14th January 2014

Coverity is a nice tool to -find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code -analysis. It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very -useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of -the source. The company behind it provide -check of free software projects as -a community service, and many hundred free software projects are -already checked. A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at -the Coverity system, and discovered that the -gnash and -ipmitool -projects I am involved with was already registered. But these are -fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to -check, and decided to request -checking of the chrpath project. It was -added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects. Six of -these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an -error. Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction -of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it -is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in -the future end up in a library. Having fixed all defects and added -a -mailing list for the chrpath developers, I decided it was time to -publish a new release. These are the release notes:

- -

New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:

- -

Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.
Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.
Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.

- -

You can -download the -new version 0.16 from alioth. Please let us know via the Alioth -project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite -did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also -include a test suite check.

Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool

25th September 2014

I use the lsdvd tool +to handle my fairly large DVD collection. It is a nice command line +tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length, +etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format. But lsdvd have not seen +any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting +its use with some DVDs. Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I +sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the +project, without any reply. But I use it regularly and would like to +get an updated version +into Debian. So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with +the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that +he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take +over. And yesterday, I became project admin.

+ +

I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian +maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream +project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly, +collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place. +I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git +repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too. If you got +a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out +the git source and join +the project mailing +list. :)

- Tags: chrpath, debian, english. + Tags: debian, english, multimedia.

@@ -75,216 +58,263 @@ include a test suite check.

Debian Edu interview: Dominik George

25th December 2013

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I -was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed -up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his -successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School. Say hello -to Dominik -George.

- - - -

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

- -

I am a 23 year-old student from Germany who has spent half of his -life with open source. In "real life", I am, as already mentioned, a -student in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, -Information Technologies and Anglistics. Due to my (only partially -voluntary) huge engagement in the open source world, these things are -a bit vacant right now however.

- -

I also have been working as a project teacher at a Gymasnium -(public school) for various years now. I took up that work some time -around 2005 when still attending that school myself and have continued -it until today. I also had been running the (kind of very advanced) -network of that school together with a team of very interested and -talented students in the age of 11 to 15 years, who took the chance to -learn a lot about open source and networking before I left the school -to help building another school's informational education concept from -scratch.

- -

That said, one might see me as a kind of "glue" between school kids -and the elderly of teachers as well as between the open source -ecosystem and the (even more complex) educational ecosystem.

- -

When I am not busy with open source or education, I like Geocaching -and cycling.

- -

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?

- -

I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended -FrOSCon and visited the project -booth. I think I wasn't too interested back then because I used to -have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its -own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an -"out-of-the-box" solution ;).

- -

The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at -OpenRheinRuhr 2011 when the -BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various -really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch -ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to -a stage where it could have been published. I asked the Skolelinux -guys running the booth if the project were interested in it and gave a -small demonstration, but there wasn't any real feedback and the guys -seemed rather uninterested.

- -

After I left the school where I developed the software, it got -mostly lost, but I am now reimplementing it for my new school. I have -reusability and compatibility in mind, and I hop there will be a new -basis for contributing it to the Skolelinux project ;)!

- -

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

The most important advantage seems to be that it "just -works". After overcoming some minor (but still very annoying) glitches -in the installer, I got a fully functional, working school network, -without the month-long hassle I experienced when setting all that up -from scratch in earlier years. And above that, it rocked - I didn't -have any real hardware at hand, because the school was just founded -and has no money whatsoever, so I installed a combined server (main -server, terminal services and workstation) in a VM on my personal -notebook, bridging the LTSP network interface to the ethernet port, -and then PXE-booted the Windows notebooks that were lying around from -it. I could use 8 clients without any performance issues, by using a -tiny little VM on a tiny little notebook. I think that's enough to say -that it rocks!

- -

Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life's bad, and so no -politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debian, an universal -operating system, with some really cool educational tools" while they -will be jsut fine with "Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your -school network", even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes, -this is unfair towards the Skolelinux project, and must not be taken -too seriously - you get the idea, anyway).

- -

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

I have not been involved with Skolelinux long enough to really -answer this question in a fair way. Thus, please allow me to put it in -other words: "What do you expect from Skolelinux to keep liking it?" I -can list a few points about that:

- -

always strive to get all things integrated into Debian upstream -
be open to discussion about changes and the like, even with newcomers -
be helpful at being helpful ;) - -

- -

I'm really sorry I cannot say much more about that :(!

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

First of all, all software I use is free and open. I have abandoned -all non-free software (except for firmware on my darned phone) this -year.

- -

I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly -run text tools. I use -mksh as shell, -jupp as very advanced -text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro -based full-featured student management software with the two), -mcabber for XMPP and -irssi for IRC. For that overly -coloured world called the WWW, I use -Iceweasel -(Firefox). Oh, and mutt for -e-mail.

- -

However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools -are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at -least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to -kids. One of these things is Jappix, -which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of -Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need -Facebook now ;).

- -

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?

- -

Well, that's a two-sided thing. One side is what I believe, and one -side is what I have experienced.

- -

I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But -that won't work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives -grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced -to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not -see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen -students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian -desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and -they jsut refused to use it because "Linux sucks". It is something -that makes the council of our city spend around 600000 â¬ to buy -software - not including hardware, mind you - for operating school -networks, and for installing a system that, as has been proved, does -not work. For those of you readers who are good at maths, have you -already found out how many lives could have been saved with that money -if we had instead used it to bring education to parts of the world -that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than -plain criminal.

- -

That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up -method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have -founded an association named -Teckids here in Germany that does -just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the -area of free and open source software, for example the -FrogLabs, which share staff with -Teckids and are the youth programme of -the Free and Open Source Software -Conference (FrOSCon). We do a lot more than most other conferences -- this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids -aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part -and learning with and about free software through a whole weekend. All -of us had a lot of fun, and the results were really exciting.

- -

Apart from that, we are preparing a campaign that is supposed to bring -the message of free alternatives to stuff kids use every day to them and -their parents, e.g. the use of Jabber / Jappix instead of Facebook and -Skype. To make that possible, we are planning to get together a team of -clever kids who understand very well what their peers need and can bring -it across to them. So we will have a peer-driven network of adolescents -who teach each other and collect feedback from the community of minors. -We then take that feedback and our own experience to work closely with -open source projects, such as Skolelinux or Jappix, at improving their -software in a way that makes it more and more attractive for the target -group. At least I hope that we will have good cooperation with -Skolelinux in the future ;)!

- -

So in conclusion, what I believe is that, if it weren't for the world -being so bad, it should be very clear to the political decision makers -that the only way to go nowadays is free software for various reasons, -but I have learnt that the only way that seems to work is bottom up.

- - +

Hva henger under skibrua over E16 pÃ¥ SollihÃ¸gda?

