X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/c75c99e3db61c669fcd48cf13fbe1b7e812e5b8a..3dcbf72b993aeaaff8ace4ad02e21378cbfe8874:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 1cf155ebb5..8fc1c5bb8c 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,38 +20,62 @@
-
Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway
-
15th October 2013
-

The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get -wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of -these. :)

- -

Via Debian -Project News for 2013-10-14 I came across the Outreach Program for -Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get -more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered -to match any donation done to Debian -earmarked for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and -hope you will to. :)

- -

And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to -create video -documentaries about the excessive spying on every Internet user that -take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already -donated. Are you next?

- -

For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og -Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a -statement under the heading -Bloggers United for Open -Access for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the -Norwegian government. So far 499 signatures. I hope you will sign it -too.

+ +
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?

@@ -59,142 +83,116 @@ too.

- -
11th October 2013
-

Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing -networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large -areas, depending on the radio technology used. Normal wifi equipment -can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several -successful examples like -Freifunk and -Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network -(see -wikipedia -for a large list) around the globe. To give you an idea how it -work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which -can be seen from their -dynamically -updated node graph and map, where one can see how the mesh nodes -automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing. -There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway, -and that is the main topic of this blog post.

- -

I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped -to do it as part of my involvement with the NUUG member organisation community, and -my recent involvement in -the Freedombox project -finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a -Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family -when possible, given that most communication between people are -between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook -communication patterns). It also allow people to communicate without -any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the -private communication of citizens, which have become more and more -important over the years.

- -

So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo -working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space -Hackeriet at Husmania. They seem to -have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called -the Oslo -Freifunk project, but that effort is now dead and the people -behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called -meshfx. Unfortunately the wiki -site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to -reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to -the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people -from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I -came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the -speakers about this talk (from -youtube):

- -

- -

I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols. -There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to -figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but -given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it -is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a -completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on -batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool -Serval project in Australia -is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self -organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and -less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting -that project (from -youtube):

- -

- -

According to the wikipedia page on -Wireless -mesh network there are around 70 competing schemes for routing -packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and -B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software -based community mesh networks.

- -

The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2 -(as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same -network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based -vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your -computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at -least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A -good -introduction is available from the Open Mesh project. These are -the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:

- -

- - - - - -
SettingValue
Protocol / kernel modulebatman-adv
ESSIDmeshfx@hackeriet
Channel / Frequency11 / 2462
Cell ID02:BA:00:00:00:01

- -

The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs -in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from -VillageTelco about -"Information -about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges! -for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some -other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh -network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to -any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)

- -

My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node, -but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a -firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old -wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.

- -

If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join -us on IRC, either channel -#oslohackerspace -or #nuug on -irc.freenode.net.

- -

While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old -research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research -and Innovation called -The -reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks and elsewhere -learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at -Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for -commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard -to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I -know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would -be interested in a cooperation?

- -

Update 2013-10-12: I was just -told -by the Serval project developers that they no longer use -batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based -mesh system.

+ +
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 (“MPEG-4 +video”) 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 (“AVC video”) 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 (“MPEG-4 video”) 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.

@@ -202,37 +200,167 @@ mesh system.

- -
8th October 2013
-

The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo -Salvador had published a -video on -Youtube showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu / -Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or -on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network -services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc, -in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long, -and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked). -Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium -showing the Zygote Body 3D model -of the human body, but I guess he did not know about those or find -other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the -advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian -Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of -computers without hard drives by installing one central -LTSP server.

