Petter Reinholdtsen

PÃ¥ vegne av vanvitting mange, Aftenposten!

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:15:00 +0100

Aftenposten -melder pÃ¥ forsiden av webavisen sin at de tror Erling Fossen -provoserer nordledinger med sine uttalelser pÃ¥ -fotballtinget. Jeg er utflyttet nordlending, og mÃ¥ innrÃ¸mme at jeg -ikke kjennet sÃ¥ mye som et snev av provokasjon fra denne litt morsomme -uttalelsen til Hr. Fossen. Lurer pÃ¥ om Aftenposten har noen kilder -utenom redaksjonen for sin pÃ¥stand om at nordledinger er provosert av -Hr. Fossen. MÃ¥ innrÃ¸mme at jeg tviler pÃ¥ det.

- -

Det hele bringer tankene tilbake til Sture Hansen i Hallo i Uken.

Jeg kjÃ¸pte nettopp to +Spykee-roboter, for test og +leking. KjÃ¸pte to da det var sÃ¥ billige, og gir meg mulighet til Ã¥ +eksperimentere uten Ã¥ vÃ¦re veldig redd for Ã¥ Ã¸delegge alt ved Ã¥ bytte +ut firmware og slikt. Oppdaget at lekebutikken pÃ¥ Bryn senter hadde +en liten stabel pÃ¥ lager som de ikke hadde klart Ã¥ selge ut etter +fjorÃ¥rets juleinnkjÃ¸p, og var villig til Ã¥ selge for en femtedel av +vanlig pris. Jeg, Ronny og Jarle har skaffet oss restbeholdningen, og +det blir morsomt Ã¥ se hva vi fÃ¥r ut av dette.

+ +

Roboten har belter styrt av to motorer, kamera, hÃ¸ytaler, mikrofon +og wifi-tilkobling. Det hele styrt av en GPL-lisensiert databoks som +jeg mistenker kjÃ¸rer linux. Firmware-kildekoden ble visst publisert i +mai. Eneste utfordringen er at kontroller-programvaren kun finnes til +Windows, men det mÃ¥ en kunne jobbe seg rundt nÃ¥r vi har kildekoden til +firmwaren. :)

+ +

After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:15:00 +0100

6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved -in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root -when the user log out. A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common -package in 2004 (#230422), -and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release. -Today, this finally paid off.

- -

The framework for this feature was today commited to the git -repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has -been updated to use this framework. Next on my agenda is to make sure -kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.

- -

In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the -user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup -after a user. With this framework in place, we finally can do that in -a generic way that work with all display managers using this -framework. My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it, -similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.

I found the notes from Rob Weir on +how +to crush dissent matching my own thoughts on the matter quite +well. Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society +should go down. In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a +long time.

Digitale bÃ¸ker uten digitale restriksjonsmekanismer (DRM) bÃ¸r fÃ¥ mva-fritak

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 19:00:00 +0100

Den norske bokbransjen har -bedt om at -digitale bÃ¸ker mÃ¥ fÃ¥ mva-fritak slik papirbÃ¸ker har det, og -finansdepartementet -har sagt nei. Det er et interessant spÃ¸rsmÃ¥l om digitale bÃ¸ker -bÃ¸r ha mva-fritak eller ikke, og svaret er ikke sÃ¥ enkelt som et ja -eller nei. -Enkelte -medlemmer av bokbransjen truer med Ã¥ droppe den planlagte -lanseringen av norske digitale bÃ¸ker med digitale restriksjonsmekanismer -(DRM) som de har snakket om Ã¥ gjennomfÃ¸re nÃ¥ i vÃ¥r, og det mÃ¥ de -gjerne gjÃ¸re for min del.

- -

PapirbÃ¸ker har mva-fritak pga. at de fremmer kultur- og -kunnskapsspredning. Digitale bÃ¸ker uten digitale -restriksjonsmekanismer (DRM) fremmer kultur- og kunnskapsspredning, -mens digitale bÃ¸ker med DRM hindrer kultur og kunnskapsspredning. -Digitale bÃ¸ker uten DRM bÃ¸r fÃ¥ mva-fritak da det er salg av bÃ¸ker pÃ¥ -lik linje med salg av papirbÃ¸ker, mens digitale bÃ¸ker med DRM ikke bÃ¸r -fÃ¥ det da det er utleie av bÃ¸ker og ikke salg.

