X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/c6843e8ebe94cbe6bb66c2ab3045a69fba681de1..59c16ba96441776d59c287cc827c044fb36d4ee8:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index c932f6644f..3983f80396 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,528 +7,375 @@ - Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html - Thu, 27 May 2010 23:55:00 +0200 + TED talks på norsk og NUUG-foredrag - frivillige trengs til teksting + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TED_talks_p___norsk_og_NUUG_foredrag___frivillige_trengs_til_teksting.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TED_talks_p___norsk_og_NUUG_foredrag___frivillige_trengs_til_teksting.html + Fri, 1 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0200 -<p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing. -The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious -issues are known and should be solved: - -<p><ul> - -<li>The wicd package seen to -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when -parallel booting is enabled. No idea why, but the wicd maintainer -seem to be on the case.</li> - -<li>The nvidia X driver seem to -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a> -triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect. The -maintainer is on the case.</li> - -<li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot -sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to -sysv-rc. One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create -/etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make -sysv-rc more robust. Will investigate some more and probably upload a -workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to -sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li> - -</ul></p> - -<p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem -solvable before Squeeze is released. In addition to these there are -some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings, -which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p> - -<p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to -the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the -list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p> +<p>Frikanalen og NUUG jobber for å få <a href="http://www.ted.com">TED +talks</a> kringkastet på +<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, for å gi et mer +variert innhold på kanalen som i dag sendes på RiksTV, Lyse og +Uninett. Før innslagene kan sendes må det lages norske undertekster, +og dette her trengs det frivillige. Det er hundrevis av innslag, men +mine favoritter er +<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/james_randi.html">James Randi</a> og +<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html">Michael +Specter</a>. Hvis du har litt tid til overs, bli med på å oversette +TED-foredragene til norsk og få på plass undertekster. TED har +allerede opplegg på plass for å håndtere oversettelser og +undertekster. Registrer deg på +<a href="http://www.ted.com/translate/forted">sidene til TED</a> i +dag!</p> + +<p>NUUG holder også på å få alle opptakene fra NUUG-presentasjonene +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/frikanalen/frontpage.cgi?organization=NUUG">publisert +på Frikanalen</a>. Foredrag på engelsk må også her tekstes og +oversettes. Ta kontakt med video@nuug.no hvis du vil bidra med +teksting og oversetting. Arbeidet koordineres på epostlisten og på +IRC (#nuug-video på irc.oftc.org), og <a +href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/video/frikanalen">en wikiside</a> +brukes som notatblokk for arbeidet. Mest lovende verktøy for dette +ser i dag ut til å være +<a href="http://universalsubtitles.org/">Universal Subtitles</a>, som +lar en bidra med teksting via en nettleser.</p> - More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html - Sat, 22 May 2010 21:30:00 +0200 + Bilkollektivet vil ha retten til å se hvor jeg kjører... + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bilkollektivet_vil_ha_retten_til____se_hvor_jeg_kj__rer___.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bilkollektivet_vil_ha_retten_til____se_hvor_jeg_kj__rer___.html + Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:55:00 +0200 -<p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally -found time today to return to the project. Having to spend less time -working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now, -definitely helped freeing some time.</p> - -<p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu. We -include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to -get disk and network controllers working. Without having these -firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to -install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group -are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on -an external medium is a support pain. Initially, I expected it to be -enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get -debian-installer to find and use them. This proved to be wrong. -Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages -to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and -/cdrom/firmware/). This also proved to not work, and at this point I -found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was -going to work.</p> - -<p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer -look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside -the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware -packages. It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other -"external" media devices. Today I changed it to also look in the -/cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should -solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu. I also changed it to -look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware -provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us -to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian -Edu.</p> - -<p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not -activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended -hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and -run these before activating the firmware during installation. The -license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should -solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p> - -<p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please -contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p> +<p>Jeg er med i +<a href="http://www.bilkollektivet.no/">Bilkollektivet</a> her i Oslo, +og har inntil i dag vært fornøyd med opplegget. I dag kom det brev +fra bilkollektivet, der de forteller om nytt webopplegg og nye +rutiner, og at de har tenkt å angripe min rett til å ferdes anonymt +som bruker av Bilkollektivet. Det gjorde meg virkelig trist å +lese.</p> + +<p>Brevet datert 2010-09-16 forteller at Bilkollektivet har tenkt å gå +over til biler med "bilcomputer" og innebygget sporings-GPS som lar +administrasjonen i bilkollektivet se hvor bilene er til en hver tid, +noe som betyr at de også kan se hvor jeg kjører når jeg bruker +Bilkollektivet. +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Anonym_ferdsel_er_en_menneskerett.html">Retten +til å ferdes anonymt</a> er som tidligere nevnt viktig for meg, og jeg +finner det uakseptabelt å måtte godta å bli radiomerket for å kunne +bruke bil. Har ikke satt meg inn i hva som er historien for denne +endringen, så jeg vet ikke om det er godkjent av +f.eks. andelseiermøtet. Ser at +<a href="http://www.bilkollektivet.no/bilbruksregler.26256.no.html">nye +bilbruksregler</a> med følgende klausul ble vedtatt av styret +2010-08-26:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Andelseier er med dette gjort kjent med at bilene er +utstyrt med sporingsutstyr, som kan benyttes av Bilkollektivet til å +spore biler som brukes utenfor gyldig reservasjon.