It has been a while since my last English
-Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-interview last November. But the developers and translators are still
-pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
-time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
-in the project, Cédric Boutillier.
-
-
Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
-
-
I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
-professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
-mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
-probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.
-
-
I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
-and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
-packaging, publicity and translation.
-
-
How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
-project?
-
-
I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
-the
-Debian Edu manual for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
-then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
-manual.
-
-
I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
-virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
-shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
-how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.
-
-
What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
-ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
-by GOsa². What pleased
-me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
-there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
-to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
-artistic skills with music (Ardour,
-Audacity) and
-movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
-Stopmotion).
-
-
I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
-#debian-edu.
-Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
-beautiful project.
-
-
What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
-Edu?
-
-
For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
-community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
-fact that it provides a solution ready to use.
-
-
I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
-distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
-of educational free software.
-
-
What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
-Edu?
-
-
Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
-project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
-not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
-solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
-is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.
-
-
One can find support from a company by looking at
-the
-wiki dokumentation, where some countries already have a number of
-companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
-Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
-for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
-consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
-support for Debian Edu as well.
-
-
Which free software do you use daily?
-
-
I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
-most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
-scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice. I am
-also using the mathematical software
-Scilab and
-Sage (built from
-source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
-
-
Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
-using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
-statistics?
-
-
I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
-university, we use both R and
-Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
-geometry, there are nice programs:
+
+
27th July 2013
+
The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today. This is the release announcement:
+
+
New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released
+2013-07-27
+
+
These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".
+
+
About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
+
+
Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux, 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, DVD 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 and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.
+
+
This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
+this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
+Squeeze release.
+
+
ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
+versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
+release.
+
+
Software updates
+
+
+
+- Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager
+ for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.
+- Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser
+ packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced
+ by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those
+ installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa
+ and libpam-mklocaluser.
+- Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).
+- Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).
+- Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of
+ crash bugs.
+
+
+
+
Other changes
-- drgeo and
-kig to do
-constructions in planar geometry
+
- Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break
+ desktop=gnome installations.
+- Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the
+ netinst CD.
+- Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific
+ setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.
+- Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at
+ install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash
+ with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.
+- Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient
+ exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host
+ name setting at run time to work again.
+- Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL
+ fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by
+ updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.
+- Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique
+ (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.
+- Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.
+
+
+
+
Known issues
+
+
-- kali
-to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
-groups), although the interface looks a bit old.
+- Grub is missing the new artwork.
+- KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
+ not use the http proxy as it should.
+- Chromium also fail to use the proxy.
-
I like also
-cantor, which
-provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
-Octave, etc...
-
-
Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
-get schools to use free software?
+
Where to get it
-
My suggestions would be to
+
To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
+
+
The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109
+
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f
-
advertise the living and strong community around the project.
+
To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
+
+
+
+
The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69
+
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733
+
+
+
How to report bugs
+
+
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
@@ -572,69 +390,112 @@ get schools to use free software?
-
-
3rd June 2013
-
Jeg jobber til daglig ved Universitetet
-i Oslo, en institusjon som lenge har vektlagt verdien av åpne
-standarder og fri programvare. Men noe har endret seg, og for en
-liten stund tilbake annonserte USIT at dagens fungerende e-postsystemet
-basert på fri programvare skulle byttes ut med Microsoft Exchange og
-at Microsoft Outlook skulle bli den best fungerende men antagelig ikke
-eneste støttede e-postklienten. Annonseringen har ført til flere
-protester og en
-underskriftskampanje, initiert av Diana Santos, der så langt 253
-personer har signert. Prosjektet
-NIKE (Ny integrert
-kalender/e-post) ble initiert for å se på mulige løsninger med
-utgangspunkt i at en kombinert epost/kalenderløsning var påkrevd, og
-prosjektet
-NIKE-implementasjon
-er igang med å rulle ut MS Exchange ved Universitetet i Oslo.
-
-
For kun kort tid siden ble det annonsert at det blir et åpent møte
-med ledelsen hos universitetet i Oslo med disse planene som tema:
-
-
Tid: Onsdag 2013-06-05 kl. 10:00
-
Sted: 9. etasje i Lucy Smiths hus (admin-bygget)
-
-
Det kan være en god plass å stille opp hvis en som meg ikke tror
-valget av Microsoft Exchange som sentral epostinfrastruktur er et
-heldig valg for Norges ledende forskningsuniversitet, men at en er mer
-tjent med å selv
-beholde
-kontrollen over egen infrastruktur.
-
-
Saken har ført til endel presseoppslag så langt. Her er de jeg har
-fått med meg:
+
+
17th July 2013
+
Today I switched to
+my
+new laptop. I've previously written about the problems I had with
+my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
+180
+GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware that did not handle
+sustained writes. My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
+trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
+identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
+disk instead to fix it once and for all. The Samsung disk survived
+the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
+random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
+decided to trust it with my data. I have installed it as a Debian Edu
+Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
+server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
+station from now on.
+
+
As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
+Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
+performance and increase life time of the disk. The Linux kernel and
+user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
+environment. To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
+package ssd-setup to handle this tuning. The
+source
+for the ssd-setup package is available from collab-maint, and it
+is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
+package. If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
+will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
+file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.
+
+
I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
+set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD. It is adjusted to my use case,
+where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
+addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
+top of this again. See the README file in the package source for the
+references I used to pick the settings. At the moment these
+parameters are tuned:
-- 2013-05-29
- Forsvarer
- nytt IT-system - Universitas
+- Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
+ (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)
-- 2013-05-23
- UiO
- innfører nytt epost- og kalenderverktøy - Uniforum
+- Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
+ this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
+ 0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.
+- Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
+ systems.
-- 2013-05-22
- Protestgruppe
- vil stanse IT-system - Universitas
+- Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
+ /etc/fstab.
+- Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.
-- 2013-05-15
- UiO
- må ha kontroll over sitt eget epostsystem - Uniforum
+- Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
+ cron.daily).
-
+
Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
+ to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.
+
+
During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
+the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
+little gain. My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
+those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
+computer. I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
+from getting the data on the disk (see
+XKCD #538 for an explanation why).
+Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
+right thing to do.
+
+
I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
+it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
+indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.
+
+
I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
+and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
+file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
+instead of during my work.
+
+
My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
+this is already done by Debian Edu.
+
+
I have not yet started on the user space tuning. I expect
+iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
+have not yet had time to investigate those parts.
+
+
The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
+there.
+
+
As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
+as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
+disk. It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
+the Lenovo firmware. But I have not tried and did not want to do so
+without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
+disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
+back.
@@ -642,142 +503,81 @@ fått med meg:
-
-
1st June 2013
-
Included in Debian Edu /
-Skolelinux, there are quite a lot of educational software.
-Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn. We have tried to
-tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
-the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
-educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
-debtag field. Here it is. Click on a image to learn more about the
-program.
-
-
-
-
field::arts
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::astronomy
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::biology:structural
-
-
-
-
-
field::chemistry
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[viewmol]
-
-
-
-
field::electronics
-
-
-[gpsim]
-
-
-
field::geography
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::linguistics
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::mathematics
-
-
-
-
-
-[geomview]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::physics
-
-
-
-
-
-
field::TODO
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
In total, 61 applications. 3 of them lacked screen shots on
-screenshot.debian.net. If
-you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
-know on IRC, #debian-edu
-on irc.debian.org, or our
-mailing list
-debian-edu@.
+
+
10th July 2013
+
A few days ago, I wrote about
+the
+problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk, which
+was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
+sustained write. My supplier is in contact with
+Lenovo, and they wanted to send a
+replacement disk to try to fix the problem. They decided to send an
+identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.
+
+
Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
+Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it. The new disk have the
+same firmware version as the original. This time my hope raised
+slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
+die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
+going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%. But around 60%, the disk
+died again and I was back on square one. I still do not have a new
+laptop with a disk I can trust. I can not live with a disk that might
+lock up when I download a new
+Debian Edu / Skolelinux ISO or
+other large files. I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
+the next proposal from Lenovo.
+
+
The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
+11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
+LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
+Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
+SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
+P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.
+
+
The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
+11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
+LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
+Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
+SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
+P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.
+
+
The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
+SA, date and WNPP values. Mentioning all the details here in case
+someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
+failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
+exist).
+
+
+
+
+
+
9th July 2013
+
The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
+Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
+party in Oslo. It is organised by the
+member assosiation NUUG and
+the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+project together with the hack space
+Bitraf.
+
+
It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening. Everyone is
+welcome, and there is no fee to participate. There is on the other
+hand limited space, and only room for 30 people. Please put your name
+on the event
+wiki page if you plan to join us.
+
+
@@ -785,48 +585,74 @@ debian-edu@.
-
-
27th May 2013
-
Two days ago, I asked
-how
-I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
-preinstalled with Windows 8. I found a solution, but am horrified
-with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
-and Windows 8.
-
-
I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
-secure booting or fast boot. I suspect fast boot was the problem,
-causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
-key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
-enough to tell.
-
-
There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
-opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive! This is as far as I
-can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
-without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement. I am told (and
-found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
-firmware setup once booted into Windows 8. But as I believe the terms
-of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
-was never an alternative. I do not enter agreements I do not intend
-to follow.
-
-
I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
-waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
-work. But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
-it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops. Is
-this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
-it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
-accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms? Or at least not
-without risking to loose the warranty?
-
-
I've updated the
-Linux Laptop
-wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV, to ensure the next person
-do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
-machine.
-
-
Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
-Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.
+
+
5th July 2013
+
Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
+replacement
+for my trusty old Thinkpad X41. Unfortunately I did not have much
+time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
+will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived. I
+ended up picking a
+Thinkpad X230
+with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
+a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly. But my
+second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful. More
+on that below.
+
+
I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
+important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
+listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search
+feature at Prisjakt, which
+allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
+requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
+to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
+disks from my search parameters. I also asked around among friends to
+get their impression on keyboards and robustness.
+
+
So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
+X41. I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
+significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
+hand a lot more to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly
+good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
+I will get used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
+needed a new laptop now. :)
+
+
Turning off the touch pad was simple. All it took was a quick
+visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.
+
+
But there is a fatal problem with the laptop. The 180 GB SSD disk
+lock up during load. And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
+with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
+I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
+reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
+default in Ubuntu). And the bug with is already known. It was
+reported to Debian as BTS
+report #691427 2012-10-25 (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
+Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD). It is also reported to the Linux
+kernel developers as
+Kernel bugzilla
+report #51861 2012-12-20 (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
+(SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
+Lenovo forums, both for
+T430
+2012-11-10 and for
+X230
+03-20-2013. The problem do not only affect installation. The
+reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
+on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
+problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
+There is even a
+small C program
+available that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
+minutes by writing to a file.
+
+
I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
+contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
+requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
+firmware. Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
+Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i). I
+hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
+fixed. :)
