X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/3fc34f23bd5d29c032a6ec885b47267e3897c1fd..105f9e180ef3a74846475820bfcd7a63a4061808:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index ec920a941a..09c9ccd44f 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,657 +7,709 @@ - Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html - Sun, 5 May 2013 07:40:00 +0200 - <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the -<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement -for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box. This is a great -Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly -soon.</p> - -<p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program -in particular make me very happy to see included. The -<a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by -the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kid code</a> movement, is -included for the first time. Alongside similar programs like -<a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and -<a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>, -it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen, -and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the -computer. Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian -Edu.</a> - -<p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian -Edu/Skolelinux release too. The -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first -alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon -follow.<p> + Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html + Sat, 2 Nov 2013 22:40:00 +0100 + <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is +<a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge +init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and +init.d scripts at all. Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite +of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p> + +<p><pre> +#!/lib/init/init-d-script +### BEGIN INIT INFO +# Provides: rsyslog +# Required-Start: $remote_fs $time +# Required-Stop: umountnfs $time +# X-Stop-After: sendsigs +# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 +# Default-Stop: 0 1 6 +# Short-Description: enhanced syslogd +# Description: Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd. +# It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be +# used as a drop-in replacement. +### END INIT INFO +DESC="enhanced syslogd" +DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd +</pre></p> + +<p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc +script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta +info/comments.</p> + +<p>How to do this, you ask? Well, one create a new script +/lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this: + +<p><pre> +#!/bin/sh + +# Define LSB log_* functions. +# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present +# and status_of_proc is working. +. /lib/lsb/init-functions + +# +# Function that starts the daemon/service + +# +do_start() +{ + # Return + # 0 if daemon has been started + # 1 if daemon was already running + # 2 if daemon could not be started + start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \ + || return 1 + start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \ + $DAEMON_ARGS \ + || return 2 + # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready + # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend + # on this one. As a last resort, sleep for some time. +} + +# +# Function that stops the daemon/service +# +do_stop() +{ + # Return + # 0 if daemon has been stopped + # 1 if daemon was already stopped + # 2 if daemon could not be stopped + # other if a failure occurred + start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME + RETVAL="$?" + [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2 + # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks + # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript. + # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code + # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be + # needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to + # sleep for some time. + start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON + [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2 + # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit. + rm -f $PIDFILE + return "$RETVAL" +} + +# +# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service +# +do_reload() { + # + # If the daemon can reload its configuration without + # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP), + # then implement that here. + # + start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME + return 0 +} + +SCRIPTNAME=$1 +scriptbasename="$(basename $1)" +echo "SN: $scriptbasename" +if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then + script="$1" + shift + . $script +else + exit 0 +fi + +NAME=$(basename $DAEMON) +PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid + +# Exit if the package is not installed +#[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0 + +# Read configuration variable file if it is present +[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME + +# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables +. /lib/init/vars.sh + +case "$1" in + start) + [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME" + do_start + case "$?" in + 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;; + 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;; + esac + ;; + stop) + [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME" + do_stop + case "$?" in + 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;; + 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;; + esac + ;; + status) + status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $? + ;; + #reload|force-reload) + # + # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out + # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'. + # + #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME" + #do_reload + #log_end_msg $? + #;; + restart|force-reload) + # + # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the + # 'force-reload' alias + # + log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME" + do_stop + case "$?" in + 0|1) + do_start + case "$?" in + 0) log_end_msg 0 ;; + 1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running + *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start + esac + ;; + *) + # Failed to stop + log_end_msg 1 + ;; + esac + ;; + *) + echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2 + exit 3 + ;; +esac + +: +</pre></p> + +<p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a +lot. I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always +work out of the box, but you get the idea. I did not try very hard to +optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p> + +<p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing +the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to +get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and +robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially. The boot +and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p> - Vårt konkurransebidrag til #apps4norge bruker @opnedata - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/V_rt_konkurransebidrag_til__apps4norge_bruker__opnedata.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/V_rt_konkurransebidrag_til__apps4norge_bruker__opnedata.html - Wed, 1 May 2013 23:45:00 +0200 - <p>For noen uker siden, innen fristen 2013-04-15, leverte jeg og -Morten Kjelkenes vårt bidrag til -<a href="http://www.apps4norge.no/">DIFIs apps4norge-konkurranse</a> -under lagnavnet <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s tannlegeteam. -Vi leverte følgende i idé-kategorien:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p><strong>Tittel: Stikk innom tannlegen</strong><p> - -<p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-05-01-tannlegeportal.jpeg"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-05-01-tannlegeportal.jpeg"></a></p> - -<p><strong>Beskrivelse:</strong><p> - -<p><em>Idéen</em> - -<p>Gjøre det enklere å finne en tannlege som er praktisk for deg, der -pris og reisetid med kollektivt, til fots eller med bil er tatt med i -beregningen, ved å oppgi hvor en bor og jobber, og få forslag til -tannleger både i nærheten og på veien mellom disse stedene.</p> - -<p>Brukeren oppgir hjemmeadresse og jobbadresse, og kanskje også -barnehage. Så kan en også oppgi egen timelønn (for å beregne taps -arbeidsfortjeneste) og om en reiser med kollektivt, til fots eller -kjører bil. Så trykker en søk, og får opp en todelt side med kart og -tekstliste. I kartdelen vises aktuelle tannleger (for eksempel maks -7), og i tekstdelen er de samme tannlegene listet opp, med pris og -reisetid for kollektivtransport, og pris pluss reisekostnad hvis en -reiser med bil. En kan endre sorteringsrekkefølge for listen ved å -trykke på aktuell kolonne, og velge om en skal sortere på pris, -reisetid eller totalkostnad. Kun tannleger som tar imot nye kunder tas -i utganspunktet med i listen. Når brukeren trykker med musa en -tannlegemarkør på kartet kommer det en popup med detaljer om -tannlegen, den samme informasjonen som finnes i listen under kartet, -og lenke til mer informasjon om tannlegen.</p> - -<p>For hvert enkelt tannlegekontor er det tilgjengelig en -informasjonsside med adresse, hjemmesideurl, telefonnummer, lenke til -side for å finne reisebeskrivelse, åpningstider, etc.</p> - -<p><em>Nytteverdi for brukeren</em></p> - -<ul> -<li>sparer tid på tannlegebesøk</li> -<li>kan utnytte normal reisevei mellom hjem/jobb/barnehage</li> -<li>kan finne aktuell tannlege basert på flere kriterier</li> -<li>sile bort tannleger som ikke tar imot flere kunder</li> -<li>får kart som viser tannleger i nærheten, på tvers av kommunegrenser</li> -</ul> - -<p><em>Grad av innovasjon, nytenkning og kreativitet</em></p> - -<p>Enkel tjeneste som fokuserer på det vi selv mener er relevant ved valg -av tannlege.</p> - -<p>Tjenestekonseptet kan også brukes til andre næringer, f.eks. lege, -butikk, leiebiler, hvis en har aktuell datakilde å koble med.</p> - -<p>Skulle gjerne hatt med vurdering av tannlegene tilgjengelig, slik -at en kunne finne "flinke" tannleger basert på et eller annet -kriterium.</p> - -<p><em>Markedspotensiale - potensiale for å slå gjennom hos mange -brukere</em></p> - -<ul> -<li>Alle som ønsker eller vurderer å skaffe seg ny tannlege, f.eks. nyinnflyttede og studenter</li> -<li>Familier med en travel hverdag</li> -</ul> - -<p>Felles er at den gjør tannlegen lettere tilgjengelig for de som vil spare tid eller penger.</p> - -<p><em>Samfunnsøkonomisk nytte - bidrar til å løse -samfunnsutfordringer</em></p> - -<p>Kutter tid brukt på tannlegebesøk, og penger frigjøres som kan brukes på andre områder. Oppfordrer til bedre bruk av kollektivtransport ved å gi tips om tannleger i nærheten av allerede brukt reisevei mellom hjemme og jobb når en reiser kollektivt.</p> - -<p><em>X-faktor - “Det lille ekstra...”</em></p> - -<p>Denne tjenesten gir det lille ekstra ved at den ikke slår opp -avstand til tannlege fra et enkelt punkt men avstand fra en reisevei, -slik at en får flere tannleger å velge imellom og kanskje kan spare -enda mer tid og penger enn en ville gjort ved å sjekke kun de nærmest -hjemme eller jobb.</p> - -<p>Tjenesten gir informasjonen både som kart og som tekstlig oversikt, for å sikre at blinde og svaksynte kan få tilgang til informasjonen selv om de ikke får brukt kartvisningen.