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.
+ +For noen uker siden ble NXCs fri programvarelisenserte +NOARK5-løsning +presentert hos +NUUG (video +på youtube +foreløbig), og det fikk meg til å titte litt mer på NOARK5, +standarden for arkivhåndtering i det offentlige Norge. Jeg lurer på +om denne kjernen kan være nyttig i et par av mine prosjekter, og for ett +av dem er det mest aktuelt å lagre epost. Jeg klarte ikke finne noen +anbefaling om hvordan RFC 822-formattert epost (aka Internett-epost) +burde lagres i NOARK5, selv om jeg vet at noen arkiver tar +PDF-utskrift av eposten med sitt epostprogram og så arkiverer PDF-en +(eller enda værre, tar papirutskrift og lagrer bildet av eposten som +PDF i arkivet).
+ +Det er ikke så mange formater som er akseptert av riksarkivet til +langtidsoppbevaring av offentlige arkiver, og PDF og XML er de mest +aktuelle i så måte. Det slo meg at det måtte da finnes en eller annen +egnet XML-representasjon og at det kanskje var enighet om hvilken som +burde brukes, så jeg tok mot til meg og spurte +SAMDOK, en gruppe tilknyttet +arkivverket som ser ut til å jobbe med NOARK-samhandling, om de hadde +noen anbefalinger: + +
++ +Hei.
+ +Usikker på om dette er riktig forum å ta opp mitt spørsmål, men jeg +lurer på om det er definert en anbefaling om hvordan RFC +822-formatterte epost (aka vanlig Internet-epost) bør lages håndteres +i NOARK5, slik at en bevarer all informasjon i eposten +(f.eks. Received-linjer). Finnes det en anbefalt XML-mapping ala den +som beskrives på +<URL: https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=32074 >? Mitt +mål er at det skal være mulig å lagre eposten i en NOARK5-kjerne og +kunne få ut en identisk formattert kopi av opprinnelig epost ved +behov.
+
Postmottaker hos SAMDOK mente spørsmålet heller burde stilles +direkte til riksarkivet, og jeg fikk i dag svar derfra formulert av +seniorrådgiver Geir Ivar Tungesvik:
+ +++ +Riksarkivet har ingen anbefalinger når det gjelder konvertering fra +e-post til XML. Det står arkivskaper fritt å eventuelt definere/bruke +eget format. Inklusive da - som det spørres om - et format der det er +mulig å re-etablere e-post format ut fra XML-en. XML (e-post) +dokumenter må være referert i arkivstrukturen, og det må vedlegges et +gyldig XML skjema (.xsd) for XML-filene. Arkivskaper står altså fritt +til å gjøre hva de vil, bare det dokumenteres og det kan dannes et +utrekk ved avlevering til depot.
+ +De obligatoriske kravene i Noark 5 standarden må altså oppfylles - +etter dialog med Riksarkivet i forbindelse med godkjenning. For +offentlige arkiv er det særlig viktig med filene loependeJournal.xml +og offentligJournal.xml. Private arkiv som vil forholde seg til Noark +5 standarden er selvsagt frie til å bruke det som er relevant for dem +av obligatoriske krav.
+
Det ser dermed ut for meg som om det er et lite behov for å +standardisere XML-lagring av RFC-822-formatterte meldinger. Noen som +vet om god spesifikasjon i så måte? I tillegg til den omtalt over, +har jeg kommet over flere aktuelle beskrivelser (søk på "rfc 822 +xml", så finner du aktuelle alternativer).
+ +-
+
+
- XML MIME Transformation +protocol (XMTP) fra OpenHealth, sist oppdatert 2001. + +
- An +XML format for mail and other messages utkast fra IETF datert +2001. + +
- xMail: +E-mail as XML en artikkel fra 2003 som beskriver python-modulen +rfc822 som gir ut XML-representasjon av en RFC 822-formattert epost. + +
Finnes det andre og bedre spesifikasjoner for slik lagring? Send +meg en epost hvis du har innspill.
