X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/d8e47d7a28ce718ef9d2fb8009c70e5bdbdc0fb1..b930b26ee67546bfbe60cde22ac5051e9e51e9ea:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 5fcd71a758..fe3f46cc65 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,720 +20,996 @@
-
Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object
-
2010-06-24 00:35
+
How to test if a laptop is working with Linux
+
2010-12-22 14:55
-

A while back, I -complained -about the fact that it is not possible with the provided schemas -for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets -of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.

- -

In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make -the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with -the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one -computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.

- -

If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change -without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I -do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for -Debian Edu.

- -

Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change -the -DHCP -schema to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas -available today from IETF.

+

The last few days I have spent at work here at the University of oslo testing if the new +batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few +years the university have organized shared bid of a few thousand +computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and +five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX +group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL +and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the +university.

+ +

My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and +perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE +install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run +a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When +something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move +on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS +vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely +have the time to do this for all the problems I find.

+ +

Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests +I perform on a new model.

-
---- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
-+++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
-@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
- objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
-        NAME 'dhcpHost'
-        DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
--       SUP top
-+       SUP top AUXILIARY
-        MUST cn
-        MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
-        X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
-
+ -

If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, -please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.

+

By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are +for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report +the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work +fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid, +and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you +can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting +observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the framerate than +RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.

- Tags: debian, debian edu, english, ldap, nuug. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
-
Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output
-
2010-06-16 14:55
+
Some thoughts on BitCoins
+
2010-12-11 15:10
-

A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel -installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now, -I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem -of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a -conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like -this: - -

-export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-tasksel --new-install
-
- -This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the -tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without -any output what so ever. - -Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic -package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without -any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it -happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel -when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line -printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using -code like this: - -
-export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
-$cmd
-
- -

The content of $cmd is typically something like "aptitude -q ---without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install -~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired -~pimportant", which will install the gnome desktop task, the -laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and -important, just like tasksel would have done it during -installation.

- -

A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to -install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases -like this.

+

As I continue to explore +BitCoin, I've starting to wonder +what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws +and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.

+ +

One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are +verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction +is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been +published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is +possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to +that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for +all transactions. There I can see that my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b +have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the +1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3 +address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address +1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt +of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and +every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The +fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given +address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to +generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told +there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or +organisation without the person or organisation revealing it +themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.

+ +

In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and +regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border +without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting +laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin. +If the Skolelinux foundation +(SLX +Debian Labs) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to +normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted? +Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or +not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate +should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay +income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in +BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.

+ +

For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and +accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to +the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be +easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get +access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really +a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin, +so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I +would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs +and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time +if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby +to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they +will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which +probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I +believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming +currencies.

+ +

The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is +CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is +competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles +to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50 +BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to +join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins, +by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines +and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50 +BitCoins. Check out +BitCoin Pool +if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a +machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones +own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining +yet.

+ +

Update 2010-12-15: Found an interesting +criticism of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought +it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be +equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.

- Tags: debian, english, nuug. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Vinmonopolet bryter loven åpenlyst - og flere planlegger å gjøre det samme
-
2010-06-16 11:00
+
Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten
+
2010-12-11 10:45
-

Dagbladet -melder at Vinmonopolet med bakgrunn i vekterstreiken som pågår i -Norge for tiden, har bestemt seg for med vitende og vilje å bryte -sentralbanklovens paragraf 14 ved å nekte folk å betale med -kontanter, og at flere butikker planlegger å følge deres eksempel. -Jeg synes det er hårreisende hvis de slipper unna med et slikt -soleklart lovbrudd, og lurer på hva slags muligheter jeg vil ha hvis -jeg blir nektet å handle med kontanter. Jeg handler i hovedsak med -kontanter selv, da jeg anser det som en borgerrett å kunne handle -anonymt uten at det blir registrert. For meg er det et angrep på mitt -personvern å nekte å ta imot kontant betaling.

- -

Paragrafen -i sentralbankloven lyder:

- -
-

§ 14. Tvungent betalingsmiddel

- -

Bankens sedler og mynter er tvungent betalingsmiddel i Norge. Ingen -er pliktig til i én betaling å ta imot mer enn femogtyve mynter av -hver enhet.