</p></blockquote> + +<p>For meg er det prinsipielt uakseptabelt av Bilkollektivet å skaffe +seg muligheten til å se hvor jeg befinner meg, og det er underordnet +når informasjonen blir brukt og hvem som får tilgang til den. Får se +om jeg har energi til å forsøke å endre planene til Bilkollektivet +eller bare ser meg om etter alternativer.</p> - Magnetstripeinnhold i billetter fra Flytoget og Hurtigruten - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Magnetstripeinnhold_i_billetter_fra_Flytoget_og_Hurtigruten.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Magnetstripeinnhold_i_billetter_fra_Flytoget_og_Hurtigruten.html - Fri, 21 May 2010 16:00:00 +0200 + Oppdatert kart over overvåkningskamera i Norge + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oppdatert_kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oppdatert_kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html + Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:50:00 +0200 -<p>For en stund tilbake kjøpte jeg en magnetkortleser for å kunne -titte på hva som er skrevet inn på magnetstripene til ulike kort. Har -ikke hatt tid til å analysere mange kort så langt, men tenkte jeg -skulle dele innholdet på to kort med mine lesere.</p> - -<p>For noen dager siden tok jeg flyet til Harstad og Hurtigruten til -Bergen. Flytoget fra Oslo S til flyplassen ga meg en billett med -magnetstripe. Påtrykket finner jeg følgende informasjon:</p> - -<pre> -Flytoget Airport Express Train - -Fra - Til : Oslo Sentralstasjon -Kategori : Voksen -Pris : Nok 170,00 -Herav mva. 8,00% : NOK 12,59 -Betaling : Kontant -Til - Fra : Oslo Lufthavn -Utstedt: : 08.05.10 -Gyldig Fra-Til : 08.05.10-07.11.10 -Billetttype : Enkeltbillett - -102-1015-100508-48382-01-08 -</pre> - -<p>På selve magnetstripen er innholdet -<tt>;E?+900120011=23250996541068112619257138248441708433322932704083389389062603279671261502492655?</tt>. -Aner ikke hva innholdet representerer, og det er lite overlapp mellom -det jeg ser trykket på billetten og det jeg ser av tegn i -magnetstripen. Håper det betyr at de bruker kryptografiske metoder -for å gjøre det vanskelig å forfalske billetter.</p> - -<p>Den andre billetten er fra Hurtigruten, der jeg mistenker at -strekkoden på fronten er mer brukt enn magnetstripen (det var i hvert -fall den biten vi stakk inn i dørlåsen).</p> - -<p>Påtrykket forsiden er følgende:</p> - -<pre> -Romnummer 727 -Hurtigruten -Midnatsol -Reinholdtsen -Petter -Bookingno: SAX69 0742193 -Harstad-Bergen -Dep: 09.05.2010 Arr: 12.05.2010 -Lugar fra Risøyhamn -Kost: FRO=4 -</pre> - -<p>På selve magnetstripen er innholdet -<tt>;1316010007421930=00000000000000000000?+E?</tt>. Heller ikke her -ser jeg mye korrespondanse mellom påtrykk og magnetstripe.</p> +<p>For ca. et og et halvt år siden +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">startet +jeg på et kart over overvåkningskamera i Norge</a>, i regi av +<a href="http://www.personvern.no/">personvernforeningen</a>. Det har +blitt oppdatert regelmessing, og jeg oppdaterte det nettopp. Fra den +spede start med 22 kamera registrert er det nå registrert 54 kamera. +Det er bare en brøkdel av de kamera som finnes i Norge, men det går +sakte men sikkert i riktig retning.</p> + +<p>Informasjonen registreres fortsatt direkte inn i +<a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a>, og hentes +automatisk over i +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">spesialkartet</a> +når jeg kjører et script for å filtrere ut overvåkningskamera fra +OSM-dumpen for Norge.</p> - Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html - Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:00 +0200 + Anonym ferdsel er en menneskerett + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Anonym_ferdsel_er_en_menneskerett.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Anonym_ferdsel_er_en_menneskerett.html + Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:15:00 +0200 -<p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian -Edu finally entered the Debian archive. Today, the new -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a> -package was accepted. Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted -into unstable. The -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a> -package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package -passed NEW on Monday. In addition, the -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a> -package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and -hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p> - -<p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for -roaming laptops. The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds, -nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication, -which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed -for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report -#485282</a> is implemented. The alternative setup is to use sssd with -libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take -care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p> - -<p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server -at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related -problem with the server certificate. I plan to update the Debian -package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to -find time to make sure the next release will include both the -Debian/Ubuntu specific patches. Upstream is friendly and responsive, -and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p> - -<p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using -LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/ -when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and -cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group -memberhips and other relevant LDAP information. The -libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home -directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would -be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used. To avoid confusion -with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops -to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory -on the home directory servers.</p> - -<p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM -message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user -is created. Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic -message. The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is -a bug in gdm. Have not investigated if there is some other message -type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p> - -<p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, -please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p> +<p>Debatten rundt sporveiselskapet i Oslos (Ruter AS) ønske om +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3808135.ece">å +radiomerke med RFID</a> alle sine kunder og +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/article3809746.ece">registerere +hvor hver og en av oss beveger oss</a> pågår, og en ting som har +kommet lite frem i debatten er at det faktisk er en menneskerett å +kunne ferdes anonymt internt i ens eget land.