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:
- -Setting | Value |
---|---|
Protocol / kernel module | batman-adv |
ESSID | meshfx@hackeriet | Channel / Frequency | 11 / 2462 | -Cell ID | 02: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.
+ +Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese de siste +månedene. Det er mye om varsleren Edward Snowden, som burde få all +hjelp, støtte og beskyttelse Norge kan stille opp med for å ha satt +totalitær overvåkning på sakskartet, men også endel annet +tankevekkende og interessant.
+ +-
+
+
- 2013-12-21 +- +NSA tenker som Stasi - Dagbladet.no + +
- 2013-12-19 - +Staten har ikke rett til å vite alt om deg - DN.no + +
- 2013-12-21 +Nye +mål for NSAs spionasje avslørt - Dagbladet.no + +
- 2013-12-19 +«NSA +bør fjernes fra sin makt til å samle inn metadata fra amerikanske +telefonsamtaler» - Dagbladet.no + +
- 2013-12-18 +Etterretning, +overvåking, frihet og sikkerhet - Dagbladet.no + +
- 2013-12-17 +Snowden +angriper USA i åpent brev - nrk.no + +
- 2013-12-17 +Rettslig +nederlag for etterretning - digi.no + +
- 2013-12-21 +Truende +nedkjøling - dagbladet.no + +
- 2013-12-20 +Matematikk +og forståelse - aftenposten.no + +
- 2013-10-20 +Vi +søv for å reinse hjernen vår, ifølgje ny studie - nrk.no + +
- 2013-12-11 +Rotterace +i kloakken - nrk.no + +
- 2013-12-30 +Ã pne +brev og frie tanker - aftenposten.no + +
- 2014-01-12 +Stopp dagens kunnskapsapartheid! - aftenposten.no + +
- 2014-01-09 +EU-rapport: +Britisk og amerikansk overvåking ser ut til å være ulovlig - +aftenposten.no + +
- 2013-10-23 Professor Jan Arild Audestad +Advarer +mot konspirasjonsteori i digi.no og sier han ikke tror NSA kan +avlytte mobiltelefoner, mens han noen måneder senere forteller: + +
- 2014-01-09 +- +Vi ble presset til å svekke mobilsikkerheten på 80-tallet - +aftenposten.no + +
- 2014-02-12 +Et +møte med Edward Snowden - intervju sendt av nrk, tilgjengelig til +2015-01-31 + +
- 2014-02-17 +Litteraturredaktøren: +Helle Thornings tavshed om Snowden er en skandale - +politiken.dk + +
- 2014-02-21 +Bra å ha en «Storebror» - aftenposten.no + +
- 2014-02-28 +"Narkotikasiktet +Stortingsmann" - Spillet bak kulissene - John Christian Eldens +blogg + +
- 2014-02-28 +Heksejakt +på hasjbrukere - aftenposten.no + +
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. :)
+ +Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and +innetgr tools, because I needed them in +Skolelinux. I called the project +ng-utils, and it has served me well. I placed the project under the +Hungry Programmer umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS +repository. But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost, +not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a +proper home since then.
+ +Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release +fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in +a proper source control system. I applied for a project on +Alioth, but did not have time +to follow up on it. Until today. :)
+ +After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project +now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the +history of the project. I published all release tarballs and imported +them into the git repository. As the project is really stable and not +expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new +release and call it 1.0. Visit the new project home on +https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/ +if you want to check it out. The new version is also uploaded into +Debian Unstable.
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).
+ +A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get +their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit +boot system instead of their old one. This follow up on the +great +Google Summer of Code work done last summer by Justus Winter to +get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux. To get started, +I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from +http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz, +and started it using virt-manager.
+ +The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any +password) was to get the network operational. I followed +the +instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page and ran these +commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the +kvm internal DHCP server:
+ ++ ++settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde +kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}') +kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}') +dhclient /dev/eth0 +
After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could +upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and +enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.
+ +But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is +running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be +set. Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block +compression from working. Remember to turn that off on the client +side.