</p> - -<p><em>Datasett brukt</em></p> - -<ul> - -<li><a href="http://www.hvakostertannlegen.no/">http://www.hvakostertannlegen.no/</a> -(Ikke-publisert JSON-API), se f.eks. JSON-output fra -<a href="http://www.hvakostertannlegen.no/services/klinikker/oslo/undersokelse-med-2-rontgenbilder">http://www.hvakostertannlegen.no/services/klinikker/oslo/undersokelse-med-2-rontgenbilder</a></li> - -<li>Kartdata, -<a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">http://www.openstreetmap.org/</a> -<a href="http://mapit.nuug.no/">http://mapit.nuug.no/</a> (nabokommuner, postnummer)</li> - -<li><a href="http://labs.trafikanten.no/how-to-use-the-api.aspx">http://labs.trafikanten.no/how-to-use-the-api.aspx</a> -(reisetid med kollektivtrafikk på Østlandet), -<a href="http://data.norge.no/data/ruter-kollektivtrafikkdata">http://data.norge.no/data/ruter-kollektivtrafikkdata</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://reiseregningen.no">http://reiseregningen.no</a> -(data om statens satser for biltransport)</li> - -<li>Kollektivtrafikkkart, -<a href="http://öpnvkarte.de/?zoom=17&lat=59.91056&lon=10.75641&layers=BT">http://öpnvkarte.de/?zoom=17&lat=59.91056&lon=10.75641&layers=BT</a></li> - -<li>Routing med OpenStreetmap-data, -<a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/OnlineRouters">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/OnlineRouters</a></li> - -<li>Bilveiruting med OpenStreetmap-data, <a href="http://map.project-osrm.org/">http://map.project-osrm.org/</a></li> -<li>Kollektivtrafikkruting for Norge med uviss datakilde, <a href="http://dit.no/">http://dit.no/</a></li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Åpne offentlige datasett brukt i applikasjonen:</strong></p> - -<ul> -<li>Reisetid med kollektivtrafikk på Østlandet</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Øvrige datasett brukt i appen/tjenesten:</strong></p> -<ul> -<li>Fakta om tannleger, priser etc (upublisert JSON-API)</li> -<li>Data om statens satser for biltransport</li> -<li>Kartbilder, kartdata</li> -<li>Kommunegrenser, nabokommuner, postnummer</li> -<li>Bilveiruting med OpenStreetmap-data</li> -<li>Kollektivtrafikkkart</li> -<li>Routing med OpenStreetmap-data</li> -<li>Kollektivtrafikkruting for Norge med uviss dataopphav</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Kategori: </strong></p> -<ul> -<li>Arbeid og velferd</li> -<li>Forbruker</li> -<li>Økonomi</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Geografi (dekningsområde for app): </strong></p> - -<p>Hele landet</p> - -</blockquote> - -<p>Vinneren annonseres 2013-05-08 ved -<a href="http://www.apps4norge.no/arrangement/2013-05-08-invitasjon-til-prisutdeling-apps4norge-8mai-2013">prisutdelingen -hos DIFI 09:00 til 12:00</a>. Konkurransen blir hard. Det meldes at -38 apper og 50 ideer er registrert som kandidater. Jeg frykter at jeg -ikke rekker innom selv, på grunn av jobb og forpliktelser på -hjemmebanen.</p> + Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html + Fri, 1 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +0100 + <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for +remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat +Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day +that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was +missing in Debian. The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request +for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since +2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work +from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git +repository to get a package I could use. I would very much like +others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not +mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to +NEW. I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p> + +<p>The source is now available from +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p> - First alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html - Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:30:00 +0200 - <p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made -its first Wheezy based release today. This is the release -announcement:</p> - -<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released -2013-04-26</strong></p> - -<p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0 -edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p> - -<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p> - -<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as -Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an -out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school -network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all -services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users -and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting -environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of -the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be -installed via the network.</p> - -<p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is -not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved -version compared to the Squeeze release.</p> - -<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p> - -<ul> -<li>Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg: - <ul> - <li>Linux kernel 3.2.x</li> - <li>Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4 - (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see - manual.)</li> - <li>Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR</li> - <li>LibreOffice 3.5.4</li> - <li>LTSP 5.4.2</li> - <li>GOsa 2.7.4</li> - <li>CUPS print system 1.5.3</li> - <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01</li> - <li>Music creator Rosegarden 12.04</li> - <li>Image editor Gimp 2.8.2</li> - <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1</li> - <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3</li> - <li>Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6</li> - <li>New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see - <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation - manual</a> for more details.</li> - <li>Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for - installation.</li> - <li>More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the - <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/releasenotes">release notes</a> and the <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation manual</a>.</li> - </ul></li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Documentation</strong></p> -<ul> -<li>The (<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy">English</a>) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to - German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist - for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.