- -

Jeg foretrekker Ã¥ kjÃ¸pe bÃ¸ker, og velger dermed Ã¥ la vÃ¦re Ã¥ bruke -DRM-belastede digitale bÃ¸ker. Vet ikke helt hva jeg ville vÃ¦re villig -til Ã¥ betale for Ã¥ leie en bok, men tror ikke det er mange kronene. -Heldigvis er det mye bÃ¸ker tilgjengelig uten slike restriksjoner, og -de som vil ha tak i engelske bÃ¸ker kan laste ned bÃ¸ker som er -tilgjengelig uten bruksbegresninger fra The -Internet Archive. Der er det pr. i dag 1 889 313 bÃ¸ker -tilgjengelig. De er tilgjengelig i flere formater. BesÃ¸k -oversikten over tekster -der for Ã¥ se hva de har. +

As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian +Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded +configuration settings on the clients. I believe the work to be +mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically +generated configuration.

+ +

What is the point, you might ask? The point is to allow a Debian +Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure +without any manual configuration.

+ +

This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at +the University of Oslo using PXE. With the PXE installation, I am +asked for language (Norwegian BokmÃ¥l), locality (Norway) and keyboard +layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I +accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to +popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret). After answering +these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and +after around 50 minutes it is done. I press enter to finish the +installation, and the machine reboots into KDE. When the machine is +ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university +username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has +been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the +same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop. At no point during +this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the +required configuration was dynamically detected using information +fetched via DHCP and DNS. The roaming workstation is now ready for +use.

+ +

How was this done, you might wonder? First of all, here is the +list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it +working properly out of the box:

+ +

IP address/netmask and DNS server.
Web proxy URL.
LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).
Kerberos server for PAM password checking.
SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)
Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)
Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)

+ +

(Hm, did I forget anything? Let me knew if I did.)

+ +

The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the +machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system +administrators to track their machines. Since yesterday, everything +but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot +and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.

+ +

The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual. +When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for +http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to +configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and +/etc/apt/apt.conf. I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP +hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when +it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local +proxy present on the new network when it moves around.

+ +

The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related +configuration are generated using DNS information at boot. First the +installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain. If +not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead. If an +LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the +attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to +determine which LDAP base to use for NSS. If there are several +namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that +LDAP subtree is used as the base. If defaultNamingContext is missing, +the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any +object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with +such an object is used as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar +search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then +for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record. I've been unable to find a way to +look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the +current DNS domain is used.

+ +

For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched +for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is +found. This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of +Oslo. A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary +server, but have not been implemented yet. I decided to fetch and +save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a +different network does not change the set of users being allowed to +log in nor the passwords required to log in. Usernames and passwords +will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu +network, and will not change as the laptop move around. For a +non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is +supposed to stay in place it should not matter much. Perhaps we +should switch those to use sssd too?

+ +

The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is +located when the user logs in for the first time. The LDAP server is +consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath +attribute is used if found. If it isn't found, the home directory +path fetched from NSS is used instead. Assuming the path is of the +form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in +DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form +smb://server.domain/username. This algorithm works for both Debian +edu and the University of Oslo. Perhaps there are better attributes +to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will +do for now. :)

+ +

This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients +into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even +more flexible than before. I suspect it will also work for thin +client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a +existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this +yet.

+ +

If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian +Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

+ +

Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to +detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries +before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name. Will have to +implement it for Debian Edu. :)

Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:15:00 +0100

On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of -Skolelinux was finally -shipped. This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very -pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up. Work on the first -point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a -month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found -and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.

- -

Perhaps it even is time for some partying?

- -

After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the -next major release, based on Squeeze. We will try to get as many of -the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze, -and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.

A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use +Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian +Edu/Skolelinux machines. This was thought to be no problem, as the +access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we +knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to +mount home directories without any problems. But, after months of +struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.

+ +

The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home +directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only +work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the +underlying file system is a unix file system. When using a Windows +file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics, +and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they +want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.