+ +Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit +stuff:
+ ++ ++cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list <<EOF +deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main +EOF +apt-get update +apt-get dist-upgrade +apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \ + sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils +update-alternatives --config runsystem +
To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use +reboot-hurd instead of just reboot, as there is not +yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal +'reboot' command. After switching to sysvinit as the boot system, +upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP +after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the +start is no longer needed. But for some strange reason, there are no +longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using +ssh instead. + +
Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot +fail some times. No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters +figure it out. At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on +irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem. A way to reduce +the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by +adding this repository to the machine:
+ ++ ++cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list <<EOF +deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main +EOF +
At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from +http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in +unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in +BTS. This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:
+ ++ ++# aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))' +i emacs - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage) +i gdb - GNU Debugger +i hurd-recommended - Miscellaneous translators +i isc-dhcp-client - ISC DHCP client +i isc-dhcp-common - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages +i libc-bin - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries +i libc-dev-bin - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries +i libc0.3 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries +i A libc0.3-dbg - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols +i libc0.3-dev - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea +i multiarch-support - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit +i A x11-common - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure +i xorg - X.Org X Window System +i A xserver-xorg - X.Org X server +i A xserver-xorg-input-all - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage +# +
All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :) +X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow +the porters instructions to fix it. This time I was interested in the +command line stuff.
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.
- --
-
-
- FreedomBox - -2,5 minute marketing film (Youtube) - -
- Eben Moglen -discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011 (Youtube) - -
- Eben Moglen - -Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for -Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010 -(Youtube) - -
- Fosdem 2011 -Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox (Youtube) - -
- Presentation of -the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011 (Youtube) - -
- Freedombox - -Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New -York City in 2012 (Youtube) - -
- Introduction -to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012 -(Youtube) - -
- Freedom, Out -of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012 (Youtube) - -
- Freedombox -1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013 (FOSDEM) - -
- What is the -FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus -2013 (Youtube) - -
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.
+ +Bitcoin is a incredible use of peer to peer communication and +encryption, allowing direct and immediate money transfer without any +central control. It is sometimes claimed to be ideal for illegal +activity, which I believe is quite a long way from the truth. At least +I would not conduct illegal money transfers using a system where the +details of every transaction are kept forever. This point is +investigated in +USENIX ;login: +from December 2013, in the article +"A +Fistful of Bitcoins - Characterizing Payments Among Men with No +Names" by Sarah Meiklejohn, Marjori Pomarole,Grant Jordan, Kirill +Levchenko, Damon McCoy, Geoffrey M. Voelker, and Stefan Savage. They +analyse the transaction log in the Bitcoin system, using it to find +addresses belong to individuals and organisations and follow the flow +of money from both Bitcoin theft and trades on Silk Road to where the +money end up. This is how they wrap up their article:
+ ++"To demonstrate the usefulness of this type of analysis, we turned +our attention to criminal activity. In the Bitcoin economy, criminal +activity can appear in a number of forms, such as dealing drugs on +Silk Road or simply stealing someone elseâs bitcoins. We followed the +flow of bitcoins out of Silk Road (in particular, from one notorious +address) and from a number of highly publicized thefts to see whether +we could track the bitcoins to known services. Although some of the +thieves attempted to use sophisticated mixing techniques (or possibly +mix services) to obscure the flow of bitcoins, for the most part +tracking the bitcoins was quite straightforward, and we ultimately saw +large quantities of bitcoins flow to a variety of exchanges directly +from the point of theft (or the withdrawal from Silk Road).
+ +As acknowledged above, following stolen bitcoins to the point at +which they are deposited into an exchange does not in itself identify +the thief; however, it does enable further de-anonymization in the +case in which certain agencies can determine (through, for example, +subpoena power) the real-world owner of the account into which the +stolen bitcoins were deposited. Because such exchanges seem to serve +as chokepoints into and out of the Bitcoin economy (i.e., there are +few alternative ways to cash out), we conclude that using Bitcoin for +money laundering or other illicit purposes does not (at least at +present) seem to be particularly attractive."