21st September 2014

Rundt omkring i Oslo og ÃstlandsomrÃ¥det henger det bokser over +veiene som jeg har lurt pÃ¥ hva gjÃ¸r. De har ut fra plassering og +vinkling sett ut som bokser som sniffer ut et eller annet fra +forbipasserende trafikk, men det har vÃ¦rt uklart for meg hva det er de +leser av. Her om dagen tok jeg bilde av en slik boks som henger under +ei +skibru pÃ¥ SollihÃ¸gda:

+ +

Boksen er tydelig merket Â«Kapsch >>>Â», logoen til +det sveitsiske selskapet Kapsch som +blant annet lager sensorsystemer for veitrafikk. Men de lager mye +forskjellig, og jeg kjente ikke igjen boksen pÃ¥ utseendet etter en +kjapp titt pÃ¥ produktlista til selskapet.

+ +

I og med at boksen henger over veien E16, en riksvei vedlikeholdt +av Statens Vegvesen, sÃ¥ antok jeg at det burde vÃ¦re mulig Ã¥ bruke +REST-API-et som gir tilgang til vegvesenets database over veier, +skilter og annet veirelatert til Ã¥ finne ut hva i alle dager dette +kunne vÃ¦re. De har bÃ¥de +en +datakatalog og +et +sÃ¸k, der en kan sÃ¸ke etter ulike typer oppfÃ¸ringer innen for et +gitt geografisk omrÃ¥de. Jeg laget et enkelt shell-script for Ã¥ hente +ut antall av en gitt type innenfor omrÃ¥det skibrua dekker, og listet +opp navnet pÃ¥ typene som ble funnet. Orket ikke slÃ¥ opp hvordan +URL-koding av aktuelle strenger kunne gjÃ¸res mer generisk, og brukte +en stygg sed-linje i stedet.

+ +

+#!/bin/sh
+urlmap() {
+    sed \
+    -e 's/  / /g'   -e 's/{/%7B/g'  \
+    -e 's/}/%7D/g'  -e 's/\[/%5B/g' \
+    -e 's/\]/%5D/g' -e 's/ /%20/g'  \
+    -e 's/,/%2C/g'  -e 's/\"/%22/g' \
+    -e 's/:/%3A/g'
+}
+
+lookup() {
+    url="$1"
+    curl -s -H 'Accept: application/vnd.vegvesen.nvdb-v1+xml' \
+       "https://www.vegvesen.no/nvdb/api$url" | xmllint --format -
+}
+
+for id in $(seq 1 874) ; do
+    search="{
+  lokasjon: {
+    bbox: \"10.34425,59.96386,10.34458,59.96409\",
+    srid: \"WGS84\"
+  },
+   objektTyper: [{
+     id: $id, antall: 10
+   }]
+}"
+
+    query=/sok?kriterie=$(echo $search | urlmap)
+    if lookup "$query" |
+    grep -q '<totaltAntallReturnert>0<'
+    then
+    :
+    else
+    echo $id
+    lookup "/datakatalog/objekttyper/$id" |grep '^  <navn>'
+    fi
+done
+
+exit 0
+

+ +Aktuelt ID-omrÃ¥de 1-874 var riktig i datakatalogen da jeg laget +scriptet. Det vil endre seg over tid. Skriptet listet sÃ¥ opp +aktuelle typer i og rundt skibrua: + +

+5
+  <navn>Rekkverk</navn>
+14
+  <navn>Rekkverksende</navn>
+47
+  <navn>Trafikklomme</navn>
+49
+  <navn>TrafikkÃ¸y</navn>
+60
+  <navn>Bru</navn>
+79
+  <navn>Stikkrenne/Kulvert</navn>
+80
+  <navn>GrÃ¸ft, Ã¥pen</navn>
+86
+  <navn>Belysningsstrekning</navn>
+95
+  <navn>Skiltpunkt</navn>
+96
+  <navn>Skiltplate</navn>
+98
+  <navn>Referansestolpe</navn>
+99
+  <navn>Vegoppmerking, langsgÃ¥ende</navn>
+105
+  <navn>Fartsgrense</navn>
+106
+  <navn>Vinterdriftsstrategi</navn>
+172
+  <navn>Trafikkdeler</navn>
+241
+  <navn>Vegdekke</navn>
+293
+  <navn>BreddemÃ¥ling</navn>
+301
+  <navn>Kantklippareal</navn>
+318
+  <navn>SnÃ¸-/isrydding</navn>
+445
+  <navn>Skred</navn>
+446
+  <navn>Dokumentasjon</navn>
+452
+  <navn>Undergang</navn>
+528
+  <navn>Tverrprofil</navn>
+532
+  <navn>Vegreferanse</navn>
+534
+  <navn>Region</navn>
+535
+  <navn>Fylke</navn>
+536
+  <navn>Kommune</navn>
+538
+  <navn>Gate</navn>
+539
+  <navn>Transportlenke</navn>
+540
+  <navn>Trafikkmengde</navn>
+570
+  <navn>Trafikkulykke</navn>
+571
+  <navn>Ulykkesinvolvert enhet</navn>
+572
+  <navn>Ulykkesinvolvert person</navn>
+579
+  <navn>Politidistrikt</navn>
+583
+  <navn>Vegbredde</navn>
+591
+  <navn>HÃ¸ydebegrensning</navn>
+592
+  <navn>NedbÃ¸yningsmÃ¥ling</navn>
+597
+  <navn>StÃ¸y-luft, Strekningsdata</navn>
+601
+  <navn>Oppgravingsdata</navn>
+602
+  <navn>Oppgravingslag</navn>
+603
+  <navn>PMS-parsell</navn>
+604
+  <navn>Vegnormalstrekning</navn>
+605
+  <navn>VÃ¦rrelatert strekning</navn>
+616
+  <navn>Feltstrekning</navn>
+617
+  <navn>Adressepunkt</navn>
+626
+  <navn>FriksjonsmÃ¥leserie</navn>
+629
+  <navn>Vegdekke, flatelapping</navn>
+639
+  <navn>Kurvatur, horisontalelement</navn>
+640
+  <navn>Kurvatur, vertikalelement</navn>
+642
+  <navn>Kurvatur, vertikalpunkt</navn>
+643
+  <navn>Statistikk, trafikkmengde</navn>
+647
+  <navn>Statistikk, vegbredde</navn>
+774
+  <navn>NedbÃ¸yningsmÃ¥leserie</navn>
+775
+  <navn>ATK, influensstrekning</navn>
+794
+  <navn>Systemobjekt</navn>
+810
+  <navn>Vinterdriftsklasse</navn>
+821
+  <navn>Funksjonell vegklasse</navn>
+825
+  <navn>Kurvatur, stigning</navn>
+838
+  <navn>Vegbredde, beregnet</navn>
+862
+  <navn>Reisetidsregistreringspunkt</navn>
+871
+  <navn>Bruksklasse</navn>
+