+ +

As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share +with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like +OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as +it should. If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might +help you find your way out again. This is the fs-test.c source:

+ +

+/*
+ * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
+ * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
+ * directory.
+ * License: GPL v2 or later
+ * 
+ * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
+ * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
+*/
+
+#define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
+#define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
+#define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
+
+#define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <sys/file.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+#ifdef TEST_SQLITE
+/*
+ * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
+ * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
+ * below.
+ * See also <URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
+ */
+#include <sqlite3.h>
+#define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
+  "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
+int test_sqlite_open(void) {
+  char *zErrMsg;
+  char *name = "testsqlite.db";
+  sqlite3 *db=NULL;
+  unlink(name);
+  int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
+  if( rc ){
+    printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
+    sqlite3_close(db);
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  /* create tables */
+  rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
+  if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
+    printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
+    sqlite3_close(db);
+    return -1;
+  }
+  printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
+  sqlite3_close(db);
+  return 0;
+}
+#endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
+
+/*
+ * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
+ * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
+ * done in the sqlite3 library.
+ * See also
+ * <URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
+ * POSIX specification
+ * <URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
+ */
+int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
+  struct flock fl;
+  char *name = "testsqlite.db";
+  unlink(name);
+  int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
+  printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
+
+  fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
+  fl.l_pid    = getpid();
+  printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
+  fl.l_len    = 1;
+  fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
+  fl.l_len    = 510;
+  fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
+  fl.l_len    = 1;
+  fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
+  fl.l_len    = 1;
+  fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
+  fl.l_len    = 510;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
+  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
+  fl.l_len    = 2;
+  fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
+  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
+
+  close(fd);
+  return 0;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
+ * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
+ * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
+ * slowing down file operations.
+ */
+int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
+#define LEVELS 5
+  char *path = strdup("test");
+  char *dirs[LEVELS];
+  int level;
+  printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
+  for (level = 0; level < LEVELS; level++) {
+    char *newpath = NULL;
+    if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
+      printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
+	     path, strerror(errno));
+      break;
+    }
+    asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
+    free(path);
+    path = newpath;
+  }
+  return 0;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
+ * KDE.
+ */
+int test_symlinks(void) {
+  printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
+  unlink("symlink");
+  if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
+    printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
+  return 0;
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+  printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
+  test_symlinks();
+  test_subdirectory_creation();
+#ifdef TEST_SQLITE
+  test_sqlite_open();
+#endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
+  test_gcompris_locking();
+  return 0;
+}
+

+ +

When everything is working, it should print something like +this:

+ +

+Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
+info: testing symlink creation
+info: testing subdirectory creation
+info: sqlite worked
+info: testing fcntl locking
+  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
+  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
+  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
+  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
+  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
+  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
+

+ +

I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one +of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a +read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking +the read-only lock (while Windows do not). Another was a bug in the +CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory +meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making +OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was +not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.

+ +

Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need +it. :)

Danmark gÃ¥r for ODF?

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Ble nettopp gjort oppmerksom pÃ¥ en -nyhet fra Version2 -fra Danmark, der det hevdes at Folketinget har vedtatt at ODF skal -brukes som dokumentutvekslingsformat i Staten.

- -

Hyggelig lesning, spesielt hvis det viser seg at de av vedtatt -kravlisten for hva som skal aksepteres som referert i kommentarfeltet -til artikkelen og -en -annen artikkel i samme nett-avis. Liker spesielt godt denne:

- -

Det skal demonstreres, at standarden i sin helhed kan -implementeres af alle direkte i sin helhed pÃ¥ flere -platforme.

- -

Noe slikt burde vÃ¦re et krav ogsÃ¥ i Norge.

A few days ago, I +tried +to install a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze +while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and +noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the +university infrastructure. It was fairly easy, but it occured to me +that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to +connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure +itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure +around it. Now I am a huge step further along that road.

+ +

With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming +workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the +university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory +servers for Kerberos authentication. All this without any +configuration at all during installation. My users home directory got +a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL. +In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured. In addition to +this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web +proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in +/etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf. Iceweasel and KDE is +configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use +a proxy when at the university network. If the machine is moved to a +network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP +gave it a IP address.

+ +

The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS +entry ldap.$domain. If this do not exist, it look for the +_ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP +server. Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all +namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and +pick the first one as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar +algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the +uppercase version of $domain.