- -

Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:

- - - -

Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let -me know. :)

+ +
3rd August 2014
+

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

+ +

    + +
  • Sjøslag +om fiskemilliardene (NRK Ytring 2014-03-03) - litt om hvordan de +norske felles matressurser røves fra felleskapet.
  • + +
  • Matkrisen +kan komme til Norge (Aftenposten 2014-4-01) - hvordan miljøendringene vil gjøre 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 ønsker retten +til Ã¥ bryte seg inn pÃ¥ private PC-er og legge inn spionprogrammer. +Hvilket nok vil gjøre Linux mer populært, men gjør at en i enda mindre +grad enn i dag kan stole pÃ¥ datamaskiner - neppe en god ide for +samfunnet totalt sett.
  • + +
  • «Ruter +fremstÃ¥r som et pøbelvelde» (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.
  • + +
  • «Putin +spiller poker, ikke sjakk. I sjakk har man regler.» (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 oppmøte pÃ¥ +skolen.
  • + +
  • «Datalagringsdirektiv» +avslørte abort, sykdom og vÃ¥penkjøp (Aftenposten 2014-03-14) - om +hvordan forskere har dokumentert hvordan innsamling av metadata om +telefoni og Internett-bruk kan være svært avslørende.
  • + +
  • Konsentrasjonssvikt +pÃ¥ pensum (Dagbladet 2014-03-14) - Kommentar om hvordan (feil) +bruk IKT i skolen kan ødelegge mer enn det bidrar til læring.
  • + +
  • Reservasjonsrettsstaten +(blogg fra Doremus 2014-02-09) - morsom beskrivelse om hvordan +regjeringens forslag til reservasjonsrett for leger kan utvides til Ã¥ +gjelde alles samvittighet.
  • + +
  • Autoritær +gjøkunge (Aftenposten 2014-03-25) - Kronikk av Bjørn Stærk om +snurpenots-overvÃ¥kningen som varsleren Snowden dokumenterte.
  • + +
  • Leveransekrise +i Offentlig sektor – 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 gjør en innsats for Ã¥ fÃ¥ slutt pÃ¥ +overvÃ¥kning av innbyggerne som gjøres 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: +Avgjørelsen fÃ¥r umiddelbar virkning (Aftenposten 2014-04-10) - +kronikk av Høyres 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 +prinsippløshet i møte med Kina.
  • + +
  • Innerst +inne er alle nordmenn (Aftenposten 2014-04-27) - kronikk fra Bjørn +Stærk om hvordan vi i Vesten i stor grad baserer oss pÃ¥ en fantasi om +at alle i verden bærer pÃ¥ en drøm 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 +løgner 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 +Øystein 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 kjøper. Vi +som gjør dette risikerer som beskrevet overgrep som frihetsberøvelse +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 bør fÃ¥ fredsprisen.
  • + +
  • Strategi +for politistaten (Dagbladet 2014-08-01) - leder som advarer om +sterke krefter som bruker terrortrusselen til Ã¥ lirke Norge nærmere 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.
  • + + +

@@ -240,23 +368,94 @@ me know. :)

- -
29th September 2013
-

A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of -Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team. The -complete announcement text can be found at -the Debian News -section, translated to several languages. Please check it out.

- -

There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon. One -can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/ -partition is too small. A workaround is to extend the partition (use -lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).

+ +
31st July 2014
+

The complete and free “out of the box” 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?

+ +

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, …, 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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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!, … 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.

@@ -264,72 +463,39 @@ lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).

- -
27th September 2013
-

The Freedombox -project have been going on for a while, and have presented the -vision, ideas and solution several places. Here is a little -collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.

- - - -

A larger list is available from -the -Freedombox Wiki.

- -

On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian -Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using -Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In -a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian. -The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is -pending in NEW. The third and vital part of that puzzle is the -metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload. Join -us on IRC -(#freedombox on irc.debian.org) and -the -mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

+ +
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.

@@ -337,119 +503,111 @@ mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

- -
16th September 2013
-

The third wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up -today. This is the release announcement from Holger Levsen:

- -
-

Hi,

- -

it is my pleasure to announce the third beta release (beta 2 for -short) of Debian Edu / -Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy!

- -

Please test these images extensivly, if no new problems are found -we plan to do this final Debian Edu Wheezy release this coming -weekend. We are not aware of any major problems or blockers in beta2, -if you find something, please notify us immediately!