</li> -</ul> - -<p><Strong>LDAP related changes</strong></p> -<ul> -<li>Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to - choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type - server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p> -<ul> -<li>LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be - configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an - entry in lts.conf or LDAP.<li> -<li>GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non - functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are - completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Regressions</strong></p> -<ul> -<li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available - yet.</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>No updated artwork</strong></p> - -<ul> -<li>Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login - screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we - had for our Squeeze based release.</li> -</ul> - -<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p> - -To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use -<ul> -<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li> -<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li> -<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</li> -</ul> - -<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c</p> - -<p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2</p> - -<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p> - -<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p> + Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html + Sun, 27 Oct 2013 17:00:00 +0100 + <p>The +<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a> +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 +<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part +of a plan to simplify the build system for +<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox +project</a>. 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian +Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>. First, the +<tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> 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 <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype +fstype</tt> 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 <tt>--variant +variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the +Debian base system packages installed. Finally, I added an option +<tt>--no-extlinux</tt> 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 +<a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the +upstream project page</a>.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><pre> +#!/bin/sh +set -e # Exit on first error +rootdir="$1" +cd "$rootdir" +cat &lt;&lt;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 +</pre></p> + +<p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this +to build the image:</p> + +<pre> +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 +</pre></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p> - Bitcoin er ikke anonymt - føres Stortinget bak lyset av finansministeren? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_er_ikke_anonymt___f_res_Stortinget_bak_lyset_av_finansministeren_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_er_ikke_anonymt___f_res_Stortinget_bak_lyset_av_finansministeren_.html - Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:30:00 +0200 - <p><a href="http://bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a> er mye i mediene for -tiden. Jeg følger med via Mylder for å finne -<a href="http://mylder.no/?drill=bitcoin">artikler som omtaler -temaet</a>, og takket være dette oppdaget jeg at stortingsrepresentant -Ketil Solvik-Olsen fra FrP nylig har spurt finansminister Sigbjørn -Johnsen om hans syn på Bitcoin, og -<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Sporsmal/Skriftlige-sporsmal-og-svar/Skriftlig-sporsmal/?qid=57052">fått -svar for noen dager siden</a>. Jeg bet meg spesielt merke til -følgende formulering fra finansministeren:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -«Det er også utfordringer ved at handel med Bitcoins er uregulert og -at transaksjonene er anonyme.» -</blockquote></p> - -<p>At Bitcoin er anonymt er en myte som spres av både journalister og -andre, så det er ikke veldig overraskende at også finansministeren har -gått på limpinnen. Det er dog litt rart, da jeg håper at -finansdepartementet ikke baserer seg på rykter og myter når de -besvarer Stortinget. Men du trenger ikke bare tro på meg som kilde -til påstanden om at Bitcoin ikke er anonymt. Sondre Rønjom har -<a href="http://blogg.nsm.stat.no/archives/3241">via Sikkerhetsbloggen -hos Nasjonal Sikkerhetsmyndighet</a> uttalt følgende:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -«At [bitcoin] i utgangspunktet -<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524"><em>ikke</em> er anonymt</a>, -kommer kanskje som en overraskelse på mange.» -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Enhver bevegelse av Bitcoin er offentlig tilgjengelig for alle på -Internet, og en må legge svært mye innsats inn hvis en skal hindre at -nettverksanalyse av transaksjonsloggene kan brukes til å identifisere -brukerne. F.eks. kan en enkelt se hva jeg har mottatt til min -offentliggjorte mottaksadresse ved å besøke blockexplorer og slå opp -adressen -<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>. -Det virker dermed på meg ganske klart at å påstå at -Bitcoin-transaksjoner er anonyme strengt tatt er å føre Stortinget bak -lyset.</p> - -<p>Finansministeren er ikke den eneste som har latt seg forlede av -medieomtalen. I spørsmålet fra Hr. Solvik-Olsen skriver han at «For -noen dager siden kom den første bitcoin-minibanken på Kypros», hvilket -så vidt jeg har klart å finne ut ikke er riktig. Det er annonsert -planer om en slik minibank (fra -<a href="http://www.bitcoinatm.com/">BitcoinATM</a>), men jeg finner -intet tegn til at en slik minibank er utplassert noe sted.