+ +

So, what is not working, you might ask. SMB mounting my home +directory do not work. No idea why, but suspected the incorrect +Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be +the cause. These are not properly configured during installation, and +had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server, +but SMB mounting still do not work. :(

+ +

With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu +roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and +connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM +authentication. It should also work out of the box in a Active +Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects +with UID and GID values.

+ +

If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian +Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0100

One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of -Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few -days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system -Nagios. The previous release had automatic configuration of trend -analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step -further.

- -

When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically -configured as a Munin and Nagios server. In addition, it is -configured to be a server for the -SiteSummary -system I have written for use in Debian Edu. The SiteSummary -system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I -work. In short, the system provide a centralised collector of -information about the computers on the network, and a client on each -computer submitting information to this collector. This allow for -automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine, -which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the -packages got etc. This also allow us to automatically generate Munin -and Nagios configuration.

- -

All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the -munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin -client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show -up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.

- -

All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are -automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network -services detected). In addition, all computers (also laptops) with -the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way -sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software -raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on -the machine.

- -

The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu -based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation -with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time -keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.

- -

The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running -is to set the password used to get access via HTTP. The system -administrator need to run "htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users -nagiosadmin" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for -it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages. After that, -everything is taken care of.

The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly +similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the +University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how +hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university +infrastructure. In this case, it is the university LDAP server, +Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file +servers.

+ +

I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be +changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and +/etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added +(/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working. +Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP +for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard +coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to +.uio.no.

+ +

This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the +Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming +workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name, +so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying +only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the +university servers.

+ +

My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and +fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to +allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default +setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where +the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu +uses.

Sikkerhet, teater, og hvordan gjÃ¸re verden sikrere

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:35:00 +0100

Via Slashdot fant jeg en -nydelig -kommentar fra Bruce Schneier som ble publisert hos CNN i gÃ¥r. Den -forklarer forbilledlig hvorfor sikkerhetsteater og innfÃ¸ring av -totalitÃ¦re politistatmetoder ikke er lÃ¸sningen for Ã¥ gjÃ¸re verden -sikrere. Anbefales pÃ¥ det varmeste.

- -

Oppdatering: Kom over -nok -en kommentar om den manglende effekten av dagens sikkerhetsteater -pÃ¥ flyplassene.

I discovered this while doing +automated +testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze. A few packages +in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed +that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but +some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.

+ +

An example is from todays +upgrade +of KDE using aptitude. In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data +causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade. The cause is simple. If a +package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular +dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the +ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase +because its dependencies are unavailable.

+ +

In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:

+ +

+dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
+ perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
+  Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
+dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
+ dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
+

+ +

The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already +reported as a bug, and will +hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one, +and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar +failures. Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other +packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when +the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because +of dependency loops.

+ +

Thanks to +the +tireless effort by Bill Allombert, the number of circular +dependencies +left in Debian +is dropping, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)

+ +

Todays testing also exposed a bug in +update-notifier and +different behaviour between +apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular +dependency. Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at +it.

Opphavet til Skolelinux-prosjektet

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:50:00 +0100

De fÃ¦rreste er klar over at Skolelinux-prosjektet kom som et resultat -av en avgjÃ¸relse pÃ¥ Ã¥rsmÃ¸tet i -NUUG i 2000-06-29, der HÃ¥kon Wium -Lie, da varamedlem i styret, tok pÃ¥ seg oppdraget om Ã¥ starte et -initiativ kalt "Teach the Teacher", som skulle vÃ¦re et initiativ for -Ã¥ fÃ¥ fri programvare og unix-lignende operativsystemer inn i Skolen. -Tanken var at en mÃ¥tte starte med lÃ¦rerne for at ungene skulle fÃ¥ -mulighet til Ã¥ mÃ¸te en bedre IT-hverdag. Jeg var tilstede pÃ¥ -mÃ¸tet, og hadde sans for ideen, men intet skjedde. PÃ¥ vÃ¥rparten -2001 ble det arrangert en demonstrasjon i anledning at First Tuesday -hadde invitert Microsoft til et mÃ¸te for Ã¥ fortelle om fremtidens -Internet. Dette provoserte endel av oss, og EFN og NUUG tok initiativ -til Ã¥ arrangere -en -demonstrasjon utenfor lokalene 2001-05-21. Blant de som sto bak -demonstrasjonen var Vidar Bakke fra NUUG og HÃ¥kon W. Lie fra EFN. -Etter demonstrasjonen arrangerte HÃ¥kon en fest hjemme hos seg der alle -som hadde vÃ¦rt aktive i demonstrasjonsplanlegging og gjennomfÃ¸ringen -deltok. FÃ¸r festen var jeg blitt lei av Ã¥ vente pÃ¥ at HÃ¥kon skulle ta -initiativ til "Teach the Teacher", og for Ã¥ forsÃ¸ke Ã¥ fÃ¥ litt fremgang -besteme jeg meg for Ã¥ benytte anledningen hos HÃ¥kon til Ã¥ snakke om -behovet for Ã¥ hjelpe skolene i gang med bedre datasystemer bestÃ¥ende -av fri programvare og unix-lignende operativsystemer. Flere var -interessert, og Knut Yrvin tenkte pÃ¥ ideen. Han -ropte -sammen til et stiftelsesmÃ¸te i prosjektet i sin arbeidsgivers -Objectwares lokaler ved UllevÃ¥l stadion 2001-07-02, og jeg ble med. -Resten er historie. :)