- -

(More about the remaining steps for the Edu Wheezy release in -another mail to the edu list tonight or tomorrow...)

- -

Noteworthy changes and software updates for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b2 -compared to beta1:

- -
    - -
  • The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This -also gets Chromium to use this proxy.
  • -
  • Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer -understand ical/dav sources.
  • -
  • Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the -main server.
  • -
  • A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.
  • -
  • Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick -(6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug -(0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image -(3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).
  • - -
- -

Where to get it:

- -

To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use

- - - -

The SHA1SUM of this image is: 3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f

- -

To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use -

- -

The SHA1SUM of this image is: 702d1718548f401c74bfa6df9f032cc3ee16597e

- -

The Source DVD image has the filename -debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-source-DVD.iso and the SHA1SUM -089eed8b3f962db47aae1f6a9685e9bb2fa30ca5 and is available the same way -as the other isos.

- -

How to report bugs

- -

For information how to report bugs please see -
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs

- - -

About Debian Edu and Skolelinux

- -

Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based -on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely -configured school network. Immediately after installation a school -server running all services needed for a school network is set up just -waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable -Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after -initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other -machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server -provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service, -centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other -services. The desktop contains more than 60 educational software -packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools -can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE and Xfce desktop environment.

- -

This is the seventh test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically -this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the -Squeeze release.

- -

Notes for upgrades from Alpha Prereleases

- -

Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the -versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta -release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or -deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep -gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined on the mailing list. (2) -Accept the new version of gosa.conf and replace both contained admin -password placeholders with the password hashes found in the old one -(backup copy!). In both cases all users need to change their password -to make sure a password is set for CIFS access to their home -directory.

- - -

cheers, -
Holger

-
+ +
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.

@@ -457,135 +615,57 @@ directory.

- -
10th September 2013
-

I was introduced to the -Freedombox project -in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need -of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and -within the legal protection of their own homes. The idea is to give -people back the power over their network and machines, and return -Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture. Instead of -depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone -control over their own basic infrastructure.

- -

I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have -taken priority. But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust -and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering -communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I -actually started working on the project a while back.

- -

The initial -Debian initiative based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to -create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook -up in their home and get access to secure and private services and -communication. The initial deployment platform have been the -Dreamplug, -which is a piece of hardware I do not own. So to be able to test what -the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install -it on some hardware I do have access to. I have rewritten the -freedom-maker -image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying -setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to -set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using -the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages -missing in Debian).

- -

The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping -scripts -(freedombox-setup), -and a administrative web interface -(plinth + exmachina + -withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on -privoxy -(freedombox-privoxy). There is also a web/javascript based XMPP -client (jwchat) -trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server -(ejabberd). The -web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID -services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc. Not much of -this is really working yet, see -the -project TODO for links to GIT repositories. Most of the code is -on github at the moment. The HTTP proxy is operational out of the -box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth -users. I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but -know there are several branches spread around github and other places -with lots of half baked features.

- -

Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the -following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke -at.

- -

Debian Wheezy amd64

- -
    - -
  1. Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.
  2. -
  3. Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.
  4. -
  5. Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument -to the Debian installer:

    -

    url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat
  6. - -
  7. Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to -install on.
  8. - -
  9. When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a -few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.
  10. - -
- -

Raspberry Pi Raspbian

- -
    - -
  1. Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.
  2. -
  3. Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.
  4. -
  5. Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:

    -
    -deb http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox wheezy main
    -
  6. -
  7. Run this as root:

    -
    -wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
    -   apt-key add -
    -apt-get update
    -apt-get install freedombox-setup
    -/usr/lib/freedombox/setup
    -
  8. -
  9. Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.
  10. - -
- -

You can test it on other architectures too, but because the -freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on -the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it -in my APT repository. But do not let this stop you. It is only a -short "apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy" away. :)

- -

Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the -192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn -off the DHCP server by running "update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server -disable" as root.

- -

Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any -problems. We gather on the IRC channel -#freedombox on -irc.debian.org and the -project -mailing list.