+ +

Av disse ser ID 775 og 862 mest relevant ut. ID 775 antar jeg +refererer til fotoboksen som stÃ¥r like ved brua, mens +Â«ReisetidsregistreringspunktÂ» kanskje kan vÃ¦re boksen som henger der. +Hvordan finner jeg sÃ¥ ut hva dette kan vÃ¦re for noe. En titt pÃ¥ +datakatalogsiden +for ID 862/Reisetidsregistreringspunkt viser at det er finnes 53 +slike mÃ¥lere i Norge, og hvor de er plassert, men gir ellers fÃ¥ +detaljer. Det er plassert 40 pÃ¥ Ã¸stlandet og 13 i Trondheimsregionen. +Men siden nevner Â«AutoPASSÂ», og hvis en slÃ¥r opp oppfÃ¸ringen pÃ¥ +SollihÃ¸gda nevner den Â«Ciber ASÂ» som ID for eksternt system. (Kan det +vÃ¦re snakk om +Ciber +Norge AS, et selskap eid av Ciber Europe Bv?) Et nettsÃ¸k pÃ¥ + Â«Ciber AS autopassÂ» fÃ¸rer meg til en artikkel fra NRK TrÃ¸ndelag i + 2013 med tittel +Â«Sjekk +dette hvis du vil unngÃ¥ kÃ¸Â». Artikkelen henviser til vegvesenets +nettside +reisetider.no +som har en +kartside +for Ãstlandet som viser at det mÃ¥les mellom Sandvika og SollihÃ¸gda. +Det kan dermed se ut til at jeg har funnet ut hva boksene gjÃ¸r.

+ +

Hvis det stemmer, sÃ¥ er dette bokser som leser av AutoPASS-ID-en +til alle passerende biler med AutoPASS-brikke, og dermed gjÃ¸r det mulig +for de som kontrollerer boksene Ã¥ holde rede pÃ¥ hvor en gitt bil er +nÃ¥r den passerte et slikt mÃ¥lepunkt. NRK-artikkelen forteller at +denne informasjonen i dag kun brukes til Ã¥ koble to +AutoPASS-brikkepasseringer passeringer sammen for Ã¥ beregne +reisetiden, og at bruken er godkjent av Datatilsynet. Det er desverre +ikke mulig for en sjÃ¥fÃ¸r som passerer under en slik boks Ã¥ kontrollere +at AutoPASS-ID-en kun brukes til dette i dag og i fremtiden.

+ +

I tillegg til denne type AutoPASS-sniffere vet jeg at det ogsÃ¥ +finnes mange automatiske stasjoner som tar betalt pr. passering (aka +bomstasjoner), og der lagres informasjon om tid, sted og bilnummer i +10 Ã¥r. Finnes det andre slike sniffere plassert ut pÃ¥ veiene?

+ +

Personlig har jeg valgt Ã¥ ikke bruke AutoPASS-brikke, for Ã¥ gjÃ¸re +det vanskeligere og mer kostbart for de som vil invadere privatsfÃ¦ren +og holde rede pÃ¥ hvor bilen min beveger seg til enhver tid. Jeg hÃ¥per +flere vil gjÃ¸re det samme, selv om det gir litt hÃ¸yere private +utgifter (dyrere bompassering). Vern om privatsfÃ¦ren koster i disse +dager.

+ +

Takk til Jan Kristian Jensen i Statens Vegvesen for tips om +dokumentasjon pÃ¥ vegvesenets REST-API.

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: kart, norsk, personvern, rfid, surveillance.

@@ -292,44 +322,215 @@ If that is wanted, just let me know ;).

Dugnadsnett for alle stiller pÃ¥ Oslo Maker Faire i januar 2014

10th December 2013

Helga 18. og 19. januar 2014 arrangeres -Oslo Maker -Faire, og Dugnadsnett for -alle har fÃ¥tt plass! Planen er Ã¥ ha et bord med en plakat der vi -forteller om hva Dugnadsnett for alle er for noe, og et lite verksted -der vi hjelper folk som er interessert i Ã¥ fÃ¥ opp sin egen mesh-node. -Jeg gleder meg til Ã¥ se hvordan prosjektet blir mottatt der.

- -

MÃ¥let med dugnadsnett for alle i Oslo er Ã¥ fÃ¥ pÃ¥ plass et datanett -for kommunikasjon ved hjelp av radio-repeaterstasjoner (kalt -mesh-noder) som gjÃ¸r at en kan direkte kommunisere med slekt, venner -og bekjente i Oslo via andre som deltar i dugnadsnettet, samt gjÃ¸re -det mulig komme ut pÃ¥ internett via dugnadsnettet. FÃ¸rste delmÃ¥l er Ã¥ -kunne sende SMS-meldinger vha. IP-telefoni lÃ¸sningen -Serval project mellom -deltagerne i Dugnadsnett for alle i Oslo. FormÃ¥let er Ã¥ ta tilbake -kontrollen over egen nett-infrastruktur og gjÃ¸re det dyrere Ã¥ bedrive -massiv innsamling av informasjon om borgernes bruk av datanett.

- -

HÃ¸res dette interessant ut? Bli med pÃ¥ prosjektet, fortell oss -hvor du kunne tenke deg Ã¥ sette opp en radio-repeater (slik at folk i -nÃ¦rheten kan finne hverandre ved hjelp av -kartet over planlagte og -eksisterende radio-repeatere), bli med pÃ¥ epostlisten -dugnadsnett -(at) nuug.no og stikk innom -IRC-kanalen -#dugnadsnett.no. SÃ¥ langt er det planlagt over 40 -radio-repeatere, med VPN-forbindelser via Internet for Ã¥ la de delene -av nettet som ikke nÃ¥r hverandre via radio kunne snakke med hverandre -likevel.

Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert

16th September 2014

The Debian installer could be +a lot quicker. When we install more than 2000 packages in +Skolelinux / Debian Edu using +tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever. +A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in +bug #613428 about too +much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package +responsible for unpacking the binary packages. Other parts (like code +executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during +installation. All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to +me. If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try +to salvage the half installed system. So the failure sync-ing is +supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really +relevant while the installer is running.

+ +

A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file +system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to +change the code in several packages. The idea is not new, but I have +not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before. It +depend on the small and clever package +eatmydata, which +uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to +disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live +dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly. Instead of +modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the +packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages), +it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace +them with a simple shell wrapper calling +"eatmydata $program $@", to get the same effect. +Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple +implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.

+ +

The effect was stunning. In my first test it reduced the running +time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44 +minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell +Latitude D505 machine. I am not quite sure what the optimised time +would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf +priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during +installation. As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation +along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the +installation. I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie, +and got these results. The time measured is the time stamp in +/var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the +"pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement +yourself. In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the +timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel +dialog.