+
+ +
These researches are not the first to analyse the Bitcoin +transaction log. The 2011 paper +"An Analysis of Anonymity in +the Bitcoin System" by Fergal Reid and Martin Harrigan is +summarized like this:
+ ++"Anonymity in Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic currency system, is a +complicated issue. Within the system, users are identified by +public-keys only. An attacker wishing to de-anonymize its users will +attempt to construct the one-to-many mapping between users and +public-keys and associate information external to the system with the +users. Bitcoin tries to prevent this attack by storing the mapping of +a user to his or her public-keys on that user's node only and by +allowing each user to generate as many public-keys as required. In +this chapter we consider the topological structure of two networks +derived from Bitcoin's public transaction history. We show that the +two networks have a non-trivial topological structure, provide +complementary views of the Bitcoin system and have implications for +anonymity. We combine these structures with external information and +techniques such as context discovery and flow analysis to investigate +an alleged theft of Bitcoins, which, at the time of the theft, had a +market value of approximately half a million U.S. dollars." ++ +
I hope these references can help kill the urban myth that Bitcoin +is anonymous. It isn't really a good fit for illegal activites. Use +cash if you need to stay anonymous, at least until regular DNA +sampling of notes and coins become the norm. :)
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
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:
+ +14th January 2014+@@ -457,135 +527,216 @@ directory.Coverity is a nice tool to +find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code +analysis. It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very +useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of +the source. The company behind it provide +check of free software projects as +a community service, and many hundred free software projects are +already checked. A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at +the Coverity system, and discovered that the +gnash and +ipmitool +projects I am involved with was already registered. But these are +fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to +check, and decided to request +checking of the chrpath project. It was +added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects. Six of +these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an +error. Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction +of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it +is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in +the future end up in a library. Having fixed all defects and added +a +mailing list for the chrpath developers, I decided it was time to +publish a new release. These are the release notes:
+ +New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:
-
-- 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).
+- Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.
+- Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.
+- Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.
Where to get it:
- -To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
- --
- -- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso
-- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso
-- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso .
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: 3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f
- -To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use -
-
- -- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso
-- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso
-- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso .
-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/ReportBugsAbout 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, -
- +
HolgerYou can +download the +new version 0.16 from alioth. Please let us know via the Alioth +project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite +did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also +include a test suite check.
- -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
- -- -
- -- Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.
-- Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.
-- - -
Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument -to the Debian installer:
-
url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat- Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to -install on.
- -- When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a -few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.
- -Raspberry Pi Raspbian
- -- -
- -- Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.
-- Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.
-- -
Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:
--deb http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox wheezy main -- -
Run this as root:
--wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \ - apt-key add - -apt-get update -apt-get install freedombox-setup -/usr/lib/freedombox/setup -- Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.
- -You can test it on other architectures too, but because the -freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on -the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it -in my APT repository. But do not let this stop you. It is only a -short "apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy" away. :)
- -Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the -192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn -off the DHCP server by running "update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server -disable" as root.
- -Please let me know if this 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'.
+ +25th December 2013+@@ -593,283 +744,44 @@ default password is 'secret'.The Debian Edu / Skolelinux +project consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I +was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed +up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his +successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School. Say hello +to Dominik +George.
+ + + +Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
+ +I am a 23 year-old student from Germany who has spent half of his +life with open source. In "real life", I am, as already mentioned, a +student in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, +Information Technologies and Anglistics. Due to my (only partially +voluntary) huge engagement in the open source world, these things are +a bit vacant right now however.
+ +I also have been working as a project teacher at a Gymasnium +(public school) for various years now. I took up that work some time +around 2005 when still attending that school myself and have continued +it until today. I also had been running the (kind of very advanced) +network of that school together with a team of very interested and +talented students in the age of 11 to 15 years, who took the chance to +learn a lot about open source and networking before I left the school +to help building another school's informational education concept from +scratch.
+ +That said, one might see me as a kind of "glue" between school kids +and the elderly of teachers as well as between the open source +ecosystem and the (even more complex) educational ecosystem.