I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work +with the next Debian Edu release. Not nearly done, but one major step +completed.

+ +

+
This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this +release is to test the user application selection. To have a look, +install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set +of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some +user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no +longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know. +Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your +language of choice, please let us know too.
+ +
In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus, +artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice +and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.
+ +
The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more +work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to +much.
+ +
Changes compared to the lenny based version
+ +
+
Everything from Debian Squeeze +
+
Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in + combination with some new artwork +
Web browser Iceweasel 3.5 +
OpenOffice.org 3.2 +
Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3 +
Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2 +
Image editor Gimp 2.6.10 +
Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0 +
Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4 +
3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application) +
Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application) +
+
Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished). + Enabled for: +
+
PAM +
LDAP +
IMAP +
SMTP (sender verification) +
+
+
New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.
+
Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is + fetched from LDAP.
+
New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.
+
General cleanup (not finished)
+
+
The following features are not working as they should
+ +
+
No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The + scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used + for testing.
+
DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot, + and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP + clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.
+
The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.
+
The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.
+
The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.
+
Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the + netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.
+
The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by + some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The + jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.
+
Some packages lack translations. See + http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status, + and help out with translations.
+
+ +
To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use
+ +
+
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
+
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
+
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
+
+
To download this multiarch dvd release you can use
+ +
+
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
+
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
+
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
+
+ +
There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we +get closer to the final release.
+ +
The MD5SUM of these images are
+ +
+
3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
+
22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
+
+ +
The SHA1SUM of these images are
+
+
c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
+
2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
+
+
How to report bugs: +http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla
+ +
Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org
+

FÃ¸rste NUUG-fordrag sendt pÃ¥ TV

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Endelig har NUUG klart Ã¥ fÃ¥ kringkastet ut et av sine fordrag pÃ¥ -TV. Foredraget om -utskriftslÃ¸sningen -Biforst var fÃ¸rst ute, pga. at det var det nyeste foredraget som -var holdt pÃ¥ norsk, og dermed slapp vi Ã¥ finne ut av hvordan -teksting av video skulle gjÃ¸res.

- -

NUUG har vÃ¦rt involvert i -Frikanalen en stund nÃ¥, for Ã¥ -forsÃ¸ke Ã¥ fÃ¥ ut budskapet vÃ¥rt ogsÃ¥ pÃ¥ TV, og dette fÃ¸rste foredraget -er en sped start pÃ¥ det vi har planlagt.

- -

NUUGs fÃ¸rste foredrag sendes ut via frikanelen pÃ¥ digitalt -bakkenett, og alle abonnenter av riks-TV skal dermed ha mulighet til Ã¥ -ta inn sendingen. SlÃ¥ pÃ¥ TVen 5/12 16:05 (for sent), 12/12 14:00, -19/12 16:00, 24/12 15:37 eller 26/12 16:11 i Ã¥r, sÃ¥ skal du fÃ¥ se -meg, Tollef og alle andre de som deltok pÃ¥ mÃ¸tet pÃ¥ TV.

The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have +been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian +Edu/Skolelinux into shape. This future version will use Kerberos for +authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon, +getting rid of password questions one at the time.