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Machine/setup Original tasksel Optimised tasksel Reduction
Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE 64 min (07:46-08:50) <44 min (11:27-12:11) >20 min 18%
Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE 57 min (08:48-09:45) 34 min (07:43-08:17) 23 min 40%
Latitude D505 Minimal 22 min (10:37-10:59) 11 min (11:16-11:27) 11 min 50%
Thinkpad X200 Minimal 6 min (08:19-08:25) 4 min (08:04-08:08) 2 min 33%
Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE 19 min (09:21-09:40) 15 min (10:25-10:40) 4 min 21%

Machine/setup	Original tasksel	Optimised tasksel	Reduction
Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE	64 min (07:46-08:50)	<44 min (11:27-12:11)	>20 min 18%
Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE	57 min (08:48-09:45)	34 min (07:43-08:17)	23 min 40%
Latitude D505 Minimal	22 min (10:37-10:59)	11 min (11:16-11:27)	11 min 50%
Thinkpad X200 Minimal	6 min (08:19-08:25)	4 min (08:04-08:08)	2 min 33%
Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE	19 min (09:21-09:40)	15 min (10:25-10:40)	4 min 21%

+ +

The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the +time is spent downloading packages. The connection to the Internet +was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a +significant factor in the measurement. Download typically took a few +seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being +installed.

+ +

The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in +Debian +Installer, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the +finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the +installation. I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the +post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the +eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in +Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO. The +negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this +optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i. If the code is +moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger +for the entire installation.

+ +

I've implemented this in the +debian-edu-install +git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the +Debian Edu installation. If you want to test this yourself, you can +create two files in the installer (or in an udeb). One shell script +need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:

+ +

+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
+info() {
+    logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
+}
+error() {
+    logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
+}
+override_install() {
+    apt-install eatmydata || true
+    if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
+        for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
+            file=/usr/bin/$bin
+            # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
+            if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
+                info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
+                printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
+                    > /target$file.edu
+                chmod 755 /target$file.edu
+                in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
+                    --rename --quiet --add $file
+                ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
+            else
+                error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
+            fi
+        done
+    else
+        error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
+    fi
+}
+
+override_install
+

+ +

To clean up, another shell script should go into +/usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this: + +

+#! /bin/sh -e
+. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
+error() {
+    logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
+}
+remove_install_override() {
+    for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
+        file=/usr/bin/$bin
+        if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
+            rm /target$file
+            in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
+                --rename --quiet --remove $file
+            rm /target$file.edu
+        else
+            error "Missing divert for $file."
+        fi
+    done
+    sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
+}
+
+remove_install_override
+

+ +

In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script +edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and +finish-install.d scripts.

+ +

By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal +Debian installer too? I suspect it should, but am not sure the +current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough. It also +depend on the side effects of the change. I'm not aware of any, but I +guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing. +Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and +fsync() having effect? Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to +allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting +everyone.

+ +

Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization +will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of +bug #702711. An updated +eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.

- Tags: mesh network, norsk, nuug. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.

@@ -337,129 +538,62 @@ likevel.

Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper

6th December 2013

It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview, -but the Debian Edu / -Skolelinux community is still going strong, and yesterday we even -had a new school administrator show up on -#debian-edu to share -his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school. This -time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of -Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in -Germany a few years ago.

- -

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

- -

I am Klaus Knopper. I have a master degree in electrical -engineering, and is currently professor in information management at -the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and -freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.

- -

All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart -from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental -projects like the Knoppix GNU/Linux live -system (Debian-based like Skolelinux), -ADRIANE -(a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and -LINBO -(Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair -system supporting various operating systems).

- -

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?

- -

The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German -coordinator for Skolelinux. We were looking for an all-in-one open -source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt -introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.

- -

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

Quick installation,
works (almost) out of the box,
contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,
is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a - single company,
has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their - experience and problem solutions.

- -

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to - the next version. Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to - a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it - working again reliably. - -
Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a - little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or - similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing - as their base. - -
Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default - configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is - not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network - configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux - and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their - network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible". - -
Some proposed extensions, which were made available as - contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material - distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline - Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the - future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update - schemes.
Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers - compared to Debian.

- -

For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now -rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until -Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes -upgradeable without reinstallation.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and -programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence, -occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various -programming languages for teaching.

- -

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?

- -

Strong arguments are

- -

Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for - teaching and learning.
Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at - home, and at their working place without running into license or - conversion problems.
Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather - than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind - customers to certain products. But teachers need to teach - science, not products.
If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what - would you need proprietary software for?

Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net

10th September 2014

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the +Norwegian Unix User Group about +the +OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net, and was very happy to +learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to +use when looking for peoples public key. So far I have used +subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former +were misbehaving, but those days are ended. The servers I have used +up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable. I hope +those problems are gone now.

+ +

Behind the round robin DNS entry of the +sks-keyservers.net service +there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every +day to ensure they are well connected and up to date. It must be +better than what I have used so far. :)

+ +

Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default +keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do +not seem to be used in Debian. Perhaps it should?

+ +

Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this +line:

+ +

+keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
+

+ +

With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV +entries in DNS. Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every +user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG +keyserver automatically should their need it:

+ +

+% host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
+_pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
+%
+

+ +

Now if only +the +HKP lookup protocol supported finding signature paths, I would be +very happy. It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I +normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to +another key. Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and +download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the +key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys. +This is as far as I can tell not possible today. Perhaps something +for a future version of the protocol?

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet.

@@ -467,33 +601,116 @@ get schools to use free software?

Dugnadsnett for alle, a wireless community network in Oslo, take shape

30th November 2013

If you want the ability to electronically communicate directly with -your neighbors and friends using a network controlled by your peers in -stead of centrally controlled by a few corporations, or would like to -experiment with interesting network technology, the -Dugnasnett for alle i Oslo -might be project for you. 39 mesh nodes are currently being planned, -in the freshly started initiative from NUUG and Hackeriet to create a -wireless community network. The work is inspired by -Freifunk, -Athens Wireless Metropolitan -Network, Roofnet -and other successful mesh networks around the globe. Two days ago we -held a workshop to try to get people started on setting up their own -mesh node, and there we decided to create a new mailing list -dugnadsnett -(at) nuug.no and IRC channel -#dugnadsnett.no to -coordinate the work. See also the NUUG blog post -announcing -the mailing list and IRC channel.

Do you need an agreement with MPEG-LA to publish and broadcast H.264 video in Norway?

25th August 2014

Two years later, I am still not sure if it is legal here in Norway +to use or publish a video in H.264 or MPEG4 format edited by the +commercially licensed video editors, without limiting the use to +create "personal" or "non-commercial" videos or get a license +agreement with MPEG LA. If one +want to publish and broadcast video in a non-personal or commercial +setting, it might be that those tools can not be used, or that video +format can not be used, without breaking their copyright license. I +am not sure. +Back +then, I found that the copyright license terms for Adobe Premiere +and Apple Final Cut Pro both specified that one could not use the +program to produce anything else without a patent license from MPEG +LA. The issue is not limited to those two products, though. Other +much used products like those from Avid and Sorenson Media have terms +of use are similar to those from Adobe and Apple. The complicating +factor making me unsure if those terms have effect in Norway or not is +that the patents in question are not valid in Norway, but copyright +licenses are.