- -

Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit -http://your-host-name:8001/ to see the state of the plint -welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to -get past it), and next visit http://your-host-name:8001/help/ -to look at the rest of plinth. The default user is 'admin' and the -default password is 'secret'.

+ +
16th June 2014
+

Jeg har fortsatt behov for å kunne laste ned innslag fra NRKs +nettsted av og til for å se senere når jeg ikke er på nett, men +min +oppskrift fra 2011 sluttet å fungere da NRK byttet +avspillermetode. I dag fikk jeg endelig lett etter oppdatert løsning, +og jeg er veldig glad for å fortelle at den enkleste måten å laste ned +innslag er å bruke siste versjon 2014.06.07 av +youtube-dl. Støtten i +youtube-dl kom +inn for 23 dager siden og +versjonen i +Debian fungerer fint også som backport til Debian Wheezy. Det er +et lite problem, det håndterer kun URLer med små bokstaver, men hvis +en har en URL med store bokstaver kan en bare gjøre alle store om til +små bokstaver for å få youtube-dl til å laste ned. Rapporterte +nettopp +problemet til +utviklerne, og antar de får fikset det snart.

+ +

Dermed er alt klart til å 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 å se disse, sammen med +foredraget +til Jacob Appelbaum på siste CCC-konferanse, for å forstå mer om +hvordan overvåkningen av borgerne brer om seg.

+ +

Takk til gode venner på foreningen NUUGs IRC-kanal +#nuug på irc.freenode.net +for tipsene som fikk meg i mål.

+ +

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 å lage mkv-fil med undertekstene inkludert. +Kanskje den passer bedre for deg? I tillegg ble feilen i youtube-dl +ble fikset litt senere ut på dagen i går, samt at youtube-dl fikk +støtte for å laste ned undertitler. Takk til Anders Einar Hilden for +god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.

@@ -593,283 +673,59 @@ default password is 'secret'.

- -
8th September 2013
-

I 2011 raderte et stortingsflertall bestående av Høyre og -Arbeiderpartiet vekk en betydelig del av privatsfæren til det norske -folk. Det ble vedtatt at det skulle registreres og lagres i et halvt -år hvor alle som bærer på en mobiltelefon befinner seg, hvem de -snakker med og hvor lenge de snakket sammen. Det skal også -registreres hvem de sendte SMS-meldinger til, hvem en har sendt epost -til, og hvilke nett-tjenere en besøkte. Saken er kjent som -Datalagringsdirektivet -(DLD), og innebærer at alle innbyggerne og andre innenfor Norges -grenser overvåkes døgnet rundt. Det ble i praksis innført brev og -besøkskontroll av hele befolkningen. Rapporter fra de landene som -allerede har innført slik total lagring av borgernes -kommunikasjonsmønstre forteller at det ikke hjelper i -kriminalitetsbekjempelsen. Den norske prislappen blir mange hundre -millioner, uten at det ser ut til å bidra positivt til politiets -arbeide. Jeg synes flere hundre millioner i stedet burde vært brukt -på noe som kan dokumenteres å ha effekt i kriminalitetsbekjempelsen. -Se mer på -Wikipedia -og Jon Wessel-Aas.

- -

Hva er problemet, tenkter du kanskje? Et åpenbart problem er at -medienes kildevern i praksis blir radert ut. Den innsamlede -informasjonen gjør det mulig å finne ut hvem som har snakket med -journalister på telefon, SMS og epost, og hvem som har vært i nærheten -av journalister så sant begge bar med seg en telefon. Et annet er at -advokatvernet blir sterkt redusert, der politiet kan finne ut hvem -som har snakket med en advokat når, eller vært i møter en med advokat. -Et tredje er at svært personlig informasjon kan avledes fra hvilke -nettsteder en har besøkt. Har en besøkt hivnorge.no, -swingersnorge.com eller andre sider som kan brukes til avlede -interesser som hører til privatsfæren, vil denne informasjonen være -tilgjengelig takket være datalagringsdirektivet.

