den norske debatten?</strong></p> + +<p>En av tingene boken pekte på var tanken om hvor opphavsretten skal +ligge. Skal den ligge hos den som skriver sangen, den som fremfører +eller den som tar opp sangen. Og når spørsmålet kom tilbake i en +software-utgave, «hvordan kan Adobe styre opphavsretten i sin eBook +Publisher» så føler jeg at vi kommer inn på spennende tanker som jeg +mener vi glemmer i norsk åndsverksdebatt. USA har rett å slett et +«større bilde» som kanskje vi kan ta lærdom av.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Jeg er veldig spent på hvordan redaksjonen i Pegasus kommer til å +ta i bruk Creative Commons, og gleder meg til neste tegn på at +bokutgivelsen har fått noen til å tenke mer på problemene med dagens +åndsverksvern.</p> - Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html - Fri, 19 Feb 2016 15:00:00 +0100 - <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to -details. And one of the details is the content of the -debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by -the code in the package in question, preferably in -<a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine -readable DEP5 format</a>.</p> - -<p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write -and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the -package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters. So getting it right -the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save -both you and the ftpmasters some work.. Today, while trying to figure -out what was wrong with -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the -zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on -figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least -semi-automatically.</p> - -<p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the -file based on the code in the source package, -<tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt> -and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>. I'm -not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to -create a sensible draft file. As far as I can tell, none of them can -be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be -polished a bit before the file is OK to upload. I found the debmake -option in -<a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a -blog posts from 2014</a>. - -<p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option: - -<p><pre> -debmake -cc > debian/copyright -</pre></p> - -<p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so -this might not be the best option.</p> - -<p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found -this approach in -<a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a -blog post from 2015</a>. To generate using cme, use the 'update -dpkg-copyright' option: - -<p><pre> -cme update dpkg-copyright -</pre></p> - -<p>This will create or update debian/copyright. The cme tool seem to -handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p> - -<p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to -check if the file is correct. For this I found two good options, -<tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>. The former seem -to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect -ineffective blocks in the copyright file. The latter reports missing -copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license -names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0). I suspect it is good to use both and -fix all issues reported by them before uploading. But I do not know -if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a -copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p> - -<p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning. It -will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements. -It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but -can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p> - -<p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update -debian/copyright file. Please let me know, or blog about it on -planet.debian.org.</p> - -<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - -<p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel -on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file - -<p><pre> -licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \ - /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto -</pre></p> - -<p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the -version control system to make it easier to discover license and -copyright changes in the upstream source. I will try to do the same -with my packages in the future.</p> - -<p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended -against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed -command line.</p> + Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html + Sun, 13 Nov 2016 12:30:00 +0100 + <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice +profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented +multi-threaded program, finally +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into +Debian unstable yesterday</A>. Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many +months since +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I +blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make +it suitable for Debian. There are still issues with clang +compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized +JavaScript libraries.</p> + +<p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +<tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working +directory with the profiling information. This is then given to a +JavaScript application provided in the package and available from +<a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>. +To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +<tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>See the project home page and the +<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX +;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is +working.</p> - Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html - Thu, 4 Feb 2016 16:40:00 +0100 - <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a> -is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very -convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given -firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it. This can -be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog -about. :)</p> - -<p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware -file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly -picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian -unstable. In general you would be looking for the firmware requested -by the kernel during kernel module loading. To find the package -providing the example file, do like this:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -% apt install appstream -[...] -% apt update -[...] -% appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \ - awk '/Package:/ {print $2}' -firmware-qlogic -% -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the -appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in -a way appstream can use.