</p> - -<p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til -mine aktiviteter, så setter jeg pris på Bitcoin-donasjoner til min -adresse -<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> + Det er jo makta som er mest sårbar ved massiv overvåkning av Internett + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html + Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:30:00 +0200 + <p>De siste måneders eksponering av +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Her-er-Edvard-Snowdens-mest-omtalte-avsloringer-7351734.html">den +totale overvåkningen som foregår i den vestlige verden dokumenterer +hvor sårbare vi er</a>. Men det slår meg at de som er mest sårbare +for dette, myndighetspersoner på alle nivåer, neppe har innsett at de +selv er de mest interessante personene å lage profiler på, for å kunne +påvirke dem.</p> + +<p>For å ta et lite eksempel: Stortingets nettsted, +<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">www.stortinget.no</a> (og +forsåvidt også +<a href="http://data.stortinget.no/">data.stortinget.no</a>), +inneholder informasjon om det som foregår på Stortinget, og jeg antar +de største brukerne av informasjonen der er representanter og +rådgivere på Stortinget. Intet overraskende med det. Det som derimot +er mer skjult er at Stortingets nettsted bruker +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics">Google +Analytics</a>, hvilket gjør at enhver som besøker nettsidene der også +rapporterer om besøket via Internett-linjer som passerer Sverige, +England og videre til USA. Det betyr at informasjon om ethvert besøk +på stortingets nettsider kan snappes opp av svensk, britisk og USAs +etterretningsvesen. De kan dermed holde et øye med hvilke +Stortingssaker stortingsrepresentantene synes er interessante å sjekke +ut, og hvilke sider rådgivere og andre på stortinget synes er +interessant å besøke, når de gjør det og hvilke andre representanter +som sjekker de samme sidene omtrent samtidig. Stortingets bruk av +Google Analytics gjør det dermed enkelt for utenlands etteretning å +spore representantenes aktivitet og interesse. Hvis noen av +representantene bruker Google Mail eller noen andre tjenestene som +krever innlogging, så vil det være enda enklere å finne ut nøyaktig +hvilke personer som bruker hvilke nettlesere og dermed knytte +informasjonen opp til enkeltpersoner på Stortinget.</p> + +<p>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 å undres +over.</p> - First Debian Edu / Skolelinux developer gathering in 2013 take place in Trondheim - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html - Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0200 - <p>This years first <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / -Debian Edu</a> developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim. -Details about the gathering can be found -<a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim">on -the FRiSK wiki</a>. The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online -participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome, -and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this -weekend.</p> - -<p>The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project -infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian -Edu release.</p> - -<p>See you on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,</a> then?</p> + A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html + Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:40:00 +0200 + <p>The last few days I have been experimenting with +<a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki">the +batman-adv mesh technology</a>. I want to gain some experience to see +if it will fit <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the +Freedombox project</a>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a>, 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 <a href="http://servalproject.org/">the Serval +Project</a> 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.</p> + +<p>To get this working, I've created a debian package +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node">meshfx-node</a> +and a script +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/build-rpi-mesh-node">build-rpi-mesh-node</a> +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.</p> + +<p>To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user +after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:</p> + +<p><pre> +% 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 +% +</pre></p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">an +earlier blog post about this mesh testing</a>.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><table> + +<tr><th>Supplier</th><th>Model</th><th>NOK</th></tr> +<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi model B</td><td>349.90</td></tr> +<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi type B case</td><td>99.90</td></tr> +<tr><td>Lefdal</td><td>Jensen Air:Link 25150</td><td>295.-</td></tr> +<tr><td>Clas Ohlson</td><td>Kingston 16 GB SD card</td><td>199.-</td></tr> +<tr><td>Total cost</td><td></td><td>943.80</td></tr> + +</table></p> + +<p>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. :)</p> - Mer innsyn i bakgrunnen for fjerning av ODF fra statens standardkatalog - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mer_innsyn_i_bakgrunnen_for_fjerning_av_ODF_fra_statens_standardkatalog.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mer_innsyn_i_bakgrunnen_for_fjerning_av_ODF_fra_statens_standardkatalog.html - Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:30:00 +0200 - <p>For cirka en måned siden -<ahref="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Regjeringen__Fornyingsdepartementet_og_DIFI_g_r_inn_for___fjerne_ODF_som_obligatorisk_standard_i_det_offentlige.html">ba -jeg om begrunnelse på nektet innsyn i dokumenter</a> om -standardkatalogen fra Fornyingsdepartementet. I dag fikk jeg svar fra -Fornyingsdepartementet, og tilgang til dokumentene. Jeg fikk både -innsyn i vedlegg sendt fra DIFI, og også innsyn i et notat brukt -internt i Fornyingsdepartementet:</p> - -<ul> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-Fornyingsdepartementet/sak-2012-2168/Oppsummering%20av%20h%f8ringen%20om%20endringer%20i%20forskrift%20om%20IT-standarder.pdf">Epost fra DIFI til Fornyingsdepartementet, datert 2012-11-23</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-Fornyingsdepartementet/sak-2012-2168/Oppsummering%20og%20anbefaling%20etter%20h%f8ring.pdf">vedlegg 1, Oppsummering og anbefalinger etter høring av