+ +When I am not busy with open source or education, I like Geocaching +and cycling.
+ +How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?
+ +I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended +FrOSCon and visited the project +booth. I think I wasn't too interested back then because I used to +have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its +own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an +"out-of-the-box" solution ;).
+ +The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at +OpenRheinRuhr 2011 when the +BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various +really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch +ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to +a stage where it could have been published. I asked the Skolelinux +guys running the booth if the project were interested in it and gave a +small demonstration, but there wasn't any real feedback and the guys +seemed rather uninterested.
+ +After I left the school where I developed the software, it got +mostly lost, but I am now reimplementing it for my new school. I have +reusability and compatibility in mind, and I hop there will be a new +basis for contributing it to the Skolelinux project ;)!
+ +What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?
+ +The most important advantage seems to be that it "just +works". After overcoming some minor (but still very annoying) glitches +in the installer, I got a fully functional, working school network, +without the month-long hassle I experienced when setting all that up +from scratch in earlier years. And above that, it rocked - I didn't +have any real hardware at hand, because the school was just founded +and has no money whatsoever, so I installed a combined server (main +server, terminal services and workstation) in a VM on my personal +notebook, bridging the LTSP network interface to the ethernet port, +and then PXE-booted the Windows notebooks that were lying around from +it. I could use 8 clients without any performance issues, by using a +tiny little VM on a tiny little notebook. I think that's enough to say +that it rocks!
+ +Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life's bad, and so no +politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debian, an universal +operating system, with some really cool educational tools" while they +will be jsut fine with "Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your +school network", even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes, +this is unfair towards the Skolelinux project, and must not be taken +too seriously - you get the idea, anyway).
+ +What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?
+ +I have not been involved with Skolelinux long enough to really +answer this question in a fair way. Thus, please allow me to put it in +other words: "What do you expect from Skolelinux to keep liking it?" I +can list a few points about that:
+ ++ +
+ +- always strive to get all things integrated into Debian upstream +
- be open to discussion about changes and the like, even with newcomers +
- be helpful at being helpful ;) + +
I'm really sorry I cannot say much more about that :(!
+ +Which free software do you use daily?
+ +First of all, all software I use is free and open. I have abandoned +all non-free software (except for firmware on my darned phone) this +year.
+ +I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly +run text tools. I use +mksh as shell, +jupp as very advanced +text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro +based full-featured student management software with the two), +mcabber for XMPP and +irssi for IRC. For that overly +coloured world called the WWW, I use +Iceweasel +(Firefox). Oh, and mutt for +e-mail.
+ +However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools +are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at +least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to +kids. One of these things is Jappix, +which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of +Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need +Facebook now ;).
+ +Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?
+ +Well, that's a two-sided thing. One side is what I believe, and one +side is what I have experienced.
+ +I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But +that won't work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives +grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced +to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not +see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen +students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian +desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and +they jsut refused to use it because "Linux sucks". It is something +that makes the council of our city spend around 600000 ⬠to buy +software - not including hardware, mind you - for operating school +networks, and for installing a system that, as has been proved, does +not work. For those of you readers who are good at maths, have you +already found out how many lives could have been saved with that money +if we had instead used it to bring education to parts of the world +that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than +plain criminal.
+ +That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up +method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have +founded an association named +Teckids here in Germany that does +just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the +area of free and open source software, for example the +FrogLabs, which share staff with +Teckids and are the youth programme of +the Free and Open Source Software +Conference (FrOSCon). We do a lot more than most other conferences +- this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids +aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part +and learning with and about free software through a whole weekend. All +of us had a lot of fun, and the results were really exciting.
+ +Apart from that, we are preparing a campaign that is supposed to bring +the message of free alternatives to stuff kids use every day to them and +their parents, e.g. the use of Jabber / Jappix instead of Facebook and +Skype. To make that possible, we are planning to get together a team of +clever kids who understand very well what their peers need and can bring +it across to them. So we will have a peer-driven network of adolescents +who teach each other and collect feedback from the community of minors. +We then take that feedback and our own experience to work closely with +open source projects, such as Skolelinux or Jappix, at improving their +software in a way that makes it more and more attractive for the target +group. At least I hope that we will have good cooperation with +Skolelinux in the future ;)!
