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).
+ +I was introduced to the +Freedombox project +in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need +of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and +within the legal protection of their own homes. The idea is to give +people back the power over their network and machines, and return +Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture. Instead of +depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone +control over their own basic infrastructure.
+ +I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have +taken priority. But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust +and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering +communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I +actually started working on the project a while back.
+ +The initial +Debian initiative based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to +create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook +up in their home and get access to secure and private services and +communication. The initial deployment platform have been the +Dreamplug, +which is a piece of hardware I do not own. So to be able to test what +the current Freedombox setup, I had to come up with a way to install +it on some hardware I do got access to. I have rewritten the +freedom-maker +image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying +setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to +set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using +the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages +missing in Debian).
+ +The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping +scripts +(freedombox-setup), +and a administrative web interface +(plinth + exmachina + +withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on +privoxy +(freedombox-privoxy). There is also a web/javascript based XMPP +client (jwchat) +trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server +(ejabberd). The +web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID +services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc. Not much of +this is really working yet, see +the +project TODO for links to GIT repositories. Most of the code is +on github at the moment. The HTTP proxy is operational out of the +box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth +users. I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but +know there are several branches spread around github and other places +with lots of half baked features.
+ +Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current stat, the +following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke +at.
+ +Debian Wheezy amd64
+ +-
+
+
- Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO. +
- Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick. +
Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument +to the Debian installer:
+
url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat
+
+- Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to +install on. + +
- When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a +few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing. + +
Raspberry Pi Raspbian
+ +-
+
+
- Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card. +
- Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely. +
Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:
++deb http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox wheezy main +
+Run this as root:
++wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \ + apt-key add - +apt-get update +apt-get install freedombox-setup +/usr/lib/freedombox/setup +
+- Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox. + +
You can test it on other architectures too, but because the +freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on +the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it +in my APT repository. But do not let this stop you. It is only a +short "apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy" away. :)
+ +Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the +192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn +off the DHCP server by running "update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server +disable" as root.
+ +Please let me know if this work for you, or if you have any +problems. We gather on the IRC channel +#freedombox on +irc.debian.org and the +project +mailing list.
+ +Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit +http://your-host-name:8001/ to see the state of the plint +welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to +get past it), and next visit http://your-host-name:8001/help/ +to look at the rest of plinth. The default user is 'admin' and the +default password is 'secret'.
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.
+ +I 2011 raderte et stortingsflertall bestående av Høyre og +Arbeiderpartiet vekk en betydelig del av privatsfæren til det norske +folk. Det ble vedtatt at det skulle registreres og lagres i et halvt +år hvor alle som bærer på en mobiltelefon befinner seg, hvem de +snakker med og hvor lenge de snakket sammen. Det skal også +registreres hvem de sendte SMS-meldinger til, hvem en har sendt epost +til, og hvilke nett-tjenere en besøkte. Saken er kjent som +Datalagringsdirektivet +(DLD), og innebærer at alle innbyggerne og andre innenfor Norges +grenser overvåkes døgnet rundt. Det ble i praksis innført brev og +besøkskontroll av hele befolkningen. Rapporter fra de landene som +allerede har innført slik total lagring av borgernes +kommunikasjonsmønstre forteller at det ikke hjelper i +kriminalitetsbekjempelsen. Den norske prislappen blir mange hundre +millioner, uten at det ser ut til å bidra positivt til politiets +arbeide. Jeg synes flere hundre millioner i stedet burde vært brukt +på noe som kan dokumenteres å ha effekt i kriminalitetsbekjempelsen. +Se mer på +Wikipedia +og Jon Wessel-Aas.