</p> - -<p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a -given MIME type. This is very useful when you get a file you do not -know how to handle. First find the mime type using <tt>file ---mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for -it. Lets say you got an SVG file. Its MIME type is image/svg+xml, -and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -% apt install appstream -[...] -% apt update -[...] -% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \ - awk '/Package:/ {print $2}' -bkchem -phototonic -inkscape -shutter -tetzle -geeqie -xia -pinta -gthumb -karbon -comix -mirage -viewnior -postr -ristretto -kolourpaint4 -eog -eom -gimagereader -midori -% -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for -packages providing appstream metadata.</p> + How to talk with your loved ones in private + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_talk_with_your_loved_ones_in_private.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_talk_with_your_loved_ones_in_private.html + Mon, 7 Nov 2016 10:25:00 +0100 + <p>A few days ago I ran a very biased and informal survey to get an +idea about what options are being used to communicate with end to end +encryption with friends and family. I explicitly asked people not to +list options only used in a work setting. The background is the +uneasy feeling I get when using Signal, a feeling shared by others as +a blog post from Sander Venima about +<a href="https://sandervenema.ch/2016/11/why-i-wont-recommend-signal-anymore/">why +he do not recommend Signal anymore</a> (with +<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12883410">feedback from +the Signal author available from ycombinator</a>). I wanted an +overview of the options being used, and hope to include those options +in a less biased survey later on. So far I have not taken the time to +look into the individual proposed systems. They range from text +sharing web pages, via file sharing and email to instant messaging, +VOIP and video conferencing. For those considering which system to +use, it is also useful to have a look at +<a href="https://www.eff.org/secure-messaging-scorecard">the EFF Secure +messaging scorecard</a> which is slightly out of date but still +provide valuable information.</p> + +<p>So, on to the list. There were some used by many, some used by a +few, some rarely used ones and a few mentioned but without anyone +claiming to use them. Notice the grouping is in reality quite random +given the biased self selected set of participants. First the ones +used by many:</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="https://whispersystems.org/">Signal</a></li> +<li>Email w/<a href="http://openpgp.org/">OpenPGP</a> (Enigmail, GPGSuite,etc)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/">Whatsapp</a></li> +<li>IRC w/<a href="https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/">OTR</a></li> +<li>XMPP w/<a href="https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/">OTR</a></li> + +</ul> + +<p>Then the ones used by a few.</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page">Mumble</a></li> +<li>iMessage (included in iOS from Apple)</li> +<li><a href="https://telegram.org/">Telegram</a></li> +<li><a href="https://jitsi.org/">Jitsi</a></li> +<li><a href="https://keybase.io/download">Keybase file</a></li> + +</ul> + +<p>Then the ones used by even fewer people</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a></li> +<li><a href="https://bitmessage.org/">Bitmessage</a></li> +<li><a href="https://wire.com/">Wire</a></li> +<li>VoIP w/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZRTP">ZRTP</a> or controlled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Real-time_Transport_Protocol">SRTP</a> (e.g using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSipSimple">CSipSimple</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linphone">Linphone</a>)</li> +<li><a href="https://matrix.org/">Matrix</a></li> +<li><a href="https://kontalk.org/">Kontalk</a></li> +<li><a href="https://0bin.net/">0bin</a> (encrypted pastebin)</li> +<li><a href="https://appear.in">Appear.in</a></li> +<li><a href="https://riot.im/">riot</a></li> +<li><a href="https://www.wickr.com/">Wickr Me</a></li> + +</ul> + +<p>And finally the ones mentioned by not marked as used by +anyone. This might be a mistake, perhaps the person adding the entry +forgot to flag it as used?</p> + +<ul> + +<li>Email w/Certificates <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/MIME">S/MIME</a></li> +<li><a href="https://www.crypho.com/">Crypho</a></li> +<li><a href="https://cryptpad.fr/">CryptPad</a></li> +<li><a href="https://github.com/ricochet-im/ricochet">ricochet</a></li> + +</ul> + +<p>Given the network effect it seem obvious to me that we as a society +have been divided and conquered by those interested in keeping +encrypted and secure communication away from the masses. The +finishing remarks <a href="https://vimeo.com/97505679">from Aral Balkan +in his talk "Free is a lie"</a> about the usability of free software +really come into effect when you want to communicate in private with +your friends and family. We can not expect them to allow the +usability of communication tool to block their ability to talk to +their loved ones.</p> + +<p>Note for example the option IRC w/OTR. Most IRC clients do not +have OTR support, so in most cases OTR would not be an option, even if +you wanted to. In my personal experience, about 1 in 20 I talk to +have a IRC client with OTR. For private communication to really be +available, most people to talk to must have the option in their +currently used client. I can not simply ask my family to install an +IRC client. I need to guide them through a technical multi-step +process of adding extensions to the client to get them going. This is +a non-starter for most.</p> + +<p>I would like to be able to do video phone calls, audio phone calls, +exchange instant messages and share files with my loved ones, without +being forced to share with people I do not know. I do not want to +share the content of the conversations, and I do not want to share who +I communicate with or the fact that I communicate with someone. +Without all these factors in place, my private life is being more or +less invaded.</p> - Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html - Sun, 24 Jan 2016 10:50:00 +0100 - <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around -with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their -position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long -time (like every time a SMS is received or sent). And if their -computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called -mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often -also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access -during installation). And when these programs send out information to -central collection points, the location is often included, unless -extra care is taken to not send the location. The provided -information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is -good and bad, depend on your point of view). What is certain, is that -the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and -perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way, -when they share their whereabouts with private and public -entities.