- -

De fleste partiene var mot, kun to partier stemte for. Høyre og -Arbeiderpartiet. Og både Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet i Oslo har -DLD-forkjempere på toppen av sine lister (har ikke sjekket de andre -fylkene). Det er dermed helt uaktuelt for meg å stemme på disse -partiene. Her er oversikten over partienes valglister i Oslo, med -informasjon om hvem som stemte hva i første DLD-votering i Stortinget, -basert på informasjon fra mine venner i -Holder de -Ord samt data.stortinget.no. -Først ut er stortingslista fra Høyre for Oslo:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
#Navn, fødselsår og valgkretsStemme/kommentar
1.Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide (1976), Gamle OsloStemte for DLD
2.Nikolai Astrup (1978), FrognerStemte mot DLD
3.Michael Tetzschner (1954), Vestre AkerStemte mot DLD
4.Kristin Vinje (1963), Nordre AkerIkke til stede
5.Mudassar Hussain Kapur (1976), NordstrandIkke til stede
6.Stefan Magnus B. Heggelund (1984), GrünerløkkaIkke til stede
7.Heidi Nordby Lunde (1973), GrünerløkkaIkke til stede
8.Frode Helgerud (1950), FrognerIkke til stede
9.Afshan Rafiq (1975), StovnerIkke til stede
10.Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg (1936), FrognerIkke til stede
11.Camilla Strandskog (1984) St.HanshaugenIkke til stede
12.John Christian Elden (1967), UllernIkke til stede
13.Berit Solli (1972), AlnaIkke til stede
14.Ola Kvisgaard (1963), FrognerIkke til stede
15.James Stove Lorentzen (1957), Vestre AkerIkke til stede
16.Gülsüm Koc (1987), StovnerIkke til stede
17.Jon Ole Whist (1976), GrünerløkkaIkke til stede
18.Maren Eline Malthe-Sørenssen (1971), Vestre AkerIkke til stede
19.Ståle Hagen (1968), Søndre NordstrandIkke til stede
20.Kjell Omdal Erichsen (1978), SageneIkke til stede
21.Saida R. Begum (1987), GrünerløkkaIkke til stede
22.Torkel Brekke (1970), Nordre AkerIkke til stede
23.Sverre K. Seeberg (1950), Vestre AkerIkke til stede
24.Julie Margrethe Brodtkorb (1974), UllernIkke til stede
25.Fabian Stang (1955), FrognerIkke til stede
- -

Deretter har vi stortingslista fra Arbeiderpartiet for Oslo:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +
29th May 2014
+

Dear lazyweb. I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer +in my car, connected to +a +small screen next to the rear mirror. I plan to hook it up with a +GPS and a USB wifi card too. The idea is to get my own +"Carputer". But I +wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for +such car computer.

+ +

This is my current wish list for such system:

-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
    -
- - +
  • Work on Raspberry Pi.
  • - - - +
  • Show current speed limit based on location, and warn if going too + fast (for example using color codes yellow and red on the screen, + or make a sound). This could be done either using either data from + Openstreetmap or OCR + info gathered from a dashboard camera.
  • - - - +
  • Track automatic toll road passes and their cost, show total spent + and make it possible to calculate toll costs for planned + route.
  • - - - +
  • Collect GPX tracks for use with OpenStreetMap.
  • - - - +
  • Automatically detect and use any wireless connection to connect + to home server. Try IP over DNS + (iodine) or ICMP + (Hans) if direct + connection do not work.
  • - - - +
  • Set up mesh network to talk to other cars with the same system, + or some standard car mesh protocol.
  • - - - +
  • Warn when approaching speed cameras and speed camera ranges + (speed calculated between two cameras).
  • -
    #Navn, fødselsår og valgkretsStemme/kommentar
    1.Jens Stoltenberg (1959), FrognerIkke til stede i Stortinget, leder av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget
    2.Hadia Tajik (1983), GrünerløkkaStemte for DLD
    3.Jonas Gahr Støre (1960), Vestre AkerIkke til stede i Stortinget, medlem av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget
    4.Marianne Marthinsen (1980), GrünerløkkaStemte for DLD
    5.Jan Bøhler (1952), AlnaStemte for DLD
    6.Marit Nybakk (1947), FrognerStemte for DLD
    7.Truls Wickholm (1978), SageneStemte for DLD
    8.Prableen Kaur (1993), GrorudIkke til stede
    9.Vegard Grøslie Wennesland (1983), St.HanshaugenIkke til stede
    10.Inger Helene Vaaten (1975), GrorudIkke til stede
    11.Ivar Leveraas (1939), AlnaIkke til stede
    12.Grete Haugdal (1971), Gamle OsloIkke til stede
    13.Olav Tønsberg (1948), AlnaIkke til stede
    14.Khamshajiny Gunaratnam (1988), GrorudIkke til stede
    15.Fredrik Mellem (1969), SageneIkke til stede
    16.Brit Axelsen (1945), StovnerIkke til stede
    17.Dag Bayegan-Harlem (1977), UllernIkke til stede
    18.Kristin Sandaker (1963), ØsteinsjøIkke til stede
    19.Bashe Musse (1965), GrünerløkkaIkke til stede
    20.Torunn Kanutte Husvik (1983), St. HanshaugenIkke til stede
    21.Steinar Andersen (1947), NordstrandIkke til stede
    22.Anne Cathrine Berger (1972), SageneIkke til stede
    23.Khalid Mahmood (1959), ØstensjøIkke til stede
    24.Munir Jaber (1990), AlnaIkke til stede
    25.Libe Solberg Rieber-Mohn (1965), FrognerIkke til stede
    +
  • Suport dashboard/front facing camera to discover speed limits and + run OCR to track registration number of passing cars.
  • -

    Hvilket parti får så min stemme i år. Jeg tror det blir -Piratpartiet. Hvis de kan bidra -til at det kommer noen inn på Stortinget med teknisk peiling, så får -kanskje ikke overvåkningsgalskapen like fritt spillerom som det har -hatt så langt.

    + +

    If you know of any free software car computer system supporting +some or all of these features, please let me know.

    @@ -877,138 +733,54 @@ hatt så langt.

    - -
    22nd August 2013
    -

    The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up -today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows -integration fixes . This is the release announcement:

    - -

    New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22

    - -

    These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux -7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".

    - -

    About Debian Edu and Skolelinux

    - -

    Debian Edu, also known as -Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an -out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school -network. Immediately after installation a school server running all -services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users -and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting -environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of -the main server from CD or USB stick all other machines can be -installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP -database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home -directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The -desktop contains -more -than 60 educational software packages and more are available from -the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE -and Xfce desktop environment.

    - -

    This is the sixth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically this -is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the Squeeze -release.

    - -

    ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the -versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta -release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or -deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep -gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined -on -the mailing list. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and -replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password -hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user -need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for -CIFS access to their home directory.

    - -

    Software updates

    - -
      - -
    • Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh - work also without a attached tty.
    • -
    • Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to - make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line - tools. Please note, that the command 'update-command-not-found' - has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access - required).
    • - -
    - -

    Other changes

    - -
      - -
    • Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool -needed for desktop=xfce installations.
    • -
    • Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB -stick ISO image.
    • -
    • Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format).
    • -
    • Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup.
    • -
    • Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens - during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to - cope with this.
    • -
    • Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa².
    • -
    • Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid - empty password hashes.
    • -
    • Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the - smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines - from joining the Samba domain.
    • - -
    - -

    Known issues

    - -
      - -
    • KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to - not use the http proxy as it should.
    • -
    • Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop - (using the KDE configuration).
    • - -
    - -

    Where to get it

    - -

    To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use

    - - - -

    The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b -
    The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2

    - -

    To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use

    - - - -

    The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b -
    The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119