</p> + +<p>Fant en grei kilde for dette i et +<a href="http://www.datatilsynet.no/upload/Microsoft%20Word%20-%2009-01399-2%20H+%C2%A9ringsnotat%20-%20Samferdselsdepartementet%20-%20Utkas%C3%94%C3%87%C2%AA.pdf">skriv +fra Datatilsynet</a> til Samferdselsdepartementet om tema:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Retten til å ferdes anonymt kan utledes av +menneskerettskonvensjonen artikkel 8 og av EUs personverndirektiv. +Her heter det at enkeltpersoners grunnleggende rettigheter og frihet +må respekteres, særlig retten til privatlivets fred. I både +personverndirektivet og i den norske personopplysningsloven er +selvråderetten til hver enkelt et av grunnprinsippene, hovedsaklig +uttrykt ved at en må gi et frivillig, informert og uttrykkelig +samtykke til behandling av personopplysninger.</p></blockquote> + +<p>For meg er det viktig at jeg kan ferdes anonymt, og det er litt av +bakgrunnen til at jeg handler med kontanter, ikke har mobiltelefon og +forventer å kunne reise med bil og kollektivtrafikk uten at det blir +registrert hvor jeg har vært. Ruter angriper min rett til å ferdes +uten radiopeiler med sin innføring av RFID-kort, og dokumenterer sitt +ønske om å registrere hvor kundene befant seg ved å ønske å gebyrlegge +oss som ikke registrerer oss hver gang vi beveger oss med +kollektivtrafikken i Oslo. Jeg synes det er hårreisende.</p> - Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html - Fri, 14 May 2010 22:40:00 +0200 + Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html + Thu, 9 Sep 2010 23:55:00 +0200 -<p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in -Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing. -Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than -expected, if I am to believe the -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input -on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward -with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any -remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen. If serious problems are -detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot. -The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream -version.</p> - -More information about -<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency -based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki. It is -currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into -problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -CONCURRENCY=none -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to -the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the -list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p> +<p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital +camera, a Canon IXUS 130. It was instructive and very disturbing to +be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to +specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera. +Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras +are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway. What is the +problem, you might ask? It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the +MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences +without asking for permissions that is at risk. + +<p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is +written:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard +and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding +MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and +non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the +AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p> + +<p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4 +standard.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology +(MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and +non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations +holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p> + +<p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to +read +"<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why +Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the +MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and +"<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not +The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about +the issue. The solution is to support the +<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and +open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg +Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p> - Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html - Fri, 14 May 2010 21:10:00 +0200 + Navteq bruker 3-12 måneder, OpenStreetmap.org trenger noen dager + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Navteq_bruker_3_12_m__neder__OpenStreetmap_org_trenger_noen_dager.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Navteq_bruker_3_12_m__neder__OpenStreetmap_org_trenger_noen_dager.html + Tue, 7 Sep 2010 21:40:00 +0200 -<p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the -<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary -system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school -network. Each machine will automatically report its status to the -central server after boot and once per night. The network setup is -also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the -MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines. This is useful -to update the DHCP configuration.</p> - -<p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to -ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary. Run -this on the collector host:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });' -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one -line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p> - -<p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP -addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch -machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS -tables in LDAP using this information. Such tool is unfortunately not -written yet.</p> +<p>Jeg ble riktig fascinert av +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3800967.ece">en +artikkel i Aftenposten</a> om hvor hardt Navteq jobber for å oppdatere +kartene som brukes i navigasjons-GPSer, der det blant annet heter at +"på grunn av teknikken tar det alt fra tre til tolv måneder før +kartene er oppdatert". Når en kjenner hva slags oppdateringshastighet +som er tilgjengelig på +<a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> som +oppdateres på dugnad, blir det litt trist å se hva noe av det beste en +kan kjøpe for penger får til.</p> + +<p>Fra en endrer kartdataene i databasen til OpenStreetmap tar det +ca. 15 minutter før endringen er synlig på kartet som alle kan se på +web. Dernest overføres det daglig til en kartdump som lastes ned av +personen som lager Garmin-kart for Norge ca. en gang i uken. Med +OpenStreetmap.org og <a href="http://www.frikart.no/">Frikart.no</a> +kan en altså ha korreksjonene på plass i sin Garmin-GPS i løpet av en +uke. Det er også av tekniske årsaker at det tar så langt tid. +Jobbene som tegner kartene, henter ut kartdumpene og konverterer til +Garmin-format tar minutter og timer å gjennomføre, slik at de ikke +gjøres kontinuerlig men kun regelmessing.</p> - systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html - Thu, 13 May 2010 22:20:00 +0200 + Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html + Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:10:00 +0200 -<p>The last few days a new boot system called -<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a> -has been -<a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a> - -to the free software world. I have not yet had time to play around -with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to -<a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be -a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event -based boot system. Tollef is -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting -systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work. I -like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency -information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart -at the moment do not.