</p> - -<p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p> - -<p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out -when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing. It is -unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government -officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from -unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information. But the -public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software -tool to do so is called -<a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>. I -discovered it when I read -<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an -article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i -November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian. -The python program was in Debian, but -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in -Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained. I -uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not -have time to fix it then. This Christmas I decided to finally try to -get Creepy operational in Debian. Now a fixed version is available in -Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches -are now included -<a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p> - -<p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from -Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a -complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a -given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all -these services. Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at -least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these -days it is impossible. This mean that to use Creepy, you need to -configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide -information to them about your search interests. This should be taken -into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information -about yourself with the services.</p> - -<p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least -geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital -of Norway. One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at -information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the -information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area. -I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in -twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a -Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time, -making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other -things. A similar technique have been -<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used -to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful -tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people -understand the value of the private information they provide to the -public.</p> - -<p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as -it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at -least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and -python-requests-toolbelt).</p> - -<p>(I have uploaded -<a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to -screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the -Creepy program in Debian.)</p> + My own self balancing Lego Segway + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html + Fri, 4 Nov 2016 10:15:00 +0100 + <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT +<a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday +present. It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to +build a Segway like balancing lego robot. I had already built +<a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing +robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the +NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well. It +could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light +condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and +would fall over after a short while. I wanted something more robust, +and had +<a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the +gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my +wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my +loved ones. :)</p> + +<p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it +since then. But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for +lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for +building +<a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the +HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot. Build instructions and +<a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source +code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all +together. And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the +compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in +Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour. The resulting robot +do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p> + +<p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p> + +<p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the +design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task +(taskControl). I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program +working without that sensor present. Now it balances just fine until +the battery status run low:</p> + +<p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true"> + <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg"> +</video></p> + +<p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote +control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p> + +<p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools +they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative +distributions like Ubuntu, check out +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers +project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team. Personally I own a +RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the +Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they +should.