endringer i forskrift om IT-standarer i offentlig forvaltning, datert 2012-11-23</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-Fornyingsdepartementet/sak-2012-2168/Vedlegg%20Om%20h%f8ringe.docx%20(L)(898066).pdf">Notat fra avdeling for IKT og fornying til statsråd i Fornyingsdepartementet om høringen, datert 2013-01-03</a></li> - -</ul> - -<p>Det bør nevnes at da jeg ble nektet innsyn hos mottaker -Fornyingsdepartementet på høringsoppsummeringen som DIFI hadde sendt -ut, spurte jeg DIFI om innsyn i stedet. Det fikk jeg i løpet av et -par dager. Moralen er at hvis ikke mottaker ikke vil gi innsyn, spør -avsender i stedet. Kanskje de har forskjellig forståelse av hva som -bør holdes skjult for folket. Her er de tilsvarende dokumentene jeg -fikk innsyn i fra DIFI:</p> - -<ul> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-DIFI/Epostforsendelse.pdf">Epost fra DIFI til Fornyingsdepartementet, datert 2012-11-23</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-DIFI/Vedlegg%201,%20Oppsummering%20av%20h%f8ring%20om%20endringer%20i%20forskrift%20om%20IT-standarder.pdf">vedlegg 1, Oppsummering og anbefalinger etter høring av endringer i forskrift om IT-standarer i offentlig forvaltning, datert 2012-11-23</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-DIFI/Vedlegg%202,%20Forslag%20til%20endringsforskrift.pdf">Vedlegg 2, Forslag til endringsforskrift, udatert</a></li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-DIFI/Vedlegg%203%20Forskrift%20om%20IT-standarder%20i%20offentlig%20forvaltning.pdf">Vedlegg 3, Forskrift om IT-standarder i offentlig forvaltning, udatert</a></li> - -</ul> - -<p>Det jeg synes er mest interessant er endel av aktørene som -protesterte på fjerningen (Kartverket, Drammen kommune), og hvordan -høringsoppsummeringen ikke tar stilling til effekten av å fjerne ODF -fra katalogen.</p> + Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html + Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:20:00 +0200 + <p>Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee">the Spykee robot</a> +(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 +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl">the +libspykee-perl github repository</a>.</p> - Sandy Island - øya som er synlig hver tirsdag og fredag? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sandy_Island____ya_som_er_synlig_hver_tirsdag_og_fredag_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sandy_Island____ya_som_er_synlig_hver_tirsdag_og_fredag_.html - Sun, 7 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0200 - <p>For en stund tilbake gikk nyheten om -<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Island,_New_Caledonia">Sandy -Island</a>, en øy som var dukket opp på noen kart, men som ikke var -synlig når en sjekket den på satellittbilder. Dagbladet meldte for -eksempel at -«<a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/11/22/nyheter/google_maps/google/utenriks/internett/24496816/">denne -øya finnes på kart, men ikke i virkeligheten</a>». Noe senere begynte -jeg å lese -<a href="http://www.gyldendal.no/Barn-og-ungdom/3-6-aar/Den-store-Ruffen-boken">historier -om Ruffen</a> til mine barn. Dette er historier om sjøormen Ruffen -skapt av Tor Åge Bringsværd, som starter med følgende beskrivelse:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -«Langt ute i havet ligger en mystisk øy. Den er bare synlig hver -tirsdag og fredag. Derfor står den ikke på noe kart. På denne øya -ligger et slott, og i slottet bor en gammel, fin sjøormfamilie.» -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Det virker åpenbart at Hr. Bringsværd tok feil når han trodde den -ikke var på noe kart, og at noen tydeligvis har vært i nærheten en -tirsdag eller en fredag og fått den med på et kart, mens -satellittbildene er tatt på noen av de fem andre dagene i uka og -dermed ikke ser øya. :)</p> - -<p>I følge -<a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/12/03/nyheter/sandy_island/forskning/utenriks/24662158/">en -senere artikkel i Dagbladet</a> hevder Shaun Higgins, en forsker fra -New Zealand, at et hvalfangstskip fra 1876 er opprinnelsen til at -spøkelsesøya i det hele tatt havnet på kartet. Det fremgår ikke fra -historien hvilken ukedag de var innom.</p> - -<p>Jeg har stor sans for Tor Åge Bringsværd. Og han viste nylig en -svært fin side av seg selv da han sa ja til EFNs forespørsel om å gi -ut novellen <a href="http://www.efn.no/kodemus/">Kodémus</a> med -Creative Commons-lisens.</p> + Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html + Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:30:00 +0200 + <p>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. :)</p> + +<p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian +Project News for 2013-10-14</a> 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 <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian +earmarked</a> for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and +hope you will to. :)</p> + +<p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to +create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video +documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that +take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already +donated. Are you next?</p> + +<p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og +Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a +statement under the heading +<a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open +Access</a> 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.</p> - Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html - Wed, 3 Apr 2013 23:40:00 +0200 - <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram -package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW -for many months. I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite -2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p> - -<p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to -install to work with a pluggable hardware device. The suggestion pop -up when the device is plugged in. For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT -is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program -the NXT controller. Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to -BTS. :)</p> + Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html + Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:10:00 +0200 + <p>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 +<a href="http://www.freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a> and +<a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network</a> +(see +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region#Greece">wikipedia +for a large list</a>) 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 +<a href="http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/ffmap/nodes.html">dynamically +updated node graph and map</a>, 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.</p> + +<p>I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped +to do it as part of my involvement with the <a +href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member organisation</a> community, and +my recent involvement in +<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the Freedombox project</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://hackeriet.no/">Hackeriet</a> at Husmania. They seem to +have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called +<a href="http://oslo.freifunk.net/index.php?title=Main_Page">the Oslo +Freifunk project</a>, but that effort is now dead and the people +behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called +<a href="http://meshfx.org/trac">meshfx</a>. Unfortunately the wiki +site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to +reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to +the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people +from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I +came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the +speakers about this talk (from +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Kd7CLkhSY">youtube</a>):</p> + +<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a> +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 +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>):</p> + +<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> + +<p>According to the wikipedia page on +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless +mesh network</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good +introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project. These are +the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p> + +<p><table> +<tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr> +<tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr> +<tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr> +<td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr> +<td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td> +</table></p> + +<p>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 +"<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information +about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a> +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. :)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join +us on IRC, either channel +<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a> +or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on +irc.freenode.net.</p> + +<p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old +research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research +and Innovation called +<a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The +reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere +learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at +Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for +commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard +to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I +know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would +be interested in a cooperation?</p> + +<p><strong>Update 2013-10-12</strong>: I was just +<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2013-October/005900.html">told +by the Serval project developers</a> that they no longer use +batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based +mesh system.</p> - EFN nyutgir novellen Kodémus av Tor Åge Bringsværd - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/EFN_nyutgir_novellen_Kod_mus_av_Tor__ge_Bringsv_rd.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/EFN_nyutgir_novellen_Kod_mus_av_Tor__ge_Bringsv_rd.html - Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0100 - <p>For noen dager siden nevnte jeg at vi jobbet med å typesette en -novelle med <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">DocBook</a>. I dag ble -utgivelsen annonsert med følgende pressemelding fra Elektronisk -Forpost Norge), som jeg gjengir i sin helhet:</p> - -<p><blockquote> - -<p><strong>EFN nyutgir Kodémus:</strong></p> - -<p><strong>Tor Åge Bringsværd-novelle om IT og overvåkning fra -informasjonsteknologiens spedbarndom får nytt liv</strong></p> - -<p>Elektronisk Forpost Norge (EFN) er veldig glad for anledningen til -å nyutgi Tor Åge Bringsværds novelle Kodémus i digitalt format for nye -(og gamle) generasjoner. Novellen ble skrevet så tidlig som vinteren -1968, og første gang trykt i novellesamlingen Probok på Gyldendal -samme år.</p> - -<p>Informasjonsteknologi spiller en sentral rolle i Kodémus, og det er -spennende å sammenligne beskrivelsen av IT fra 1968 med dagens IT i -2013. Forskjellene er mange -- men det er jammen likhetene også. Ikke -minst det at idag går jo nesten alle rundt med lillebrødre på seg!</p> - -<p>"Riktignok er det ikke påbudt å ha mobil," sier Thomas Gramstad, -leder i EFN. "Men vi holder på å lage et samfunn der det blir så -upraktisk eller tungvint å ikke ha det, at man i praksis ikke slipper -unna. Og disse lillebrødrene sladrer hele tiden til staten (og til -mange andre) om hvor vi er, hva vi gjør, hva vi bryr oss om, hva vi -liker..."</p> - -<p>Det at Kodémus åpenbart er skrevet i en annen tid med en annen type -IT og likevel virker så relevant idag, er i seg selv et hardtslående -tankekors.</p> - -<p>Tross sitt IT-tema fantes ikke Kodémus i elektronisk form, og -frivillige i EFN har skannet inn, OCR-tolket og korrekturlest -novellen, og deretter kodet den i en rekke digitale formater.