- -

Sterkt skadde sedler og mynter er ikke tvungent -betalingsmiddel. Banken gir nærmere forskrifter om erstatning for -bortkomne, brente eller skadde sedler og mynter.

- -

Selv om en avtale inneholder klausul om betaling av en -pengeforpliktelse i gullverdi, kan skyldneren frigjøre seg med tvungne -betalingsmidler uten hensyn til denne klausul.

-
- -

Det er med bakgrunn i denne lovet ikke tillatt å nekte å ta imot -kontakt betaling. Det er en lov jeg har sans for, og som jeg mener må -håndheves strengt.

+

Via en +blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går, fant jeg en referanse til +en +artikkel i Washington Times som igjen refererer til en artikkel i +det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security +med tittelen +"An +evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image +characteristics" som enkelt konstaterer at +pornoscannerne +som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det +produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort +sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på +flyplasser se dem +nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet uten grunn. Jeg vil +fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der +de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg +kan.

- Tags: norsk, personvern. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Officeshots taking shape
-
2010-06-13 11:40
+
Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet
+
2010-12-09 21:25
-

For those of us caring about document exchange and -interoperability, OfficeShots -is a great service. It is to ODF documents what -BrowserShots is for web -pages.

- -

A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia -that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project -and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be -interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his -request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with -a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut -arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is -administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily -contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to -see how the project is doing.

- -

Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our -machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as -OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents -in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and -Windows. This is great.

+

Martin Bekkelund ved +friprog-senteret har skrevet +følgende +korte +oppsummering rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler +her.

+ +

Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om +innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (DLD) i norsk rett. Kanskje +har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge +tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.

+ +

Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at +DLD ikke bør +innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet +er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har +store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og +hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.

+ + + +

Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent +rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde +for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg, +lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel +mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår +atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.

+ +

Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til +DLD.

+ +

Ta kontakt med meg +hvis du har spørsmål om DLD, uansett hva det måtte +gjelde.

+ +

Denne teksten er å anse som Public +Domain. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av +den!

+

+ +

Siste melding +fra Nettavisen er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag +til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av +fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi +får snart se om det stemmer.

- Tags: english, standard. + Tags: norsk, personvern.
-
Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude
-
2010-06-13 09:05
+
Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer
+
2010-12-09 19:30
-

My -testing -of Debian upgrades from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've -finally made the upgrade logs available from -http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/. -I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both -apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting. This time -I will only focus on their removal plans.

- -

After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants -to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze. The -surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all -xserver-xorg-video* drivers. Clearly not a good choice, but I am not -sure why. When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129 -packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no -longer needed. Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which -I do not know. Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?

- -

For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase -which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking -aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are -too surprising.

- -

I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated -and avoided, and perhaps others as well. Here are the complete list -of planned removals. The complete logs is available from the URL -above. Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test -for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking -conffile questions. No idea why. I worked around it by using -'echo >> /proc/pidofdpkg/fd/0' to tell dpkg to -continue.

- -

apt-get gnome 72 -
bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome - gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14 - iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0 - libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0 - nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras - serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg - xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev - xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse - xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom - xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark - xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips - xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix - xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev - xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128 - xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt - xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64 - xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic - xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv - xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128 - xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd - xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3 - xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage - xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis - xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx - xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident - xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l - xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga - xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9 - xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support

- -

aptitude gnome 129 - -
bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd - djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount - gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp - gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2 - libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2 - libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0 - libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 - libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common - libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common - libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 - libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0 - libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common - libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0 - libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 - libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10 - libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off - libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 - libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 - libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8 - libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1 - libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 - libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 - libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 - libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner - openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip - python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop - python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed - python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome - swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim - xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt - xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga - zip

- -

apt-get kde 82 - -
cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core - kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3 - kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker - kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn - kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1 - libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg - xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev - xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse - xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom - xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark - xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips - xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix - xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev - xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128 - xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt - xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64 - xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic - xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv - xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128 - xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd - xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3 - xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage - xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis - xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx - xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident - xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l - xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga - xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9

- -

aptitude kde 192 -
bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd - djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext - ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids - kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat - kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window - kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data - kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data - kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins - kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh - kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs - kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin - klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint - kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler - krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver - ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos - kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock - kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile - libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 - libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2 - libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0 - libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0 - libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 - libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 - libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2 - libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1 - libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a - libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 - libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2 - libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools - libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java - libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus - openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data - superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin - texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended - xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt - xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga - xulrunner-1.9

- +

A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot +student assosiation Robotica +Osloensis at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to +get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my +work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I +offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete +the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look +forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver +picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the +last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer +operational.