</p> - Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html - Fri, 15 Jan 2016 00:30:00 +0100 - <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum -<a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed -that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to -believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a -security fix from a Debian mirror. This is a good reason to always -use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those -listening do not know which IP address to attack. In August, Richard -Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible -to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that -download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and -<a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed -to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>. He -was not the first to propose this, as the -<tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt> -package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt -to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not -aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p> - -<p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian -sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central -Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making -it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes, -making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p> - -<p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by -installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https -urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead -of the official Debian mirror site. I recommend installing -<tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes -done in /etc/.</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -apt install apt-transport-tor -sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list -sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run -the sed commands for these too. The sed command is assuming your are -using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror. Adjust the command (or just -edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p> - -<p>This work in Debian Jessie and later. Note that tools like -<tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport -system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs. For -<tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental, -which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable. So if you -need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p> - -<p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start -using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you -update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus -masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine. Using Tor will -become normal for the machine in question.</p> - -<p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT -is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is -enabled. It would be great if it was the default on any Debian -system.</p> + Aktivitetsbånd som beskytter privatsfæren + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Aktivitetsb_nd_som_beskytter_privatsf_ren.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Aktivitetsb_nd_som_beskytter_privatsf_ren.html + Thu, 3 Nov 2016 09:55:00 +0100 + <p>Jeg ble så imponert over +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/norge/forbrukerradet-mener-aktivitetsarmband-strider-mot-norsk-lov-1.13209079">dagens +gladnyhet på NRK</a>, om at Forbrukerrådet klager inn vilkårene for +bruk av aktivitetsbånd fra Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone og Mio til +Datatilsynet og forbrukerombudet, at jeg sendte følgende brev til +forbrukerrådet for å uttrykke min støtte: + +<blockquote> + +<p>Jeg ble veldig glad over å lese at Forbrukerrådet +<a href="http://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/klager-inn-aktivitetsarmband-for-brudd-pa-norsk-lov/">klager +inn flere aktivitetsbånd til Datatilsynet for dårlige vilkår</a>. Jeg +har ønsket meg et aktivitetsbånd som kan måle puls, bevegelse og +gjerne også andre helserelaterte indikatorer en stund nå. De eneste +jeg har funnet i salg gjør, som dere også har oppdaget, graverende +inngrep i privatsfæren og sender informasjonen ut av huset til folk og +organisasjoner jeg ikke ønsker å dele aktivitets- og helseinformasjon +med. Jeg ønsker et alternativ som <em>ikke</em> sender informasjon til +skyen, men derimot bruker +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fri_og__pen_standard__slik_Digistan_ser_det.html">en +fritt og åpent standardisert</a> protokoll (eller i det minste en +dokumentert protokoll uten patent- og opphavsrettslige +bruksbegrensinger) til å kommunisere med datautstyr jeg kontrollerer. +Er jo ikke interessert i å betale noen for å tilrøve seg +personopplysninger fra meg. Desverre har jeg ikke funnet noe +alternativ så langt.</p> + +<p>Det holder ikke å endre på bruksvilkårene for enhetene, slik +Datatilsynet ofte legger opp til i sin behandling, når de gjør slik +f.eks. Fitbit (den jeg har sett mest på). Fitbit krypterer +informasjonen på enheten og sender den kryptert til leverandøren. Det +gjør det i praksis umulig både å sjekke hva slags informasjon som +sendes over, og umulig å ta imot informasjonen selv i stedet for +Fitbit. Uansett hva slags historie som forteller i bruksvilkårene er +en jo både prisgitt leverandørens godvilje og at de ikke tvinges av +sitt lands myndigheter til å lyve til sine kunder om hvorvidt +personopplysninger spres ut over det bruksvilkårene sier. Det er +veldokumentert hvordan f.eks. USA tvinger selskaper vha. såkalte +National security letters til å utlevere personopplysninger samtidig +som de ikke får lov til å fortelle dette til kundene sine.</p> + +<p>Stå på, jeg er veldig glade for at dere har sett på saken. Vet +dere om aktivitetsbånd i salg i dag som ikke tvinger en til å utlevere +aktivitets- og helseopplysninger med leverandøren?</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Jeg håper en konkurrent som respekterer kundenes privatliv klarer å +nå opp i markedet, slik at det finnes et reelt alternativ for oss som +har full tillit til at skyleverandører vil prioritere egen inntjening +og myndighetspålegg langt foran kundenes rett til privatliv. Jeg har +ingen tiltro til at Datatilsynet vil kreve noe mer enn at vilkårene +endres slik at de forklarer eksplisitt i hvor stor grad bruk av +produktene utraderer privatsfæren til kundene. Det vil nok gjøre de +innklagede armbåndene «lovlige», men fortsatt tvinge kundene til å +dele sine personopplysninger med leverandøren.</p> - Nedlasting fra NRK, som Matroska med undertekster - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nedlasting_fra_NRK__som_Matroska_med_undertekster.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nedlasting_fra_NRK__som_Matroska_med_undertekster.html - Sat, 2 Jan 2016 13:50:00 +0100 - <p>Det kommer stadig nye løsninger for å ta lagre unna innslag fra NRK -for å se på det senere. For en stund tilbake kom jeg over et script -nrkopptak laget av Ingvar Hagelund. Han fjernet riktignok sitt script -etter forespørsel fra Erik Bolstad i NRK, men noen tok heldigvis og -gjorde det <a href="https://github.com/liangqi/nrkopptak">tilgjengelig -via github</a>.