+ +Hva er problemet, tenkter du kanskje? Et åpenbart problem er at +medienes kildevern i praksis blir radert ut. Den innsamlede +informasjonen gjør det mulig å finne ut hvem som har snakket med +journalister på telefon, SMS og epost, og hvem som har vært i nærheten +av journalister så sant begge bar med seg en telefon. Et annet er at +advokatvernet blir sterkt redusert, der politiet kan finne ut hvem +som har snakket med en advokat når, eller vært i møter en med advokat. +Et tredje er at svært personlig informasjon kan avledes fra hvilke +nettsteder en har besøkt. Har en besøkt hivnorge.no, +swingersnorge.com eller andre sider som kan brukes til avlede +interesser som hører til privatsfæren, vil denne informasjonen være +tilgjengelig takket være datalagringsdirektivet.
+ +De fleste partiene var mot, kun to partier stemte for. Høyre og +Arbeiderpartiet. Og både Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet i Oslo har +DLD-forkjempere på toppen av sine lister (har ikke sjekket de andre +fylkene). Det er dermed helt uaktuelt for meg å stemme på disse +partiene. Her er oversikten over partienes valglister i Oslo, med +informasjon om hvem som stemte hva i første DLD-votering i Stortinget, +basert på informasjon fra mine venner i +Holder de +Ord samt data.stortinget.no. +Først ut er stortingslista fra Høyre for Oslo:
+ + + +# | Navn, fødselsår og valgkrets | Stemme/kommentar |
---|---|---|
1. | +Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide (1976), Gamle Oslo | +Stemte for DLD |
2. | +Nikolai Astrup (1978), Frogner | +Stemte mot DLD |
3. | +Michael Tetzschner (1954), Vestre Aker | +Stemte mot DLD | + +
4. | +Kristin Vinje (1963), Nordre Aker | +Ikke til stede |
5. | +Mudassar Hussain Kapur (1976), Nordstrand | +Ikke til stede |
6. | +Stefan Magnus B. Heggelund (1984), Grünerløkka | +Ikke til stede |
7. | +Heidi Nordby Lunde (1973), Grünerløkka | +Ikke til stede |
8. | +Frode Helgerud (1950), Frogner | +Ikke til stede |
9. | +Afshan Rafiq (1975), Stovner | +Ikke til stede |
10. | +Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg (1936), Frogner | +Ikke til stede |
11. | +Camilla Strandskog (1984) St.Hanshaugen | +Ikke til stede |
12. | +John Christian Elden (1967), Ullern | +Ikke til stede |
13. | +Berit Solli (1972), Alna | +Ikke til stede |
14. | +Ola Kvisgaard (1963), Frogner | +Ikke til stede |
15. | +James Stove Lorentzen (1957), Vestre Aker | +Ikke til stede |
16. | +Gülsüm Koc (1987), Stovner | +Ikke til stede |
17. | +Jon Ole Whist (1976), Grünerløkka | +Ikke til stede |
18. | +Maren Eline Malthe-Sørenssen (1971), Vestre Aker | +Ikke til stede |
19. | +Ståle Hagen (1968), Søndre Nordstrand | +Ikke til stede |
20. | +Kjell Omdal Erichsen (1978), Sagene | +Ikke til stede |
21. | +Saida R. Begum (1987), Grünerløkka | +Ikke til stede |
22. | +Torkel Brekke (1970), Nordre Aker | +Ikke til stede |
23. | +Sverre K. Seeberg (1950), Vestre Aker | +Ikke til stede |
24. | +Julie Margrethe Brodtkorb (1974), Ullern | +Ikke til stede |
25. | +Fabian Stang (1955), Frogner | +Ikke til stede |
Deretter har vi stortingslista fra Arbeiderpartiet for Oslo:
+ +# | Navn, fødselsår og valgkrets | Stemme/kommentar |
---|---|---|
1. | +Jens Stoltenberg (1959), Frogner | +Ikke til stede i Stortinget, leder av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget |
2. | +Hadia Tajik (1983), Grünerløkka | +Stemte for DLD |
3. | +Jonas Gahr Støre (1960), Vestre Aker | +Ikke til stede i Stortinget, medlem av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget |
4. | +Marianne Marthinsen (1980), Grünerløkka | +Stemte for DLD |
5. | +Jan Bøhler (1952), Alna | +Stemte for DLD |
6. | +Marit Nybakk (1947), Frogner | +Stemte for DLD |
7. | +Truls Wickholm (1978), Sagene | +Stemte for DLD |
8. | +Prableen Kaur (1993), Grorud | +Ikke til stede |
9. | +Vegard Grøslie Wennesland (1983), St.Hanshaugen | +Ikke til stede |
10. | +Inger Helene Vaaten (1975), Grorud | +Ikke til stede |
11. | +Ivar Leveraas (1939), Alna | +Ikke til stede |
12. | +Grete Haugdal (1971), Gamle Oslo | +Ikke til stede |
13. | +Olav Tønsberg (1948), Alna | +Ikke til stede |
14. | +Khamshajiny Gunaratnam (1988), Grorud | +Ikke til stede |
15. | +Fredrik Mellem (1969), Sagene | +Ikke til stede |
16. | +Brit Axelsen (1945), Stovner | +Ikke til stede |
17. | +Dag Bayegan-Harlem (1977), Ullern | +Ikke til stede |
18. | +Kristin Sandaker (1963), Ãsteinsjø | +Ikke til stede |
19. | +Bashe Musse (1965), Grünerløkka | +Ikke til stede |
20. | +Torunn Kanutte Husvik (1983), St. Hanshaugen | +Ikke til stede |
21. | +Steinar Andersen (1947), Nordstrand | +Ikke til stede |
22. | +Anne Cathrine Berger (1972), Sagene | +Ikke til stede |
23. | +Khalid Mahmood (1959), Ãstensjø | +Ikke til stede |
24. | +Munir Jaber (1990), Alna | +Ikke til stede |
25. | +Libe Solberg Rieber-Mohn (1965), Frogner | +Ikke til stede |
Hvilket parti får så min stemme i år. Jeg tror det blir +Piratpartiet. Hvis de kan bidra +til at det kommer noen inn på Stortinget med teknisk peiling, så får +kanskje ikke overvåkningsgalskapen like fritt spillerom som det har +hatt så langt.
-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.
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.