+ +

The robotic group have already build several robots on their own, +and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look +forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on +Thingiverse. I even got +some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at +the computer science department at the university demonstrated their +very cool 3D scanner.

- Tags: debian, debian edu, english. + Tags: 3d-printer, english, reprap.
-
Åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode
-
2010-06-12 12:45
+
Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK
+
2010-11-29 18:40
-

Veldig glad for å oppdage via -Slashdot -at folk i Finland har forstått at åpne trådløsnett er et samfunnsgode. -Jeg ser på åpne trådløsnett som et fellesgode på linje med retten til -ferdsel i utmark og retten til å bevege seg i strandsonen. Jeg har -glede av åpne trådløsnett når jeg finner dem, og deler gladelig nett -med andre så lenge de ikke forstyrrer min bruk av eget nett. -Nettkapasiteten er sjelden en begrensning ved normal browsing og enkel -SSH-innlogging (som er min vanligste nettbruk), og nett kan brukes til -så mye positivt og nyttig (som nyhetslesing, sjekke været, kontakte -slekt og venner, holde seg oppdatert om politiske saker, kontakte -organisasjoner og politikere, etc), at det for meg er helt urimelig å -blokkere dette for alle som ikke gjør en flue fortred. De som mener -at potensialet for misbruk er grunn nok til å hindre all den positive -og lovlydige bruken av et åpent trådløsnett har jeg dermed ingen -forståelse for. En kan ikke eksistensen av forbrytere styre hvordan -samfunnet skal organiseres. Da får en et kontrollsamfunn de færreste -ønsker å leve i, og det at vi har et samfunn i Norge der tilliten til -hverandre er høy gjør at samfunnet fungerer ganske godt. Det bør vi -anstrenge oss for å beholde.

+

On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux +development +gathering in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway. I +really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the +Squeeze release. The gathering is open for everyone interested in +learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.

+ +

On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of +organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen, +will hold its +General Assembly +for 2010. Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388 +people registered as members. Last year 32 members cast their vote in +the memberdb based election system. I hope more people find time to +vote this year.

- Tags: fildeling, norsk, nuug, opphavsrett, personvern, sikkerhet. + Tags: debian edu, english, nuug.
-
Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze
-
2010-06-11 22:50
+
Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?
+
2010-11-27 11:30
-

The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to -see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly. A few bugs -have been discovered and reported in the process -(#585410 in nagios3-cgi, -#584879 already fixed in -enscript and #584861 in -kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I -am working on a script to automate the test.

- -

The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a -Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading -it. To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d -script is inserted. To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a -desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot -(only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).

- -

A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade -currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel -in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade -is created. The bug report -#566000 make me suspect -this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway -to make sure the upgrade go well. Testing on virtual and real -hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file -do the trick in such settings anyway. This is a -known -issue and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev -maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep -working with old kernels or something like that. I really wish the -udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such -upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess -documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for -Debian Squeeze.

- -

Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades. This test -script, which I call upgrade-test for now, is doing the -trick:

- -
-#!/bin/sh
-set -ex
-
-if [ "$1" ] ; then
-    desktop=$1
-else
-    desktop=gnome
-fi
-
-from=lenny
-to=squeeze
-
-exec < /dev/null
-unset LANG
-mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
-tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
-fuser -mv .
-debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
-chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
-cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d <<EOF
-#!/bin/sh
-exit 101
-EOF
-chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
-exit_cleanup() {
-    umount $tmpdir/proc
-}
-mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
-# Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
-trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
-
-chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
-
-# Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
-# to return the correct answers.
-echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
-    chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
-
-# Include the desktop and laptop task
-for test in desktop laptop ; do
-    echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test <<EOF
-#!/bin/sh
-exit 2
-EOF
-    chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
-done
-
-DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
-export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
-chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
-
-echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
-chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
-touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
-chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
-fuser -mv
-
- -

I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and -with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave -differently so far. I hope to get a cron job running to do the test -regularly and post the result on the web. The Gnome upgrade currently -work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in -kdebase-workspace-data

- -

I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs -(KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog -post, so I will refrain from trying. I can report that for Gnome, -aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to -remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for -KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed, -193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded

- -

I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade -is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel -booting without a hitch. Was unsure if there were still bugs with -packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during -upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop -packages.