</p> - -<p>Scriptet kan lagre som MPEG4 eller Matroska, og bake inn -undertekster i fila på et vis som blant annet VLC forstår. For å -bruke scriptet, kopier ned git-arkivet og kjør</p> - -<p><pre> -nrkopptak/bin/nrk-opptak k <ahref="https://tv.nrk.no/serie/bmi-turne/MUHH45000115/sesong-1/episode-1">https://tv.nrk.no/serie/bmi-turne/MUHH45000115/sesong-1/episode-1</a> -</pre></p> + Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html + Mon, 10 Oct 2016 11:30:00 +0200 + <p>In July +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I +wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without +the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone). It is +time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p> + +<p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use +it regularly to chat with my loved ones. I had a major snag at the +end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my +setup, identity and keys. The reason behind this major mess was +running out of disk space. To avoid that ever happening again I have +started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to +roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake. I +had to use it once after introducing the git backup. When rolling +back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option +in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the +problem. I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the +protocol to detect rollback attacks. The git repository is rather big +(674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the +content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare +time.</p> + +<p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this +make it impossible to send messages using Signal. I could still +receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send. +I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to +upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no +protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and +thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p> + +<p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly, +making the old patch fail to apply cleanly. Below is an updated +patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal. The +original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console +and call a function from there. I got help from a friend with more +JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI +button instead. This mean that to get started you just need to run +the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going +now. I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days +in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p> + +<p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p> + +<ol> + +<li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the +browser you need. Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I +know, so you need to install it. + +<pre> +apt install git tor chromium +git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git +</pre></li> + +<li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch +block below.</li> + +<li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using +<tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>). + +<li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone +number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the +verification code and enter it into the form field and press +'Register'. Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal +username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li> + +<li>You can now use Signal to contact others. Note, new contacts do +not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is +no way to assign names to Contacts. There is also no way to create or +update chat groups. I suspect this is because the web app do not have +a associated contact database.</li> + +</ol> + +<p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its +main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major +corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and +Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon). See for +example +<a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the +LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors +view on these issues. But the network effect is strong in this case, +and several of the people I want to communicate with already use +Signal. Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a> +once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my +laptop</a>? It already work on Windows and Android, and is included +in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and +<a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not +working on Debian Stable.</p> + +<p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it +working. It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout, +make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p> + +<pre> +cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1 +diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js +index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644 +--- a/js/background.js ++++ b/js/background.js +@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ + }); + }); + +- var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org'; ++ var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org'; + var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443]; +- var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com'; ++ var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com'; + var messageReceiver; + window.getSocketStatus = function() { + if (messageReceiver) { +diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js +index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644 +--- a/js/expire.js ++++ b/js/expire.js +@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ + ;(function() { + 'use strict'; +- var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0; ++ var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000); + + window.extension = window.extension || {}; + +diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js +index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644 +--- a/js/views/install_view.js ++++ b/js/views/install_view.js +@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ + return { + 'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1), + 'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2), +- 'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3) ++ 'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3), ++ 'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') }, + }; + }, + clearQR: function() { +diff --git a/options.html b/options.html +index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644 +--- a/options.html ++++ b/options.html +@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ + &lt;div class='nav'> + &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1> + &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p> +- &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div> ++ &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> ++ &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a> ++ ++ &lt;/div> + &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span> + &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span> + &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span> +--- /dev/null 2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200 ++++ b/run-signal-app 2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200 +@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ ++#!