+ +

These are the terms for Avid Artist Suite, according to their +published +end user +license +text (converted to lower case text for easier reading):

+ +

+
18.2. MPEG-4. MPEG-4 technology may be included with the +software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
+ +
This product is licensed under the MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio +license for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) +encoding video in compliance with the MPEG-4 visual standard (âMPEG-4 +videoâ) and/or (ii) decoding MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a +consumer engaged in a personal and non-commercial activity and/or was +obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 +video. No license is granted or shall be implied for any other +use. Additional information including that relating to promotional, +internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG +LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com. This product is licensed under +the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license for encoding in compliance +with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except that an additional license +and payment of royalties are necessary for encoding in connection with +(i) data stored or replicated in physical media which is paid for on a +title by title basis and/or (ii) data which is paid for on a title by +title basis and is transmitted to an end user for permanent storage +and/or use, such additional license may be obtained from MPEG LA, +LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for additional details.
+ +
18.3. H.264/AVC. H.264/AVC technology may be included with the +software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
+ +
This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for +the personal use of a consumer or other uses in which it does not +receive remuneration to (i) encode video in compliance with the AVC +standard (âAVC videoâ) and/or (ii) decode AVC video that was encoded +by a consumer engaged in a personal activity and/or was obtained from +a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No license is granted +or shall be implied for any other use. Additional information may be +obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.
+

+ +

Note the requirement that the videos created can only be used for +personal or non-commercial purposes.

+ +

The Sorenson Media software have +similar terms:

+ +

+ +
With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 Video +Decoders and/or Encoders: Any such product is licensed under the +MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and +non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) encoding video in compliance +with the MPEG-4 visual standard (âMPEG-4 videoâ) and/or (ii) decoding +MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and +non-commercial activity and/or was obtained from a video provider +licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 video. No license is granted or +shall be implied for any other use. Additional information including +that relating to promotional, internal and commercial uses and +licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See +http://www.mpegla.com.
+ +
With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 +Consumer Recorded Data Encoder, MPEG-4 Systems Internet Data Encoder, +MPEG-4 Mobile Data Encoder, and/or MPEG-4 Unique Use Encoder: Any such +product is licensed under the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license +for encoding in compliance with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except +that an additional license and payment of royalties are necessary for +encoding in connection with (i) data stored or replicated in physical +media which is paid for on a title by title basis and/or (ii) data +which is paid for on a title by title basis and is transmitted to an +end user for permanent storage and/or use. Such additional license may +be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for +additional details.
+ +

+ +

Some free software like +Handbrake and +FFMPEG uses GPL/LGPL licenses and do +not have any such terms included, so for those, there is no +requirement to limit the use to personal and non-commercial.

- Tags: english, mesh network, nuug. + Tags: english, multimedia, opphavsrett, standard, video, web.

@@ -501,84 +718,167 @@ the mailing list and IRC channel.

Hvor godt fungerer Linux-klienter mot MS Exchange?

26th November 2013

Jeg -skrev -i juni om protestene pÃ¥ planene til min arbeidsplass, -Universitetet i Oslo, om Ã¥ gÃ¥ bort fra -fri programvare- og Ã¥pne standardlÃ¸sninger for Ã¥ hÃ¥ndtere epost, -vekk fra IETF-standarden SIEVE for filtrering av epost og over til -godseide spesifikasjoner og epostsystemet Microsoft Exchange. -Protestene har fÃ¥tt litt ny omtale i media de siste dagene, i tillegg -til de oppslagene som kom i mai.

- -

2013-11-26 Gigantisk Outlook-konvertering mÃ¸der protester pÃ¥ universitet - versjon2.dk
2013-11-25 - Microsoft-protest - pÃ¥ Universitetet - Computerworld
2013-11-25 - Kjemper - mot innfÃ¸ring av Microsoft Exchange pÃ¥ UiO - Uniforum
2013-11-25 - Utsetter - innfÃ¸ring av nytt e-postsystem - Uniforum
2013-05-29 - Forsvarer - nytt IT-system - Universitas
2013-05-23 - UiO - innfÃ¸rer nytt epost- og kalenderverktÃ¸y - Uniforum
2013-05-22 - Protestgruppe - vil stanse IT-system - Universitas
2013-05-15 - UiO - mÃ¥ ha kontroll over sitt eget epostsystem - Uniforum

- -

Prosjektledelsen har fortalt at dette skal fungere like godt for -Linux-brukere som for brukere av Microsoft Windows og Apple MacOSX, -men jeg lurer pÃ¥ hva slags erfaringer Linux-brukere i eksisterende -miljÃ¸er som bruker MS Exchange har gjort. Hvis du har slik erfaring -hadet det vÃ¦rt veldig fint om du kan send et leserbrev til -Uniforum og fortelle om hvor -greit det er Ã¥ bruke Exchange i kryss-platform-miljÃ¸er? De jeg har -snakket med sier en greit fÃ¥r lest e-posten sin hvis Exchange har -slÃ¥tt pÃ¥ IMAP-funksjonalitet, men at kalender og mÃ¸tebooking ikke -fungerer godt for Linux-klienter. Jeg har ingen personlig erfaring Ã¥ -komme med, sÃ¥ jeg er nysgjerrig pÃ¥ hva andre kan dele av erfaringer -med universitetet.

- -

Mitt ankerpunkt mot Ã¥ bytte ut fri programvare som fungerer godt -med godseid programvare er at en mister kontroll over egen -infrastruktur, lÃ¥ser seg inn i en lÃ¸sning det vil bli dyrt Ã¥ komme ut -av, uten at en fÃ¥r funksjonalitet en ikke kunne skaffet seg med fri -programvare, eventuelt videreutviklet med de pengene som brukes pÃ¥ -overgangen til MS Exchange. Personlig planlegger jeg Ã¥ fortsette Ã¥ -laste ned all eposten min til lokal maskin for indeksering og lesing -med notmuch, sÃ¥ jeg hÃ¥per jeg -ikke blir veldig skadelidende av overgangen.

- -

Underskriftslista -for oss som er mot endringen, som omtales i artiklene, er fortsatt -Ã¥pen for de som vil signere pÃ¥ oppropet. Akkurat nÃ¥ er det 298 -personer som har signert.

Lenker for 2014-08-03

3rd August 2014

Lenge siden jeg har hatt tid til Ã¥ publisere lenker til skriverier +jeg har hatt glede og nytte av av Ã¥ lese. Her er en liten norsk +lenkesamling.