+ +The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up +today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows +integration fixes . This is the release announcement:
-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.
+New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22
-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. :)
+These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux +7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".
-Turning off the touch pad was simple. All it took was a quick -visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.
+About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-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.
+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 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.
-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. :)
+This is the sixth 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. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or +deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep +gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined +on +the mailing list. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and +replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password +hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user +need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for +CIFS access to their home directory.
+ +Software updates
+ +-
+
+
- Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh + work also without a attached tty. +
- Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to + make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line + tools. Please note, that the command 'update-command-not-found' + has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access + required). + +
Other changes
+ +-
+
+
- Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool +needed for desktop=xfce installations. +
- Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB +stick ISO image. +
- Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format). +
- Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup. +
- Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens + during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to + cope with this. +
- Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa². +
- Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid + empty password hashes. +
- Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the + smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines + from joining the Samba domain. + +
Known issues
+ +-
+
+
- KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to + not use the http proxy as it should. +
- Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop + (using the KDE configuration). + +
Where to get it
+ +To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
+ +-
+
+
- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso + +
- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso + +
- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso . + +
The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b
+
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2
To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
+ +-
+
+
- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso +
- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso +
- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso . + +
The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b
+
The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119
How to report bugs
+ +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, but today 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 worked flawlessly. As I write -this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation, -with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up -with an expencive door stop.
- -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
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. :)
- -I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.
+ +Earlier, I reported about +my +problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk. Friday I was +told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away. And as +there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided +today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware +currently on the disk.
+ +I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found +issdfut_2.0.4.iso +(aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which +according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD +disks. I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and +booted the ISO from a USB stick. The disk was recognized, but the +program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused +to insert any Intel firmware. So no change, and the disk is still +unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them +working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware. No idea how likely +that is. Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness. I +got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on +the broken disks.