+

In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were +presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC. +Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try +to play a video file or stream. Only if VLC fail will I drag out +gmplayer to see if it can do better. The reason is mostly the failure +model and trust. When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message +reporting the problem. When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or +just hangs. The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.

+ +

But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use +mplayer in Debian +Edu/Skolelinux. The reason is simple. We need a good browser +plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is +not very good. For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there +is no way for the user to pause the video. Also, when I +last +tested the browser plugins available in Debian, the VLC plugin +failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked. If +the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer +package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.

+ +

While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly +annoying. The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of +keyboard shortcuts. When the player is in full screen mode, its +shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window. +For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode. I +wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in +window mode. Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart +the current video. It is very nice when playing short videos from the +web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at +what is going on.

- Tags: bootsystem, debian, debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video, web.
-
Skolelinux er laget for sentraldrifting, naturligvis
-
2010-06-09 12:30
+
DND hedrer overvåkning av barn med Rosingsprisen
+
2010-11-23 14:15
-

Det er merkelig hvordan myter om Skolelinux overlever. En slik -myte er at Skolelinux ikke kan sentraldriftes og ha sentralt plasserte -tjenermaskiner. I siste Computerworld Norge er -IT-sjef -Viggo Billdal i Steinkjer intervjuet, og forteller uten -blygsel:

- -

Vi hadde Skolelinux, men det har vi sluttet med. Vi testet -om det lønte seg med Microsoft eller en åpen plattform. Vi fant ut at -Microsoft egentlig var totalt sett bedre egnet. Det var store -driftskostnader med Skolelinux, blant annet på grunn av -desentraliserte servere. Det var komplisert, så vi gikk vekk fra det -og bruker nå bare Windows.

- -

En rask -sjekk mot den norske brukerlista i Skolelinuxprosjektet forteller -at Steinkjers forsøk foregikk fram til 2004/2005, og at Røysing skole -i Steinkjer skal ha vært svært fornøyd med Skolelinux men at kommunen -overkjørte skolen og krevde at de gikk over til Windows. Et søk på -nettet sendte meg til -Dagens -IT nr. 18 2005 hvor en kan lese på side 18:

- -

Inge Tømmerås ved Røysing skole i Steinkjer kjører ennå -Microsoft, men forteller at kompetanseutfordringen med Skolelinux ikke -var så stor. ­ Jeg syntes Skolelinux var utrolig lett å drifte uten -forkunnskaper. Men man må jo selvsagt ha tilgang på ekstern kompetanse -til installasjoner og maskinvarefeil, sier Tømmerås.

- -

Som systemarkitekten bak Skolelinux, kan jeg bare riste på hodet -over påstanden om at Skolelinux krever desentraliserte tjenere. -Skolelinux-arkitekturen er laget for sentralisert drift og plassering -av tjenerne lokalt eller sentralt alt etter behov og nettkapasitet. -Den er modellert på nettverks- og tjenerløsningen som brukes på -Universitetet i Tromsø og Oslo, der jeg jobber med utvikling av -driftstjenester. Dette er det heldigvis noen som har fått med seg, og -jeg er glad for å kunne sitere fra en kommentar på den overnevnte -artikkelen. Min venn og gamle kollega Sturle Sunde forteller der: - -

-

I Flora kommune køyrer vi Skulelinux på skular med alt frå 15 til -meir enn 500 elevar. Dei store skulane har eigen tenar, for det er -mest praktisk. Eg, som er driftsansvarleg for heile nettet, ser -sjeldan dei tenarane fysisk, men at dei står der gjer skulane mindre -avhengige av eksterne linjer som er trege eller dyre. Dei minste -skulane har ikkje eigen tenar. Å bruke sentral tenar er heller ikkje -noko problem. Småskulane klarar seg fint med 1 mbit-linje til ein -sentral tenar eller tenaren på ein større skule.