+ +

SjÃ¸slag +om fiskemilliardene (NRK Ytring 2014-03-03) - litt om hvordan de +norske felles matressurser rÃ¸ves fra felleskapet.
Matkrisen +kan komme til Norge (Aftenposten 2014-4-01) - hvordan miljÃ¸endringene vil gjÃ¸re matproduksjonen i Norge mer sÃ¥rbar.
Norge +trenger kornlager (NRK Ytring 2014-06-07) Chr. Anton Smedshaug +forteller litt om Norges sÃ¥rbare matsituasjon etter at Staten solgte +Norges kornlager.
PST +vil overvÃ¥ke datatastaturer (NRK 2014-03-04) - PST Ã¸nsker retten +til Ã¥ bryte seg inn pÃ¥ private PC-er og legge inn spionprogrammer. +Hvilket nok vil gjÃ¸re Linux mer populÃ¦rt, men gjÃ¸r at en i enda mindre +grad enn i dag kan stole pÃ¥ datamaskiner - neppe en god ide for +samfunnet totalt sett.
Â«Ruter +fremstÃ¥r som et pÃ¸belveldeÂ» (OsloBy 2014-03-05) - et eksempel pÃ¥ +hvordan kollektivtransportselskapet i Oslo hÃ¥ndterer sine kunder.
Clear +Channel nektet Ã¥ vise Greenpeace-reklame i Oslo (Dagbladet +2014-03-05) - forteller litt om hvordan hvilke budskap som nÃ¥r ut i +det offentlige rom kontrolleres i Norge.
Svarte +ikke pÃ¥ kritikken (Dagbladet 2014-03-06) - innlegg fra Norsk +presseforbund der de nok en gang tar opp det forkastelige i at +politiet nÃ¥ har full tilgang til Ã¥ bedrive telefonkontroll av +advokater.
Â«Putin +spiller poker, ikke sjakk. I sjakk har man regler.Â» (Aftenposten +2014-03-08) - sjakklegenden Kasparov forklarer litt om hvordan han ser +at Russlands politikk fungerer, blant annet i lys av started av +Ukraina-krisen.
I +seng med fienden (Aftenposten 2014-03-10) - kronikk fra Eirik +H. Vinje om hvordan menn og kvinner settes opp mot hverandre i det +offentlige ordskiftet, kanskje pÃ¥ sviktende grunnlag.
Fritt +frem for skulk (Aftenposten 2014-03-14) - skildring av hvordan +norske elever i dag ikke lenger har rimelig krav om oppmÃ¸te pÃ¥ +skolen.
Â«DatalagringsdirektivÂ» +avslÃ¸rte abort, sykdom og vÃ¥penkjÃ¸p (Aftenposten 2014-03-14) - om +hvordan forskere har dokumentert hvordan innsamling av metadata om +telefoni og Internett-bruk kan vÃ¦re svÃ¦rt avslÃ¸rende.
Konsentrasjonssvikt +pÃ¥ pensum (Dagbladet 2014-03-14) - Kommentar om hvordan (feil) +bruk IKT i skolen kan Ã¸delegge mer enn det bidrar til lÃ¦ring.
Reservasjonsrettsstaten +(blogg fra Doremus 2014-02-09) - morsom beskrivelse om hvordan +regjeringens forslag til reservasjonsrett for leger kan utvides til Ã¥ +gjelde alles samvittighet.
AutoritÃ¦r +gjÃ¸kunge (Aftenposten 2014-03-25) - Kronikk av BjÃ¸rn StÃ¦rk om +snurpenots-overvÃ¥kningen som varsleren Snowden dokumenterte.
Leveransekrise +i Offentlig sektor â mener Mike Bracken, Executive Director of Digital +in the Cabinet Office (blogg fra Friprog-senteret 2014-03-26).
Norge +mÃ¥ stanse avlyttingen (Dagbladet 2014-03-26) - leserinnlegg fra +Felix Horne der han ber om at Norge gjÃ¸r en innsats for Ã¥ fÃ¥ slutt pÃ¥ +overvÃ¥kning av innbyggerne som gjÃ¸res i Norge av Etiopiske +myndigheter.
Demokrati +er ingen naturlig styreform (Aftenposten 2014-04-01) - kronikk av +Stein Ringen om hvordan demokrati som styreform gÃ¥r tapt nÃ¥r +innbyggerne tar det for gitt.
Ytringsansvar +ere Enhver tilladte! (NRK Ytring 2014-04-01) - innspill fra Trygve +Svensson og Helge Svare om at hver enkelt av oss har et ansvar for Ã¥ +ytre oss i den offentlige debatten.
Jeg +er ingen god samfunnsborger (Aftenposten 2014-04-16), kronikk av +Simen Tveitereid om alternative mÃ¥ter Ã¥ motiveres i samfunnet, uten Ã¥ +hige etter mer penger og flere ting.
DLD-dommen: +AvgjÃ¸relsen fÃ¥r umiddelbar virkning (Aftenposten 2014-04-10) - +kronikk av HÃ¸yres Michael Tetzschner, en partiutbryter i DLD-saken som +stemte nei til DLD i Stortinget i 2011.
Datalagringsdirektivets +endelikt (blogg fra John Wessel-Aas 2014-04-11) - oppsummering +av hvordan direktivet ble funnet ugyldig i EU-domstolen.
Kronikk: +Kapitulasjonspresidenten (VG 2014-04-22) - kronikk av Einar +Kr. Steffenak om hvordan Stortingspresidenten og regjeringen viser sin +prinsipplÃ¸shet i mÃ¸te med Kina.
Innerst +inne er alle nordmenn (Aftenposten 2014-04-27) - kronikk fra BjÃ¸rn +StÃ¦rk om hvordan vi i Vesten i stor grad baserer oss pÃ¥ en fantasi om +at alle i verden bÃ¦rer pÃ¥ en drÃ¸m om Ã¥ bli som oss.
Det +italienske senatet gav seg selv 134 milliarder euro i sluttpakke +(Aftenposten 2014-06-19) - forsker Simen Gaure forteller hvordan +lÃ¸gner og fantasi fra nettkilder i stor grad blir akseptert som +sannhet - antagelig ogsÃ¥ av deg og meg.
Et +forsvar for brÃ¥kmakerne (Dagbladet 2014-05-30) - kronikk av Dag +Ãystein Nome som beskriver hvordan dagens skole ikke fungerer sÃ¥ godt +for mange elever.
Betalte +med slitt seddel - havnet i arresten (Osloby 2014-06-25)) - +dokumentasjon av Oslopolitiets angrep pÃ¥ vÃ¥r alles rett til Ã¥ ferdes +uten elektronisk sporing. Jeg bruker kontanter i sÃ¥ stor grad som +mulig da banken ikke har noe med hvor jeg er og hva jeg kjÃ¸per. Vi +som gjÃ¸r dette risikerer som beskrevet overgrep som frihetsberÃ¸velse +og registrering og lagring av fingeravtrykk og bilde i politiets +database over mistenkte.
Fredsprisen +til Snowden (Aftenposten 2014-06-28) - leder som forklarer hvorfor +varsleren Snowden bÃ¸r fÃ¥ fredsprisen.
Strategi +for politistaten (Dagbladet 2014-08-01) - leder som advarer om +sterke krefter som bruker terrortrusselen til Ã¥ lirke Norge nÃ¦rmere Ã¥ +bli en politistat.
Vi +mÃ¥ tenke nytt om narkotika (NRK Ytring 2014-08-03) - Mark Lewis +forklarer hvorfor legalisering og offentlig kontroll av +narkotikamarkedet er mye bedre enn Ã¥ overlate det til kriminelle.