+ +

It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home +directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux +network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE +to gain access to the users home directory on the file server. This +shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if +SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils +package. I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.

+ +

Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it +to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user +password when mounting the SMB volume. A simple click on the shortcut +in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped +up. :)

+ +

One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in +Debian Edu. We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now +also Samba. Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.

+ +

We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks +to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to +sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for +the release. It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if +it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in +time for a alpha0 release today. As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc +still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha +release another day.

+ +

If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu, +please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

Kartverket "frigjÃ¸r" data men er fortsatt ikke interessante

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:10:00 +0100

Dagens -kartnyhet -er at kartverket gir ikke-kommersiell tilgang til -en WMS-tjeneste der en til privat bruk kan hente ut bilder av -kartutsnitt sÃ¥ lenge disse ikke lagres lokalt, brukes i begrenset -opplÃ¸sning og ikke skader kartverket og rettighetshavernes omdÃ¸mme og -interesse.

- -

I gÃ¥r publiserte Ivan Sanchez -kaketesten -som et forslag til en (av forhÃ¥pentligvis flere) mÃ¥ter Ã¥ teste om kart -eller kartdata er fritt tilgjengelige pÃ¥. Testen er enkel, og sier -enkelt (oversatt av meg): Et sett med geodata, eller en kart, er kun -fritt tilgjengelig hvis noen kan gi deg en kake med det kartet pÃ¥ -toppen, som en gave. Kartverkets publisering av kart feiler sÃ¥ vidt -jeg kan se denne testen fullstendig. En kan slik jeg leser vilkÃ¥rene -ikke be en konditor om Ã¥ lage en kake (brudd pÃ¥ kravet om -ikke-kommersiell bruk) med kartverkets kart.

- -

De som vil lage karttjenester basert pÃ¥ denne nye tjenesten fra -kartverket vil gjÃ¸re det pÃ¥ kartverkets nÃ¥de og med sterke bindinger -og begresninger. Det blir dermed helt uinteressant for meg. Jeg vil -nok fortsette Ã¥ bruke data fra -OpenStreetmap.org, der jeg -har kontrollen med tilgang til kartdataene, og kan endre pÃ¥ de -underliggende dataene som jeg Ã¸nsker.

- -

Som et eksempel, sÃ¥ trenger vi til en norsk -FixMyStreet-installasjon -tilgang til vektorutgaven av kommunegrensene. Denne nye karttjenesten -er ubrukelig til dette.

For mange Ã¥r siden slutte jeg Ã¥ kjÃ¸pe musikk-CDer. Ãrsaken var at +musikkbransjen var godt i gang med Ã¥ selge platene sine med DRM som +gjorde at jeg ikke fikk spilt av musikken jeg kjÃ¸pte pÃ¥ utstyret jeg +hadde tilgjengelig, dvs. min datamaskin. Det var umulig Ã¥ se pÃ¥ en +plate om den var Ã¸delagt eller ikke, og jeg hadde jo allerede en +anseelig samling med plater, sÃ¥ jeg bestemme meg for Ã¥ slutte Ã¥ gi +penger til en bransje som Ã¥penbart ikke respekterte meg.

+ +

Jeg har mange titalls dager med musikk pÃ¥ CD i dag. Det meste er +lagt i et stort arkiv som kan spilles av fra husets datamaskiner (har +ikke rukket rippe alt). Jeg ser dermed ikke behovet for Ã¥ skaffe mer +musikk. De fleste av mine favoritter er i hus, og jeg er dermed godt +fornÃ¸yd.

+ +

Hvis musikkbransjen Ã¸nsker mine penger, sÃ¥ mÃ¥ de demonstrere at de +setter pris pÃ¥ meg som kunde, og ikke skremme meg bort med DRM og +antydninger om at kundene er kriminelle.

+ +

Filmbransjen er like ille, men mens musikk gjerne varer lenge, er +filmer mer ferskvare. Har dermed ikke helt sluttet Ã¥ kjÃ¸pe filmer, men +holder meg til DVD-filmer som kan spilles av pÃ¥ mine Linuxbokser. +Kommer neppe til Ã¥ ta i bruk Blueray, og ei heller de nye DRM-greiene +Â«UltravioletÂ» som be annonsert her om dagen.