- -

Det beste med Skulelinux er halvtjukke klientar. Dei treng ikkje -harddisk og brukar minimalt med ressursar på tenaren fordi dei køyrer -programma lokalt. Eit klasserom med 30 sju-åtte år gamle maskiner har -mykje meir CPU og RAM totalt enn nokon moderne tenar til under -millionen. Det trengst to kommandoar på den sentrale tenaren for å -oppdatere alle klientane, både tynne og halvtjukke. Vi har ingen -problem med diskar som ryk heller, som var eit problem før fordi -elevane sat og sparka i maskinene. Og dei krev lite bandbreidde i -nettet, so det er fullt mogleg å køyre slike på småskular med trege -linjer mot tenaren på ein større skule.

- -

Flora kommune har nesten 800 Linux-maskiner i sitt skulenett, og -ein person som tek seg av drift av heile nettet, inkludert tenarar, -klientar, operativsystem, programvare, heimekontorløysing og -administrasjon av brukarar.

- -

No skal det seiast at vi ikkje køyrer rein Skulelinux ut av -boksen. Vi har gjort ein del tilpassingar mot noko Novell-greier som -var der frå før, og som har komplisert installasjonen vår. Etter at -oppsettet var gjort har løysinga vore stabil og kravd minimalt med -arbeid.

-
- -

Jeg vet at Narvik, Harstad og Oslo er kommuner der Skolelinux -sentraldriftes med sentrale tjenere. Det forteller meg at Steinkjers -IT-sjef neppe bør skylde på Skolelinux-løsningen for sine 5 år gamle -minner.

+

Jeg registrerer med vond smak i munnen at Den Norske Dataforening +hedrer +overvåkning av barn med Rosingsprisen for kreativitet i år. Jeg +er glad jeg nå er meldt ut av DND.

+ +

Å elektronisk overvåke sine barn er ikke å gjøre dem en tjeneste, +men et overgrep mot individer i utvikling som bør læres opp til å ta +egne valg.

+ +

For å sitere Datatilsynets nye leder, Bjørn Erik Thon, i +et intervju +med Computerworld Norge:

+ +

+- For alle som har barn, meg selv inkludert, er førstetanken at det +hadde vært fint å vite hvor barnet sitt er til enhver tid. Men ungene +har ikke godt av det. De er små individer som skal søke rundt og finne +sine små gjemmesteder og utvide horisonten, uten at foreldrene ser dem +i kortene. Det kan være fristende, men jeg ville ikke gått inn i +dette. +

+ +

Det er skremmende å se at DND mener en tjeneste som legger opp til +slike overgrep bør hedres. Å flytte oppveksten for barn inn i en +virtuell +Panopticon er et +grovt overgrep og vil gjøre skade på barnenes utvikling, og foreldre +burde tenke seg godt om før de gir etter for sine instinkter her.

+ +

Blipper-tjenesten får meg til å tenke på bøkene til +John Twelve +Hawks, som forbilledlig beskriver hvordan et totalitært +overvåkningssamfunn bygges sakte men sikkert rundt oss, satt sammen av +gode intensjoner og manglende bevissthet om hvilke prinsipper et +liberalt demokrati er fundamentert på. Jeg har hatt stor glede av å +lese alle de tre bøkene.

- Tags: debian edu, norsk, nuug. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it
-
2010-06-06 23:55
+
Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove
+
2010-11-22 14:15
-

If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d -scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while -keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd. The packages with such -needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave -differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart. Because of -this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d -script is running under upstart, and when it is not.

- -

With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a -script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like -COLUMNS):

- -
-DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
-previous=N
-PREVLEVEL=
-RUNLEVEL=
-runlevel=S
-UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
-UPSTART_INSTANCE=
-UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
-
- -

With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same -script.

- -
-INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
-previous=N
-PREVLEVEL=N
-RUNLEVEL=S
-runlevel=S
-
- -

The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from -sysvinit are not set by upstart. Not sure if it is intentional or not -to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.

- -

For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used, -looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good -choice.