+ +So in conclusion, what I believe is that, if it weren't for the world +being so bad, it should be very clear to the political decision makers +that the only way to go nowadays is free software for various reasons, +but I have learnt that the only way that seems to work is bottom up.
+ +- -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 valgkrets Stemme/kommentar - - 1. -Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide (1976), Gamle Oslo -Stemte for DLD - - 2. -Nikolai Astrup (1978), Frogner -Stemte mot DLD 3. -Michael Tetzschner (1954), Vestre Aker -Stemte mot DLD - -- - 4. -Kristin Vinje (1963), Nordre Aker -Ikke til stede - - 5. -Mudassar Hussain Kapur (1976), Nordstrand -Ikke til stede - - 6. -Stefan Magnus B. Heggelund (1984), Grünerløkka -Ikke til stede - - 7. -Heidi Nordby Lunde (1973), Grünerløkka -Ikke til stede - - 8. -Frode Helgerud (1950), Frogner -Ikke til stede - - 9. -Afshan Rafiq (1975), Stovner -Ikke til stede - - 10. -Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg (1936), Frogner -Ikke til stede - - 11. -Camilla Strandskog (1984) St.Hanshaugen -Ikke til stede - - 12. -John Christian Elden (1967), Ullern -Ikke til stede - - 13. -Berit Solli (1972), Alna -Ikke til stede - - 14. -Ola Kvisgaard (1963), Frogner -Ikke til stede - - 15. -James Stove Lorentzen (1957), Vestre Aker -Ikke til stede - - 16. -Gülsüm Koc (1987), Stovner -Ikke til stede - - 17. -Jon Ole Whist (1976), Grünerløkka -Ikke til stede - - 18. -Maren Eline Malthe-Sørenssen (1971), Vestre Aker -Ikke til stede - - 19. -Ståle Hagen (1968), Søndre Nordstrand -Ikke til stede - - 20. -Kjell Omdal Erichsen (1978), Sagene -Ikke til stede - - 21. -Saida R. Begum (1987), Grünerløkka -Ikke til stede - - 22. -Torkel Brekke (1970), Nordre Aker -Ikke til stede - - 23. -Sverre K. Seeberg (1950), Vestre Aker -Ikke til stede - - 24. -Julie Margrethe Brodtkorb (1974), Ullern -Ikke til stede - - 25. -Fabian Stang (1955), Frogner -Ikke til stede Deretter har vi stortingslista fra Arbeiderpartiet for Oslo:
- -- -
- -- - # Navn, fødselsÃ¥r og valgkrets Stemme/kommentar - - 1. -Jens Stoltenberg (1959), Frogner -Ikke til stede i Stortinget, leder av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget - - 2. -Hadia Tajik (1983), Grünerløkka -Stemte for DLD - - 3. -Jonas Gahr Støre (1960), Vestre Aker -Ikke til stede i Stortinget, medlem av regjeringen som fremmet forslaget - - 4. -Marianne Marthinsen (1980), Grünerløkka -Stemte for DLD - - 5. -Jan Bøhler (1952), Alna -Stemte for DLD - - 6. -Marit Nybakk (1947), Frogner -Stemte for DLD - - 7. -Truls Wickholm (1978), Sagene -Stemte for DLD - - 8. -Prableen Kaur (1993), Grorud -Ikke til stede - - 9. -Vegard Grøslie Wennesland (1983), St.Hanshaugen -Ikke til stede - - 10. -Inger Helene Vaaten (1975), Grorud -Ikke til stede - - 11. -Ivar Leveraas (1939), Alna -Ikke til stede - - 12. -Grete Haugdal (1971), Gamle Oslo -Ikke til stede - - 13. -Olav Tønsberg (1948), Alna -Ikke til stede - - 14. -Khamshajiny Gunaratnam (1988), Grorud -Ikke til stede - - 15. -Fredrik Mellem (1969), Sagene -Ikke til stede - - 16. -Brit Axelsen (1945), Stovner -Ikke til stede - - 17. -Dag Bayegan-Harlem (1977), Ullern -Ikke til stede - - 18. -Kristin Sandaker (1963), Ãsteinsjø -Ikke til stede - - 19. -Bashe Musse (1965), Grünerløkka -Ikke til stede - - 20. -Torunn Kanutte Husvik (1983), St. Hanshaugen -Ikke til stede - - 21. -Steinar Andersen (1947), Nordstrand -Ikke til stede - - 22. -Anne Cathrine Berger (1972), Sagene -Ikke til stede - - 23. -Khalid Mahmood (1959), Ãstensjø -Ikke til stede - - 24. -Munir Jaber (1990), Alna -Ikke til stede - - 25. -Libe Solberg Rieber-Mohn (1965), Frogner -Ikke til stede Hvilket parti fÃ¥r sÃ¥ min stemme i Ã¥r. Jeg tror det blir -Piratpartiet. Hvis de kan bidra -til at det kommer noen inn pÃ¥ Stortinget med teknisk peiling, sÃ¥ fÃ¥r -kanskje ikke overvÃ¥kningsgalskapen like fritt spillerom som det har -hatt sÃ¥ langt.