- Tags: norsk, standard. + Tags: lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern.

@@ -586,56 +886,94 @@ personer som har signert.

New chrpath release 0.15

24th November 2013

After many years break from the package and a vain hope that -development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my -acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath, -the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already -compiled ELF programs. The update was triggered by the persistence of -Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get -support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he -is working on. I checked the -Debian, -Ubuntu and -Fedora -packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from -OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes. -These are the release notes:

- -

New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:

Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen

31st July 2014

The complete and free âout of the boxâ software solution for +schools, Debian Edu / +Skolelinux, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people +involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists +from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust +the setup. I managed to interview him this summer.

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work - with newer architectures. Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads - up.

My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self +employed physiotherapist. My former profession is tool maker, but I +haven't worked for 30 years in this job. 30 years ago I started to +support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the +administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu +Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows +Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only +works with Windows . :-(

In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use +Windows 98, 2000, XP, â¦, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX. Today we are running a +Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of +children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist, +psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to +work with the documentations of our patients.

Updated README with current URLs.

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?

Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and - Matthias Klose.

Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in +his school (Gymnasium +Harsewinkel). They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they +were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the +software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their +computer skills in optional lessons. I'm spending 4-6 hours a week +with this job.

Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by - Petr Machata found in Fedora.

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in - .dynamic is a NULL terminated string. Based on patch found in - Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.

The independence.

First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the +software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software +included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.

You can -download the -new version 0.15 from alioth. Please let us know via the Alioth -project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite -did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also -include a testsuite check.

Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the +possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices. The +servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are +working reliable.

+ +

We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45 +workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile +solution for all classrooms. These machines are all booting from the +terminal server. In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile +workstations. Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these +machines in their classrooms. Internet access is realized by a WLAN +router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a +dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.

+ +

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

+ +

Teachers and pupils are Windows users. <Irony on> And Linux +isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. <Irony +off> They don't realize the stability of the system.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba, +Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, â¦ and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)

+ +

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?

+ +

In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide +which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by +teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with +Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS +Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software +instead. Another problem are the publisher of school books. They +develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.

- Tags: chrpath, debian, english. + Tags: debian edu, english, intervju.

@@ -643,64 +981,39 @@ include a testsuite check.

RSS-kilde for fritekstsÃ¸k i offentlige anbud hos Doffin

22nd November 2013

I fjor sommer lagde jeg en -offentlig -tilgjengelig SQL-database over offentlig anbud basert pÃ¥ skraping -av HTML-data fra Doffin. Den har stÃ¥tt og gÃ¥tt siden da, og har nÃ¥ -ca. 28000 oppfÃ¸ringer. Jeg oppdaget da jeg tittet innom at noen -oppfÃ¸ringer var ikke blitt med, antagelig pÃ¥ grunn av at de fikk -tildelt sekvensnummer i Doffin en godt stund fÃ¸r de ble publisert, -slik at min nettsideskraper som fortsatte skrapingen der den slapp -sist ikke fikk dem med seg. Jeg har fikset litt slik at skraperen nÃ¥ -ser litt tilbake i tid for Ã¥ se om den har gÃ¥tt glipp av noen -oppfÃ¸ringer, og har skrapet pÃ¥ nytt fra midten av september 2013 og -fremover. Det bÃ¸r dermed bli en mer komplett database for kommende -mÃ¥neder. Hvis jeg fÃ¥r tid skal jeg forsÃ¸ke Ã¥ skrape "glemte" data fra -fÃ¸r midten av september 2013, men tÃ¸r ikke garantere at det blir -prioritert med det fÃ¸rste.

- -

Men mÃ¥let med denne bloggposten er Ã¥ vise hvordan denne -Doffin-databasen kan brukes og integreres med en RSS-leser, slik at en -kan la datamaskinen holde et Ã¸ye med Doffin-annonseringer etter -nÃ¸kkelord. En kan lage sitt eget sÃ¸k ved Ã¥ besÃ¸ke -API-et -hos Scraperwiki, velge format rss2 og sÃ¥ legge inn noe ala dette i -"query in SQL":

- -

-select title, scrapedurl as link, abstract as description,
-       publishdate as pubDate from 'swdata'
-   where abstract like '%linux%' or title like '%linux%'
-   order by seq desc limit 20
-

- -

Dette vil sÃ¸ke opp alle anbud med ordet linux i oppsummering eller -tittel. En kan lage mer avanserte sÃ¸k hvis en Ã¸nsker det. URL-en som -dukker opp nederst pÃ¥ siden kan en sÃ¥ gi til sin RSS-leser (jeg bruker -akregator selv), og sÃ¥ automatisk fÃ¥ beskjed hvis det dukker opp anbud -med det aktuelle nÃ¸kkelordet i teksten. Merk at kapasiteten og -ytelsen hos Scraperwiki er begrenset, sÃ¥ ikke be RSS-leseren hente ned -oftere enn en gang hver dag.

- -

Du lurer kanskje pÃ¥ hva slags informasjon en kan fÃ¥ ut fra denne -databasen. Her er to RSS-kilder, med sÃ¸keordet -"linux", -sÃ¸keordet -"fri -programvare" -og sÃ¸keordet -"odf". -Det er bare Ã¥ sÃ¸ke pÃ¥ det en er interessert i. Kopier gjerne -datasettet og sett opp din egen tjeneste hvis du vil gjÃ¸re mer -avanserte sÃ¸k. SQLite-filen med Doffin-oppfÃ¸ringer kan lastes med fra -Scraperwiki for de som vil grave dypere.

98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture

23rd July 2014

This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian +docbook version of the 2004 book +Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, +to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright +law. Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text. There +are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page +need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be +translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof +reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations +need to be cleaned up. The work stopped up because I had to give +priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of +the translation show this very well:

+ +

If you want to read the result, check out the +github +project pages and the +PDF, +EPUB +and HTML version available in the +archive +directory.

+ +

Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if +you find any.

- Tags: norsk, nuug, offentlig innsyn. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.

@@ -708,56 +1021,111 @@ Scraperwiki for de som vil grave dypere.