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding -platform support. It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need -some new kernel features enabled to function properly. This means -kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot -system. Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the -way forward.</p> - -<p>In the mean time, based on the -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input -on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have -decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as -soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if -there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies. A -new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is -already in experimental. If all go well, Squeeze will be released -with parallel booting enabled by default.</p> +<p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian +popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the +second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth +most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that +working flash is important for Debian users. Around 10 percent of the +users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package +installed.</p> + +<p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008 +(«<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux +i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og +stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems +schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian +Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational +web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in +the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a +good reason to stay with Windows.</p> + +<p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was +said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand +everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a +comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and +non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common +understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for +example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because +it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux +distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web +pages they want to visit.</p> + +<p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian +and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the +distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google +Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance +to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as +the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in +unstable. The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7. +The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the +release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree +with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus +accept the new package into Squeeze.</p> - Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html - Thu, 6 May 2010 23:25:00 +0200 + My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html + Wed, 1 Sep 2010 21:00:00 +0200 -<p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite -complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the -init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies. If you want -to test your Squeeze system, make sure -<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency -based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to -/etc/default/rcS:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -CONCURRENCY=makefile -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>That is it. It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run -scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in -/etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and -/etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts. Startpar is configured -to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will -start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to -make this happen.</p> - -<p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result. If some services -fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete -init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their -dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies). Report bugs and get -the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p> - -<p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we -manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct. I -expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and -fix the remaining issues.</p> - -<p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to -the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the -list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p> +<p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application. The last few +days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently +aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought +that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least. +It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to +allow me to drive the robot around. I picked PerlQt as I have had +positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes +browsing the web for examples. Using Qt Designer seemed like a short +cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and +compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from +libqt-perl. Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and +drive around.</p> + +<p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for +controlling the robot. Here is an small example on how to use it:</p> + +<p><pre> +use Spykee; +Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]}); +my $host = (keys %robot)[0]; +my $spykee = Spykee->new(); +$spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin"); +$spykee->left(); +sleep 2; +$spykee->right(); +sleep 2; +$spykee->forward(); +sleep 2; +$spykee->back(); +sleep 2; +$spykee->stop(); +</pre></p> + +<p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could +peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to +implement the protocol used by the robot. I've implemented several of +the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera +support to make it possible to control the robot from remote. First I +want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring +the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot +without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux, +so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing +going. :).</p> + +<p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out +where to make it available first. I will add a link to +<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for +those that want to check back later to find it.</p> - Forcing new users to change their password on first login - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html - Sun, 2 May 2010 13:47:00 +0200 + Forslag i stortinget om å stoppe elektronisk stemmegiving i Norge + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forslag_i_stortinget_om____stoppe_elektronisk_stemmegiving_i_Norge.