+

Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated +upgrade testing of the +Lenny +Gnome and KDE Desktop to do apt-get autoremove when using apt-get. +This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and +can now present the updated result from today:

+ +

This is for Gnome:

+ +

Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude

+ +

+ apache2.2-bin + aptdaemon + baobab + binfmt-support + browser-plugin-gnash + cheese-common + cli-common + cups-pk-helper + dmz-cursor-theme + empathy + empathy-common + freedesktop-sound-theme + freeglut3 + gconf-defaults-service + gdm-themes + gedit-plugins + geoclue + geoclue-hostip + geoclue-localnet + geoclue-manual + geoclue-yahoo + gnash + gnash-common + gnome + gnome-backgrounds + gnome-cards-data + gnome-codec-install + gnome-core + gnome-desktop-environment + gnome-disk-utility + gnome-screenshot + gnome-search-tool + gnome-session-canberra + gnome-system-log + gnome-themes-extras + gnome-themes-more + gnome-user-share + gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 + gstreamer0.10-tools + gtk2-engines + gtk2-engines-pixbuf + gtk2-engines-smooth + hamster-applet + libapache2-mod-dnssd + libapr1 + libaprutil1 + libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 + libaprutil1-ldap + libart2.0-cil + libboost-date-time1.42.0 + libboost-python1.42.0 + libboost-thread1.42.0 + libchamplain-0.4-0 + libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 + libcheese-gtk18 + libclutter-gtk-0.10-0 + libcryptui0 + libdiscid0 + libelf1 + libepc-1.0-2 + libepc-common + libepc-ui-1.0-2 + libfreerdp-plugins-standard + libfreerdp0 + libgconf2.0-cil + libgdata-common + libgdata7 + libgdu-gtk0 + libgee2 + libgeoclue0 + libgexiv2-0 + libgif4 + libglade2.0-cil + libglib2.0-cil + libgmime2.4-cil + libgnome-vfs2.0-cil + libgnome2.24-cil + libgnomepanel2.24-cil + libgpod-common + libgpod4 + libgtk2.0-cil + libgtkglext1 + libgtksourceview2.0-common + libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil + libmono-addins0.2-cil + libmono-cairo2.0-cil + libmono-corlib2.0-cil + libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil + libmono-posix2.0-cil + libmono-security2.0-cil + libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil + libmono-system2.0-cil + libmtp8 + libmusicbrainz3-6 + libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil + libndesk-dbus1.0-cil + libopal3.6.8 + libpolkit-gtk-1-0 + libpt2.6.7 + libpython2.6 + librpm1 + librpmio1 + libsdl1.2debian + libsrtp0 + libssh-4 + libtelepathy-farsight0 + libtelepathy-glib0 + libtidy-0.99-0 + media-player-info + mesa-utils + mono-2.0-gac + mono-gac + mono-runtime + nautilus-sendto + nautilus-sendto-empathy + p7zip-full + pkg-config + python-aptdaemon + python-aptdaemon-gtk + python-axiom + python-beautifulsoup + python-bugbuddy + python-clientform + python-coherence + python-configobj + python-crypto + python-cupshelpers + python-elementtree + python-epsilon + python-evolution + python-feedparser + python-gdata + python-gdbm + python-gst0.10 + python-gtkglext1 + python-gtksourceview2 + python-httplib2 + python-louie + python-mako + python-markupsafe + python-mechanize + python-nevow + python-notify + python-opengl + python-openssl + python-pam + python-pkg-resources + python-pyasn1 + python-pysqlite2 + python-rdflib + python-serial + python-tagpy + python-twisted-bin + python-twisted-conch + python-twisted-core + python-twisted-web + python-utidylib + python-webkit + python-xdg + python-zope.interface + remmina + remmina-plugin-data + remmina-plugin-rdp + remmina-plugin-vnc + rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder + rhythmbox-plugins + rpm-common + rpm2cpio + seahorse-plugins + shotwell + software-center + system-config-printer-udev + telepathy-gabble + telepathy-mission-control-5 + telepathy-salut + tomboy + totem + totem-coherence + totem-mozilla + totem-plugins + transmission-common + xdg-user-dirs + xdg-user-dirs-gtk + xserver-xephyr +

+ +

Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude

+ +

+ cheese + ekiga + eog + epiphany-extensions + evolution-exchange + fast-user-switch-applet + file-roller + gcalctool + gconf-editor + gdm + gedit + gedit-common + gnome-games + gnome-games-data + gnome-nettool + gnome-system-tools + gnome-themes + gnuchess + gucharmap + guile-1.8-libs + libavahi-ui0 + libdmx1 + libgalago3 + libgtk-vnc-1.0-0 + libgtksourceview2.0-0 + liblircclient0 + libsdl1.2debian-alsa + libspeexdsp1 + libsvga1 + rhythmbox + seahorse + sound-juicer + system-config-printer + totem-common + transmission-gtk + vinagre + vino +