- + +10th December 2013+@@ -877,138 +789,129 @@ hatt så langt.Helga 18. og 19. januar 2014 arrangeres +Oslo Maker +Faire, og Dugnadsnett for +alle har fått plass! Planen er å ha et bord med en plakat der vi +forteller om hva Dugnadsnett for alle er for noe, og et lite verksted +der vi hjelper folk som er interessert i å få opp sin egen mesh-node. +Jeg gleder meg til å se hvordan prosjektet blir mottatt der.
+ +Målet med dugnadsnett for alle i Oslo er å få på plass et datanett +for kommunikasjon ved hjelp av radio-repeaterstasjoner (kalt +mesh-noder) som gjør at en kan direkte kommunisere med slekt, venner +og bekjente i Oslo via andre som deltar i dugnadsnettet, samt gjøre +det mulig komme ut på internett via dugnadsnettet. Første delmål er å +kunne sende SMS-meldinger vha. IP-telefoni løsningen +Serval project mellom +deltagerne i Dugnadsnett for alle i Oslo. Formålet er å ta tilbake +kontrollen over egen nett-infrastruktur og gjøre det dyrere å bedrive +massiv innsamling av informasjon om borgernes bruk av datanett.
+ +Høres dette interessant ut? Bli med på prosjektet, fortell oss +hvor du kunne tenke deg å sette opp en radio-repeater (slik at folk i +nærheten kan finne hverandre ved hjelp av +kartet over planlagte og +eksisterende radio-repeatere), bli med på epostlisten +dugnadsnett +(at) nuug.no og stikk innom +IRC-kanalen +#dugnadsnett.no. Så langt er det planlagt over 40 +radio-repeatere, med VPN-forbindelser via Internet for å la de delene +av nettet som ikke når hverandre via radio kunne snakke med hverandre +likevel.
- -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
+ +6th December 2013+@@ -1016,34 +919,33 @@ stick ISO image.It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview, +but the Debian Edu / +Skolelinux community is still going strong, and yesterday we even +had a new school administrator show up on +#debian-edu to share +his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school. This +time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of +Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in +Germany a few years ago.
+ +Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
+ +I am Klaus Knopper. I have a master degree in electrical +engineering, and is currently professor in information management at +the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and +freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.
+ +All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart +from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental +projects like the Knoppix GNU/Linux live +system (Debian-based like Skolelinux), +ADRIANE +(a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and +LINBO +(Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair +system supporting various operating systems).
+ +How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?
+ +The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German +coordinator for Skolelinux. We were looking for an all-in-one open +source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt +introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.
+ +What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?
- -
-- 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).