/bin/sh ++set -e ++cd $(dirname $0) ++mkdir -p userdata ++userdata="`pwd`/userdata" ++if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then ++ (cd $userdata && git init) ++fi ++(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true) ++exec chromium \ ++ --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \ ++ --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd` +EOF +chmod a+rx run-signal-app +</pre> -<p>URL-eksemplet er dagens toppsak på tv.nrk.no. Argument 'k' ber -scriptet laste ned og lagre som Matroska. Det finnes en rekke andre -muligheter for valg av kvalitet og format.</p> - -<p>Jeg foretrekker dette scriptet fremfor youtube-dl, som -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK_med_den__nye__l_sningen.html"> -nevnt i 2014 støtter NRK</a> og en rekke andre videokilder, på grunn -av at nrkopptak samler undertekster og video i en enkelt fil, hvilket -gjør håndtering enklere på disk.</p> +<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html - Wed, 23 Dec 2015 01:00:00 +0100 - <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to -call the car license plate numbers in those days. I would write the -numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids -to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some -exotic or special region codes and numbers. It was a fun game to pass -time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p> - -<p>A few days I came across -<a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR -project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and -report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the -"car numbers" in a machine readable format. I've been looking for -such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic -number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of -the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to -even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance. I -discovered the developer -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into -Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to -help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian -archive.</p> - -<p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded -it into Debian, where it currently -<a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits -in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p> - -<p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful -for the common folks, ie those not running a large government -surveillance system? Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike -and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified -when number plates on my watch list are discovered. Another use case -was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home -to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his -car. When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone -capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to -open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway. I -guess for such use case it make sense. I am sure there are other use -cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p> - -<p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check -out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/ -before running "debuild" to build the source. Or wait a bit until the -package show up in unstable.</p> + NRKs kildevern når NRK-epost deles med utenlands etterretning? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NRKs_kildevern_n_r_NRK_epost_deles_med_utenlands_etterretning_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NRKs_kildevern_n_r_NRK_epost_deles_med_utenlands_etterretning_.html + Sat, 8 Oct 2016 08:15:00 +0200 + <p>NRK +<a href="https://nrkbeta.no/2016/09/02/securing-whistleblowers/">lanserte +for noen uker siden</a> en ny +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/varsle/">varslerportal som bruker +SecureDrop til å ta imot tips</a> der det er vesentlig at ingen +utenforstående får vite at NRK er tipset. Det er et langt steg +fremover for NRK, og når en leser bloggposten om hva de har tenkt på +og hvordan løsningen er satt opp virker det som om de har gjort en +grundig jobb der. Men det er ganske mye ekstra jobb å motta tips via +SecureDrop, så varslersiden skriver "Nyhetstips som ikke krever denne +typen ekstra vern vil vi gjerne ha på nrk.no/03030", og 03030-siden +foreslår i tillegg til et webskjema å bruke epost, SMS, telefon, +personlig oppmøte og brevpost. Denne artikkelen handler disse andre +metodene.</p> + +<p>Når en sender epost til en @nrk.no-adresse så vil eposten sendes ut +av landet til datamaskiner kontrollert av Microsoft. En kan sjekke +dette selv ved å slå opp epostleveringsadresse (MX) i DNS. For NRK er +dette i dag "nrk-no.mail.protection.outlook.com". NRK har som en ser +valgt å sette bort epostmottaket sitt til de som står bak outlook.com, +dvs. Microsoft. En kan sjekke hvor nettverkstrafikken tar veien +gjennom Internett til epostmottaket vha. programmet +<tt>traceroute</tt>, og finne ut hvem som eier en Internett-adresse +vha. whois-systemet. Når en gjør dette for epost-trafikk til @nrk.no +ser en at trafikken fra Norge mot nrk-no.mail.protection.outlook.com +går via Sverige mot enten Irland eller Tyskland (det varierer fra gang +til gang og kan endre seg over tid).</p> + +<p>Vi vet fra +<a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA-loven">introduksjonen av +FRA-loven</a> at IP-trafikk som passerer grensen til Sverige avlyttes +av Försvarets radioanstalt (FRA). Vi vet videre takket være +Snowden-bekreftelsene at trafikk som passerer grensen til +Storbritannia avlyttes av Government Communications Headquarters +(GCHQ). I tillegg er er det nettopp lansert et forslag i Norge om at +forsvarets E-tjeneste skal få avlytte trafikk som krysser grensen til +Norge. Jeg er ikke kjent med dokumentasjon på at Irland og Tyskland +gjør det samme. Poenget er uansett at utenlandsk etterretning har +mulighet til å snappe opp trafikken når en sender epost til @nrk.no. +I tillegg er det selvsagt tilgjengelig for Microsoft som er underlagt USAs +jurisdiksjon og +<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data">samarbeider +med USAs etterretning på flere områder</a>. De som tipser NRK om +nyheter via epost kan dermed gå ut fra at det blir kjent for mange +andre enn NRK at det er gjort.</p> + +<p>Bruk av SMS og telefon registreres av blant annet telefonselskapene +og er tilgjengelig i følge lov og forskrift for blant annet Politi, +NAV og Finanstilsynet, i tillegg til IT-folkene hos telefonselskapene +og deres overordnede. Hvis innringer eller mottaker bruker +smarttelefon vil slik kontakt også gjøres tilgjengelig for ulike +app-leverandører og de som lytter på trafikken mellom telefon og +app-leverandør, alt etter hva som er installert på telefonene som +brukes.