X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/6265e5797aa9da29cdab9fa1079911376474de36..81d595c6951940b84d0080bf359dc49bed1aa9a8:/blog/archive/2014/10/index.html diff --git a/blog/archive/2014/10/index.html b/blog/archive/2014/10/index.html index 6e8991cffe..c893a4ae24 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2014/10/index.html +++ b/blog/archive/2014/10/index.html @@ -21,6 +21,498 @@

Entries from October 2014.

+
+
+ First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0) +
+
+ 27th October 2014 +
+
+

I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just +sent out +this +announcement:

+ +
+The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
+Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
+
+Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
+various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
+and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
+Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
+roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
+hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
+pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
+
+For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
+installation instructions are available, including detailed
+instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
+setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
+for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
+of at least 5 characters!
+
+ [1] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie >
+
+Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
+tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
+reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
+the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
+Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
+
+Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
+mostly in Germany and Norway.
+
+About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
+===============================
+
+Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
+on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
+configured school network. Immediately 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 or USB stick all other
+machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
+provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
+centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
+services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
+packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
+schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
+environment.
+
+ [2] <URL: http://www.skolelinux.org/ >
+ [3] <URL: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html >
+
+Full release notes and manual
+=============================
+
+Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
+and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
+list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
+the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
+available, see the manual translation overview[5].
+
+ [4] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features >
+ [5] <URL: http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ >
+
+Where to get it
+---------------
+
+To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
+
+ * ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
+ * http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
+ * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
+
+The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
+
+New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
+===============================================================================
+
+
+Installation changes
+--------------------
+
+ * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
+
+Software updates
+----------------
+
+Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
+
+ * Linux kernel 3.16.x
+ * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
+   LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
+   choose one of the others see manual.)
+ * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 
+ * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
+ * GOsa 2.7.4
+ * LTSP 5.5.4
+ * CUPS print system 1.7.5
+ * new boot framework: systemd
+ * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 
+ * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
+ * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
+ * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
+ * golearn 0.9
+ * tuxpaint 0.9.22
+ * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
+ * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
+   installation.
+ * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
+   notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
+
+ [6] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes >
+ [7] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual >
+
+Fixed bugs
+----------
+
+ * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
+   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
+   information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
+ * and many others.
+
+Documentation and translation updates
+------------------------------------- 
+
+ * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
+   Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
+   Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
+
+Other changes
+-------------
+
+ * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
+   server takes more time.
+ * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
+   doesn't work.
+
+Regressions / known problems
+----------------------------
+
+ * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
+   exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
+   and Debian bug #762103).
+ * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
+   #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
+ * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
+   work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
+   Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
+
+See the status page[8] for the complete list.
+
+ [8] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie >
+
+How to report bugs
+------------------
+
+<URL: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs >
+
+About Debian
+============
+
+The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
+free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
+the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
+volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
+maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
+huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
+operating system.
+
+Contact Information
+For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
+mail to press@debian.org.
+
+ [9] <URL: http://www.debian.org/ >
+
+ +
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, english. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
+ I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic +
+
+ 23rd October 2014 +
+
+

I spent last weekend at Makercon +Nordic, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and +the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the +Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we +had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in +a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the +regular video equipment for NUUG, with a +dvswitch, a +camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides +live.

+ +

Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the +around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is +now becoming +public on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license +NUUG always use on our recordings, which is +Creative +Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge. Many great +talks available. Check it out! :)

+ +
+
+ + + Tags: english, nuug, video. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
+ listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software +
+
+ 22nd October 2014 +
+
+

If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on +alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to +operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password +and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate +and various options for each email address. This take a while for +every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good +job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, +the +listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages +to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two +lists I recently took over:

+ +

+% time listadmin xiph
+fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
+fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
+
+real    0m1.709s
+user    0m0.232s
+sys     0m0.012s
+%
+

+ +

In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that +there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I +currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two +minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days +ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me +less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin +program.

+ +

If you install +the listadmin +package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini +with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:

+ +

+username username@example.org
+spamlevel 23
+default discard
+discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
+
+password secret
+adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
+mailman-list@lists.example.com
+
+password hidden
+other-list@otherserver.example.org
+

+ +

There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to +learn the details.

+ +

If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where +the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a +generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment +variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:

+ +

+PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
+

+ +

If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you +can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the +initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only +lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it +quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your +email.

+ +

Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 +mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the +process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of +time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free +software.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+ +

Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in +configuration example. Also, I've been told that the +PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone. Not +sure why.

+ +
+
+ + + Tags: debian, english, nice free software. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
+ Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation +
+
+ 17th October 2014 +
+
+

When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the +problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly. +And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian. +Normally something more is needed. But thanks to +my isenkram +package and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy +to do this using simple preseeding.

+ +

The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install +firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by +the kernel modules for the hardware). (It can also install user space +programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus +of this story.)

+ +

To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding +values are needed. First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed +into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed +in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system. This is done by +preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the +isenkram-cli package. The package name is next passed to debootstrap +for installation. With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel +will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific +packages for the machine being installed and install them, because +isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.

+ +

Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because +most firmware unfortunately is non-free. This is done by preseeding +the apt-mirror-setup step. This is unfortunate, but for a lot of +hardware it is the only option in Debian.

+ +

The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get +firmware installed automatically by the installer:

+ +

+base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
+apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
+

+ +

The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install +both firmware and user space packages when using this method. It also +do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later. Installing both +firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you +want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware +and one for user space programs. The firmware task is enabled by +default, while the one for user space programs is not. This split is +implemented in the package currently in unstable.

+ +

If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how +this recipe work for you. :)

+ +

So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work. First and +foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever +files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/. So the +isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find. First there +is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):

+ +

+Task: isenkram-packages
+Section: hardware
+Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
+ Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
+ proposed.
+Test-new-install: show show
+Relevance: 8
+Packages: for-current-hardware
+
+Task: isenkram-firmware
+Section: hardware
+Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
+ Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
+ packages are proposed.
+Test-new-install: mark show
+Relevance: 8
+Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
+

+ +

The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task +should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in +/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/. The scripts use other scripts to get a +list of packages to install. The for-current-hardware-firmware script +look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine: + +

+#!/bin/sh
+#
+PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
+export PATH
+isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
+

+ +

With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by +tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)

+ +

If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is +installed, run DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test +--new-install to get the list of packages that tasksel would +install.

+ +

Debian Edu will be +pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to +install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

+ +
+
+ + + Tags: debian, english, isenkram, sysadmin. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
+ Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo +
+
+ 4th October 2014 +
+
+

Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen. Above the +bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu +with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck +on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:

+ +

+ +

If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known +about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what +errors can reveal.

+ +
+
+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +
+
+
+
New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready @@ -85,6 +577,50 @@ project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)

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