</p> - -<p>Forfatteren har gitt tillatelse til publisering av Kodémus under ny -lisens, og novellen utgis av EFN med en Creative Commons (CC) -fribrukslisens (nærmere bestemt lisensen CC-BY-NC-ND). For leserne -eller brukerne innebærer dette at de får en klar og standardisert -beskjed om hvilke rettigheter de har til å dele novellen videre med -andre. For forfatteren innebærer dette økt synlighet og -tilgjengelighet for verket, slik at det ikke blir glemt, da -søkemotorer og nettlesere inneholder egne søkevalg for CC-lisenser, og -mange brukere søker etter verk som de vet de kan dele og bruke på -lovlig vis.</p> - -<p>EFN oppfordrer andre forfattere om å gi ut sine gamle tekster med -en fribrukslisens, slik at tekstene ikke blir glemt og for å stimulere -lovlig deling på nettet. EFN kan være behjelpelig med digitalisering -og utlegging på nett, i den grad det finnes kapasitet blant EFNs -medlemmer til dette. Vi mener at nyutgivelser av tekster under frie -lisenser kan øke interessen rundt forfatterskapet, og vil gjerne bidra -til dette.</p> - -<p>EFN utgir og deler med dette en novelle fra den digitale -informasjonsteknologiens tidligste barndom. En novelle som fortsatt er -full av vitalitet og aktualitet, og som derfor kan bidra til, og gi -ettertanke i dagens debatter om IT, personvern, overvåkning og -individets frihet og integritet.</p> - -<p>Du finner novellen her: -<br><a href="http://efn.no/kodemus/">http://efn.no/kodemus/</a></p> - -<p>i flere forskjellige formater, for ulike plattformer. Per idag -finnes novellen i disse formatene: EPUB, MOBI, XML, HTML, PDF og -txt. Det kan bli flere formater senere, og evt. frivillige -bidragsytere til dette er velkommen.</p> - -<p>Kontaktperson for denne pressemeldingen,</p> - -<p>Thomas Gramstad -<br>thomas@efn.no -<br>4817 6875</p> - -<hr> - -<p>EFN arbeider for dine borgerrettigheter i IT-samfunnet, for -nettverks- og delingskultur, personvern og frihet fra overvåkning, -åpne standarder, brukerstyrt programvare, retten til å kopiere, og -styrking av det digitale sivilsamfunnet m.m. -<br><a href="http://efn.no/">www.efn.no</a></p> - -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Jeg håper flere forfattere ser verdien av å gjøre kulturen -tilgjengelig for flere, og slår følge med Hr. Bringsværd i å gi ut -sine verker med bruksvilkår med færre bruksbegrensinger enn -opphavsretten legger opp til. Selv om jeg gjerne skulle sett at han -hadde brukt en Creative Commons-lisens som tillot avledede verker og -kommersiell bruk.</p> + Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html + Tue, 8 Oct 2013 17:10:00 +0200 + <p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo +Salvador had published a +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on +Youtube</a> 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 <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model +of the human body</a>, 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 +<a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p> + +<p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p> + +<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> + +<p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let +me know. :)</p> - Change the font, save the world (and save some money in the process) - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html - Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:10:00 +0100 - <p>Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same -time, without much sacrifice? A small step could be to change the -font you use when printing.</p> - -<p>Three years ago, -<a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/">Ars -Technica</a> reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay -changed their default front from -<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial">Arial</a> to -<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic">Century -Gothic</a> to save money. The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner -than Arial to print the same text. In other word, you could cut your -toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time -by more than 30%), by simply changing the default font used in your -prints.</p> - -<p>But it is not quite obvious how much one will save by switching. -The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year -on ink and toner cartridges, according to -<a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097">a report from -TwinCities.com</a>, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000 -per year by asking staff and students to use a different font. Not -all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external -sources will most likely still use a different font. Also, the -Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use -more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving -depend on the documents printed.</p> - -<p>But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce -the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world, -and save some money in the process.</p> - -<p>Update 2013-04-10: If you want to know how much ink/toner could be -saved when switching between fonts, Inkfarm got a -<a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font">service to calculate the -difference between font pairs</a>. They also -<a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---">recommend -which fonts to use</a> to save ink. Check it out. :) While updating -this blog post, I also came across a blog post from InkCloners, -<a href="http://inkcloners.com/blog/ink-cartridges/change-fonts-to-save-ink-costs/">listing -the fonts they recommend</a>, with Centory Gothic at the top.</p> + Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today! + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html + Sun, 29 Sep 2013 10:20:00 +0200 + <p>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 +<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130928">the Debian News +section</a>, translated to several languages. Please check it out.</p> + +<p>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).</p>