All drones should be radio marked with what they do and who they belong to

21st November 2013

Drones, flying robots, are getting more and more popular. The most -know ones are the killer drones used by some government to murder -people they do not like without giving them the chance of a fair -trial, but the technology have many good uses too, from mapping and -forest maintenance to photography and search and rescue. I am sure it -is just a question of time before "bad drones" are in the hands of -private enterprises and not only state criminals but petty criminals -too. The drone technology is very useful and very dangerous. To have -some control over the use of drones, I agree with Daniel Suarez in his -TED talk -"The kill -decision shouldn't belong to a robot", where he suggested this -little gem to keep the good while limiting the bad use of drones:

- -

- -
Each robot and drone should have a cryptographically signed -I.D. burned in at the factory that can be used to track its movement -through public spaces. We have license plates on cars, tail numbers on -aircraft. This is no different. And every citizen should be able to -download an app that shows the population of drones and autonomous -vehicles moving through public spaces around them, both right now and -historically. And civic leaders should deploy sensors and civic drones -to detect rogue drones, and instead of sending killer drones of their -own up to shoot them down, they should notify humans to their -presence. And in certain very high-security areas, perhaps civic -drones would snare them and drag them off to a bomb disposal facility.
- -
But notice, this is more an immune system than a weapons system. It -would allow us to avail ourselves of the use of autonomous vehicles -and drones while still preserving our open, civil society.
- -

- -

The key is that every citizen should be able to read the -radio beacons sent from the drones in the area, to be able to check -both the government and others use of drones. For such control to be -effective, everyone must be able to do it. What should such beacon -contain? At least formal owner, purpose, contact information and GPS -location. Probably also the origin and target position of the current -flight. And perhaps some registration number to be able to look up -the drone in a central database tracking their movement. Robots -should not have privacy. It is people who need privacy.

From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook

17th June 2014

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux +project provide an instruction manual for teachers, system +administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up +and maintaining a Debian Edu installation. This text is about how the +text processing of this manual is handled in the project.

+ +

One goal of the project is to provide information in the native +language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations. +But we also want to make sure each language contain the same +information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations +in sync. And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the +documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to +contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to +edit the documentation using a web browser. We also want it to be +easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them +help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of +tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these +goals.

+ +

We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the +Debian +wiki, as several wiki pages written in English. It consist of one +front page with references to the different chapters, several pages +for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the +chapters together into one large web page (aka +the +AllInOne page). The AllInOne page is the one used for further +processing and translations. Thanks to the fact that the +MoinMoin installation on +wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in +the Docbook format, we can fetch +the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne +page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the +manual. This process also download images and transform image +references to use the locally downloaded images. The generated +Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done +using the documentation/scripts/get_manual program, and the +result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and +a handfull of images. The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML +and epub versions of the English manual. This is the basic step of +our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and +epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files +are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.

+ +

But English documentation is not enough for us. We want translated +documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to +track the English original. For this we use the +poxml package, +which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a +translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based +translation tools used by those translating free software. The pot +file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po +files), which the translations update with the native language +translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the +original. The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML +and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to +create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case +debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml). This translated (or partly +translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can +then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version +of the documentation.

+ +

The translators use different tools to edit the .po files. We +recommend using +lokalize, +while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like +Poodle or +Transifex. All we care about +is where the .po file end up, in our git repository. Updated +translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as +bug reports +against the debian-edu-doc package.

+ +

One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if +they show translated user applications), and are needed in different +formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in +this regard). For this we transform the original PNG images to the +needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide +translated images by storing translated versions in +images/$LANGUAGECODE/. I am a bit unsure about the details here. The +package maintainers know more.

+ +

If you wonder what the result look like, we provide +the content +of the documentation packages on the web. See for example the +Italian +PDF version or the +German +HTML version. We do not yet build the epub version by default, +but perhaps it will be done in the future.

+ +

To learn more, check out +the +debian-edu-doc package, +the +manual on the wiki and +the +translation instructions in the manual.

- Tags: english, robot, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: debian, debian edu, docbook, english.

@@ -765,26 +1133,57 @@ should not have privacy. It is people who need privacy.

Lets make a wireless community network in Oslo!

13th November 2013

Today NUUG and Hackeriet announced -our -plans to join forces and create a wireless community network in -Oslo. The workshop to help people get started will take place -Thursday 2013-11-28, but we already are collecting the geolocation of -people joining forces to make this happen. We have -9 -locations plotted on the map, but we will need more before we have -a connected mesh spread across Oslo. If this sound interesting to -you, please join us at the workshop. If you are too impatient to wait -15 days, please join us on the IRC channel -#nuug on irc.freenode.net -right away. :)

Hvordan enkelt laste ned filmer fra NRK med den "nye" lÃ¸sningen

16th June 2014

Jeg har fortsatt behov for Ã¥ kunne laste ned innslag fra NRKs +nettsted av og til for Ã¥ se senere nÃ¥r jeg ikke er pÃ¥ nett, men +min +oppskrift fra 2011 sluttet Ã¥ fungere da NRK byttet +avspillermetode. I dag fikk jeg endelig lett etter oppdatert lÃ¸sning, +og jeg er veldig glad for Ã¥ fortelle at den enkleste mÃ¥ten Ã¥ laste ned +innslag er Ã¥ bruke siste versjon 2014.06.07 av +youtube-dl. StÃ¸tten i +youtube-dl kom +inn for 23 dager siden og +versjonen i +Debian fungerer fint ogsÃ¥ som backport til Debian Wheezy. Det er +et lite problem, det hÃ¥ndterer kun URLer med smÃ¥ bokstaver, men hvis +en har en URL med store bokstaver kan en bare gjÃ¸re alle store om til +smÃ¥ bokstaver for Ã¥ fÃ¥ youtube-dl til Ã¥ laste ned. Rapporterte +nettopp +problemet til +utviklerne, og antar de fÃ¥r fikset det snart.

+ +

Dermed er alt klart til Ã¥ laste ned dokumentarene om +USAs +hemmelige avlytting og +Selskapene +bak USAs avlytting, i tillegg til +intervjuet +med Edward Snowden gjort av den tyske tv-kanalen ARD. Anbefaler +alle Ã¥ se disse, sammen med +foredraget +til Jacob Appelbaum pÃ¥ siste CCC-konferanse, for Ã¥ forstÃ¥ mer om +hvordan overvÃ¥kningen av borgerne brer om seg.

+ +

Takk til gode venner pÃ¥ foreningen NUUGs IRC-kanal +#nuug pÃ¥ irc.freenode.net +for tipsene som fikk meg i mÃ¥l.

+ +

Oppdatering 2014-06-17: Etter at jeg publiserte +denne, ble jeg tipset om bloggposten +"Downloading +HD content from tv.nrk.no" av Ingvar Hagelund, som har alternativ +implementasjon og tips for Ã¥ lage mkv-fil med undertekstene inkludert. +Kanskje den passer bedre for deg? I tillegg ble feilen i youtube-dl +ble fikset litt senere ut pÃ¥ dagen i gÃ¥r, samt at youtube-dl fikk +stÃ¸tte for Ã¥ laste ned undertitler. Takk til Anders Einar Hilden for +god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.

- Tags: english, mesh network, nuug. + Tags: multimedia, norsk, video, web.

@@ -802,7 +1201,23 @@ right away. :)

2014