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forslag_i_stortinget_om____stoppe_elektronisk_stemmegiving_i_Norge.html + Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0200 -<p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to -create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to -change the password on the first login attempt.</p> - -<p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian -Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account. The account -and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but -unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for -passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p> - -<p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these -settings in /etc/shadow:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -root@tjener:~# chage -l test -Last password change : May 02, 2010 -Password expires : never -Password inactive : never -Account expires : never -Minimum number of days between password change : 0 -Maximum number of days between password change : 99999 -Number of days of warning before password expires : 7 -root@tjener:~# -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired -account, is to change the date of the last password change to the -lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age -to the difference in days between that date and today. To make it -simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to -avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p> - -<p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as -intended:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test -root@tjener:~# chage -l test -Last password change : Jan 02, 1970 -Password expires : never -Password inactive : never -Account expires : never -Minimum number of days between password change : 0 -Maximum number of days between password change : 10950 -Number of days of warning before password expires : 7 -root@tjener:~# -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in -Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the -user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p> - -<p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make -sure only the user itself have the account password?</p> - -<p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for -Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p> - -<p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the -shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of -last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed -on the first login. This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so -I did not notice this in my initial testing. I have tested it on -Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there. I have not -tested it on Lenny yet.</p> - -<p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an -equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e -username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password -change.</p> +<p>Ble tipset i dag om at et forslag om å stoppe forsøkene med +elektronisk stemmegiving utenfor valglokaler er +<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Saker/Sak/?p=46616">til +behandling</a> i Stortinget. +<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/Global/pdf/Representantforslag/2009-2010/dok8-200910-128.pdf">Forslaget</a> +er fremmet av Erna Solberg, Michael Tetzschner og Trond Helleland.</p> + +<p>Håper det får flertall.</p> - Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html - Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:40:00 +0200 + Broken hard link handling with sshfs + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html + Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:30:00 +0200 -<p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in -Debian Edu. The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to -handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come -and go.</p> - -<p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust -Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for -example called Roaming Workstations. Here are my thought on this. -The setup would consist of the following:</p> - -<ul> +<p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous +post about sshfs</a>. He reported another problem with sshfs. It +fail to handle hard links properly. A simple way to spot this is to +look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree. These should have +a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1. I just tested to see +what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p> - <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of - the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for - the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP - server. This allow the user to work also when offline. The - central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on - request, for example mounted via CIFS. It could be mounted - automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network, - and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down, - hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on - request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop - can be used to access it when needed. Perhaps it is enough to use - the fish protocol in KDE?</li> - - <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos - authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and - to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable - to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server. This can be done using - <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a> - or the Fedora developed - <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System - Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li> - - <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up - using a shared directory in both the local and the central home - directory, using unison.</li> - - <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting - their existence on the local network, and should then work out of - the box with CUPS. For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some - system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be - implemented.</li> - - <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop, - sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li> - - <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is - cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the - local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li> - -</ul> +<pre> +% ln foo bar +ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented +% +</pre> -<p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at -the moment. If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready -in time for the Squeeze release to freeze. Some of the pieces need -tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update -(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or -perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop -its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts -when disconnected from the net. If we get Kerberos enabled, we need -to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p> +<p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file +system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to +avoid surprised unix programs. Not as useful as working file locking +and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful +nevertheless. :)</p> -<p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, -please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p> +<p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via +git from +<a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>