- +- Quick installation,
+- works (almost) out of the box,
+- contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,
+- is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a + single company,
+- has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their + experience and problem solutions.
Other changes
+What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?
- -
-- 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.
+- Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to + the next version. Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to + a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it + working again reliably. + +
- Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a + little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or + similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing + as their base. + +
- Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default + configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is + not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network + configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux + and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their + network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible". + +
- Some proposed extensions, which were made available as + contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material + distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline + Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the + future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update + schemes.
+ +- Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers + compared to Debian.
Known issues
+For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now +rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until +Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes +upgradeable without reinstallation.
-+
+Which free software do you use daily?
-- 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).
- -GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and +programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence, +occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various +programming languages for teaching.
-Where to get it
+Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?
-To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
+Strong arguments are
-
- -- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso
+- Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for + teaching and learning.
-- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso
+- Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at + home, and at their working place without running into license or + conversion problems.
-- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso .
+- Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather + than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind + customers to certain products. But teachers need to teach + science, not products.
-The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b -
- -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
- -- -
- -- ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso
-- http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso
-- rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso .
+- If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what + would you need proprietary software for?
The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b -
- - -
The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119How to report bugs
- -- -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.
+ +30th November 2013+@@ -1058,6 +960,17 @@ the broken disks.If you want the ability to electronically communicate directly with +your neighbors and friends using a network controlled by your peers in +stead of centrally controlled by a few corporations, or would like to +experiment with interesting network technology, the +Dugnasnett for alle i Oslo +might be project for you. 39 mesh nodes are currently being planned, +in the freshly started initiative from NUUG and Hackeriet to create a +wireless community network. The work is inspired by +Freifunk, +Athens Wireless Metropolitan +Network, Roofnet +and other successful mesh networks around the globe. Two days ago we +held a workshop to try to get people started on setting up their own +mesh node, and there we decided to create a new mailing list +dugnadsnett +(at) nuug.no and IRC channel +#dugnadsnett.no to +coordinate the work. See also the NUUG blog post +announcing +the mailing list and IRC channel.
Archive
+
- 2014 +
++ +
- January (2)
+ +- February (3)
+ +- March (1)
+ +- 2013
@@ -1223,15 +1140,17 @@ the broken disks.@@ -1079,7 +992,11 @@ the broken disks.
- September (5)
-- October (3)
+- October (7)
+ +- November (9)
+ +- December (3)
- bankid (4)
-- bitcoin (7)
+- bitcoin (8)
-- bootsystem (12)
+- bootsystem (14)
- bsa (2)
-- debian (87)
+- chrpath (2)
-- debian edu (142)
+- debian (94)
+ +- debian edu (144)
- digistan (10)
@@ -1239,7 +1158,7 @@ the broken disks.- drivstoffpriser (4)
-- english (220)
+- english (236)
- fiksgatami (21)
@@ -1247,11 +1166,11 @@ the broken disks.- freeculture (12)
-- freedombox (3)
+- freedombox (5)
- frikanalen (11)
-- intervju (37)
+- intervju (39)
- isenkram (7)
@@ -1259,23 +1178,25 @@ the broken disks.- ldap (8)
-- lenker (6)
+- lenker (7)
- ltsp (1)
+- mesh network (7)
+- multimedia (25)
-- norsk (235)
+- norsk (241)
-- nuug (154)
+- nuug (161)
-- offentlig innsyn (8)
+- offentlig innsyn (10)
- open311 (2)
- opphavsrett (45)
-- personvern (66)
+- personvern (69)
- raid (1)
@@ -1283,7 +1204,7 @@ the broken disks.- rfid (2)
-- robot (7)
+- robot (9)
- rss (1)
@@ -1291,19 +1212,19 @@ the broken disks.- scraperwiki (2)
-- sikkerhet (31)
+- sikkerhet (34)
- sitesummary (4)
- skepsis (4)
-- standard (43)
+- standard (44)
- stavekontroll (3)
-- stortinget (8)
+- stortinget (9)
-- surveillance (19)
+- surveillance (21)
- sysadmin (1)