    - - -

    How to report bugs

    - -

    http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs +

    +
    29th April 2014
    +

    I've been following the Gnash +project for quite a while now. It is a free software +implementation of Adobe Flash, both a standalone player and a browser +plugin. Gnash implement support for the AVM1 format (and not the +newer AVM2 format - see +Lightspark for that one), +allowing several flash based sites to work. Thanks to the friendly +developers at Youtube, it also work with Youtube videos, because the +Javascript code at Youtube detect Gnash and serve a AVM1 player to +those users. :) Would be great if someone found time to implement AVM2 +support, but it has not happened yet. If you install both Lightspark +and Gnash, Lightspark will invoke Gnash if it find a AVM1 flash file, +so you can get both handled as free software. Unfortunately, +Lightspark so far only implement a small subset of AVM2, and many +sites do not work yet.

    + +

    A few months ago, I started looking at +Coverity, the static source +checker used to find heaps and heaps of bugs in free software (thanks +to the donation of a scanning service to free software projects by the +company developing this non-free code checker), and Gnash was one of +the projects I decided to check out. Coverity is able to find lock +errors, memory errors, dead code and more. A few days ago they even +extended it to also be able to find the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. +There are heaps of checks being done on the instrumented code, and the +amount of bogus warnings is quite low compared to the other static +code checkers I have tested over the years.

    + +

    Since a few weeks ago, I've been working with the other Gnash +developers squashing bugs discovered by Coverity. I was quite happy +today when I checked the current status and saw that of the 777 issues +detected so far, 374 are marked as fixed. This make me confident that +the next Gnash release will be more stable and more dependable than +the previous one. Most of the reported issues were and are in the +test suite, but it also found a few in the rest of the code.

    + +

    If you want to help out, you find us on +the +gnash-dev mailing list and on +the #gnash channel on +irc.freenode.net IRC server.

    - Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: english, multimedia, video, web.
    @@ -1016,34 +788,94 @@ stick ISO image.
    - -
    18th August 2013
    -

    Earlier, I reported about -my -problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk. Friday I was -told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away. And as -there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided -today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware -currently on the disk.

    - -

    I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found -issdfut_2.0.4.iso -(aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which -according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD -disks. I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and -booted the ISO from a USB stick. The disk was recognized, but the -program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused -to insert any Intel firmware. So no change, and the disk is still -unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them -working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware. No idea how likely -that is. Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness. I -got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on -the broken disks.

    + +
    23rd April 2014
    +

    It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware +related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically. +So I implemented one, using +my Isenkram +package. To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and +run tasksel as user root. You should be presented with a new option, +"Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)". When you +select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for +the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.

    + +

    The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry +description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of +packages to install. The first part is in +/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc and look like +this:

    + +

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

    + +

    The second part is in +/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware and look like +this:

    + +

    +#!/bin/sh
    +#
    +(
    +    isenkram-lookup
    +    isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
    +) | sort -u
    +

    + +

    All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it +trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to +have installed on our machines. I've not been able to find a way to +get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install +before doing the installation. So if you are curious or careful, +check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.

    + +

    The information about which packages are handling which hardware is +fetched either from the isenkram package itself in +/usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package +database (using the Modaliases header). The APT package database +parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs +#719837 and +#730704). The cause is in +the python-apt code (bug +#745487), but using a +workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and +reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to +around 2 MiB per hardware detection. It should make the desktop +daemon a lot more useful. The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to +unstable today.

    + +

    I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in +Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to +use the AppStream data source for this. A proposal for getting proper +AppStream support into Debian is floating around as +DEP-11, and +GSoC +project will take place this summer to improve the situation. I +look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to +start using the information when it is ready.

    + +

    If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either +add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in +the pymissile +package or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram +package. See also +all my +blog posts tagged isenkram for details on the notation. I expect +the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the +moment I got no better place to store it.

    - Tags: debian, english. + Tags: debian, english, isenkram.
    @@ -1058,6 +890,29 @@ the broken disks.

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