</p> + +<p>Brevpost kan virke trygt, og jeg vet ikke hvor mye som registreres +og lagres av postens datastyrte postsorteringssentraler. Det vil ikke +overraske meg om det lagres hvor i landet hver konvolutt kommer fra og +hvor den er adressert, i hvert fall for en kortere periode. Jeg vet +heller ikke hvem slik informasjon gjøres tilgjengelig for. Det kan +være nok til å ringe inn potensielle kilder når det krysses med hvem +som kjente til aktuell informasjon og hvor de befant seg (tilgjengelig +f.eks. hvis de bærer mobiltelefon eller bor i nærheten).</p> + +<p>Personlig oppmøte hos en NRK-journalist er antagelig det tryggeste, +men en bør passe seg for å bruke NRK-kantina. Der bryter de nemlig +<a href="http://www.lovdata.no/all/hl-19850524-028.html#14">Sentralbanklovens +paragraf 14</a> og nekter folk å betale med kontanter. I stedet +krever de at en varsle sin bankkortutsteder om hvor en befinner seg +ved å bruke bankkort. Banktransaksjoner er tilgjengelig for +bankkortutsteder (det være seg VISA, Mastercard, Nets og/eller en +bank) i tillegg til politiet og i hvert fall tidligere med Se & Hør +(via utro tjenere, slik det ble avslørt etter utgivelsen av boken +«Livet, det forbannede» av Ken B. Rasmussen). Men hvor mange kjenner +en NRK-journalist personlig? Besøk på NRK på Marienlyst krever at en +registrerer sin ankost elektronisk i besøkssystemet. Jeg vet ikke hva +som skjer med det datasettet, men har grunn til å tro at det sendes ut +SMS til den en skal besøke med navnet som er oppgitt. Kanskje greit å +oppgi falskt navn.</p> + +<p>Når så tipset er kommet frem til NRK skal det behandles +redaksjonelt i NRK. Der vet jeg via ulike kilder at de fleste +journalistene bruker lokalt installert programvare, men noen bruker +Google Docs og andre skytjenester i strid med interne retningslinjer +når de skriver. Hvordan vet en hvem det gjelder? Ikke vet jeg, men +det kan være greit å spørre for å sjekke at journalisten har tenkt på +problemstillingen, før en gir et tips. Og hvis tipset omtales internt +på epost, er det jo grunn til å tro at også intern eposten vil deles +med Microsoft og utenlands etterretning, slik tidligere nevnt, men det +kan hende at det holdes internt i NRKs interne MS Exchange-løsning. +Men Microsoft ønsker å få alle Exchange-kunder over "i skyen" (eller +andre folks datamaskiner, som det jo innebærer), så jeg vet ikke hvor +lenge det i så fall vil vare.</p> + +<p>I tillegg vet en jo at +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/ytring/elektronisk-kildevern-i-nrk-1.11941196">NRK +har valgt å gi nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet (NSM) tilgang til å se på +intern og ekstern Internett-trafikk</a> hos NRK ved oppsett av såkalte +VDI-noder, på tross av +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/ytring/bekymring-for-nrks-kildevern-1.11941584">protester +fra NRKs journalistlag</a>. Jeg vet ikke om den vil kunne snappe opp +dokumenter som lagres på interne filtjenere eller dokumenter som lages +i de interne webbaserte publiseringssystemene, men vet at hva noden +ser etter på nettet kontrolleres av NSM og oppdateres automatisk, slik +at det ikke gir så mye mening å sjekke hva noden ser etter i dag når +det kan endres automatisk i morgen.</p> + +<p>Personlig vet jeg ikke om jeg hadde turt tipse NRK hvis jeg satt på +noe som kunne være en trussel mot den bestående makten i Norge eller +verden. Til det virker det å være for mange åpninger for +utenforstående med andre prioriteter enn NRKs journalistiske fokus. +Og den største truslen for en varsler er jo om metainformasjon kommer +på avveie, dvs. informasjon om at en har vært i kontakt med en +journalist. Det kan være nok til at en kommer i myndighetenes +søkelys, og de færreste har nok operasjonell sikkerhet til at vil tåle +slik flombelysning på sitt privatliv.</p> - Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html - Sun, 20 Dec 2015 12:20:00 +0100 - <p>Around three years ago, I created -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram -system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing -hardware related packages. A GUI system in the isenkram package will -present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by -relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine. The same -lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line -tools in the isenkram-cli package. In addition to mapping hardware, -it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to -install needed firmware packages automatically. The key for this -system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other -words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work -with.</p> - -<p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and -adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run -time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available. -I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in -the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I -was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings, -<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the -appstream system</a> was announced. I got in touch and suggested to -add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use -appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the -Debian version of appstream.</p> - -<p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible, -and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for -appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages. The only -package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my -pymissile package. I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out -how do add the required -<a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata -in pymissile</a>. I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with -this content:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; -&lt;component&gt; - &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt; - &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt; - &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt; - &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt; - &lt;description&gt; - &lt;p&gt; - Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original - Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a - motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the - launcher. - &lt;/p&gt; - &lt;/description&gt; - &lt;provides&gt; - &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt; - &lt;/provides&gt; -&lt;/component&gt; -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value, -which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings -(modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel. In this case, it -will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code -0202.</p> - -<p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files -are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide -appstream files. Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for -these files. A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as -it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions -(in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use). But -it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as -upstream for this project is dormant.</p> - -<p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the -mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the -appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary -package under /usr/share/appdata/. I did this by adding the following -line to debian/pymissile.install:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list -all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI -pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already -installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in -question.</p> - -<p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p> + Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html + Fri, 7 Oct 2016 09:50:00 +0200 + <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram +system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which +packages support the hardware in a given machine. The command line +tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a +convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current +hardware during system installation, both user space packages and +firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide +a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted +while using the computer. For example, if you plug in a smart card +reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if +that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video +camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if +cheese is currently missing. This already work just fine.</p> + +<p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to +package names. When I started no such database existed in Debian, so +I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and +made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using +http. This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals +as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p> + +<p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings. The modalias +design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are +made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style +globbing. It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related +identifiers.</p> + +<p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no +information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making +isenkram propose obsolete packages too. But along came AppStream, a +cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about +software packages. When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the +people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using +modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for +mapping hardware to packages. This idea was accepted and AppStream is +now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a +distribution neutral way. I wrote +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a +recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last +December. If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please +announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p> + +<p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms +RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream. The effect is +that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian +machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get +it working. The intention is that this should allow the local user to +start programming his robot controller right away without having to +guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p> + +<p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT +unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something +annoying. The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to +the USB device for programming the unit. This used to work, but no +longer in Jessie and Stretch. After some investigation and asking +around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had +changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices. The +ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt> +no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the +plugdev group during login. Michael Biebl told me that this method +was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead. This was good +news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user +directory like LDAP. Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device +access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background +process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit +setup. Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem +for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p> + +<p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'. It can either be +applied directly for a device, or is applied in +/lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices. As the +LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the +tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages. Here +is one example. For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the +<tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this: -<p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine, -try running this command on the command line:</p> +<p><pre> +SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \ + SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess" +</pre></p> -<blockquote><pre> -cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias) -</pre></blockquote> +<p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end. I suspect all +packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be +changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via +<tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>). Perhaps a lintian check should be created +to detect this?</p> + +<p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature. +It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation +detail like the udev-acl tag used by +<tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>. If it is, I guess the +indirect method is the preferred way. Michael +<a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more +documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make +this clearer. For now I use the generic classes when they exist and +is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag +directly if no such class exist.</p> <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p> + +<p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier, +please join us on our IRC channel +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join +the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian +LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday. A mailing +list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p> + +<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>