+ +

Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get

+ +

+ gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs +

+ +

Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get

+ +

+[nothing] +

+ +

This is for KDE:

+ +

Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude

+ +

+ ksmserver +

+ +

Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude

+ +

+ kwin + network-manager-kde +

+ +

Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get

+ +

+ arts + dolphin + freespacenotifier + google-gadgets-gst + google-gadgets-xul + kappfinder + kcalc + kcharselect + kde-core + kde-plasma-desktop + kde-standard + kde-window-manager + kdeartwork + kdeartwork-emoticons + kdeartwork-style + kdeartwork-theme-icon + kdebase + kdebase-apps + kdebase-workspace + kdebase-workspace-bin + kdebase-workspace-data + kdeeject + kdelibs + kdeplasma-addons + kdeutils + kdewallpapers + kdf + kfloppy + kgpg + khelpcenter4 + kinfocenter + konq-plugins-l10n + konqueror-nsplugins + kscreensaver + kscreensaver-xsavers + ktimer + kwrite + libgle3 + libkde4-ruby1.8 + libkonq5 + libkonq5-templates + libnetpbm10 + libplasma-ruby + libplasma-ruby1.8 + libqt4-ruby1.8 + marble-data + marble-plugins + netpbm + nuvola-icon-theme + plasma-dataengines-workspace + plasma-desktop + plasma-desktopthemes-artwork + plasma-runners-addons + plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets + plasma-scriptengine-python + plasma-scriptengine-qedje + plasma-scriptengine-ruby + plasma-scriptengine-webkit + plasma-scriptengines + plasma-wallpapers-addons + plasma-widget-folderview + plasma-widget-networkmanagement + ruby + sweeper + update-notifier-kde + xscreensaver-data-extra + xscreensaver-gl + xscreensaver-gl-extra + xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod +

+ +

Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get

+ +

+ ark + google-gadgets-common + google-gadgets-qt + htdig + kate + kdebase-bin + kdebase-data + kdepasswd + kfind + klipper + konq-plugins + konqueror + ksysguard + ksysguardd + libarchive1 + libcln6 + libeet1 + libeina-svn-06 + libggadget-1.0-0b + libggadget-qt-1.0-0b + libgps19 + libkdecorations4 + libkephal4 + libkonq4 + libkonqsidebarplugin4a + libkscreensaver5 + libksgrd4 + libksignalplotter4 + libkunitconversion4 + libkwineffects1a + libmarblewidget4 + libntrack-qt4-1 + libntrack0 + libplasma-geolocation-interface4 + libplasmaclock4a + libplasmagenericshell4 + libprocesscore4a + libprocessui4a + libqalculate5 + libqedje0a + libqtruby4shared2 + libqzion0a + libruby1.8 + libscim8c2a + libsmokekdecore4-3 + libsmokekdeui4-3 + libsmokekfile3 + libsmokekhtml3 + libsmokekio3 + libsmokeknewstuff2-3 + libsmokeknewstuff3-3 + libsmokekparts3 + libsmokektexteditor3 + libsmokekutils3 + libsmokenepomuk3 + libsmokephonon3 + libsmokeplasma3 + libsmokeqtcore4-3 + libsmokeqtdbus4-3 + libsmokeqtgui4-3 + libsmokeqtnetwork4-3 + libsmokeqtopengl4-3 + libsmokeqtscript4-3 + libsmokeqtsql4-3 + libsmokeqtsvg4-3 + libsmokeqttest4-3 + libsmokeqtuitools4-3 + libsmokeqtwebkit4-3 + libsmokeqtxml4-3 + libsmokesolid3 + libsmokesoprano3 + libtaskmanager4a + libtidy-0.99-0 + libweather-ion4a + libxklavier16 + libxxf86misc1 + okteta + oxygencursors + plasma-dataengines-addons + plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba + plasma-widget-lancelot + plasma-widgets-addons + plasma-widgets-workspace + polkit-kde-1 + ruby1.8 + systemsettings + update-notifier-common +

+ +

Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and +aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of +differences. I have no idea what packages should be installed after +the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.

- Tags: bootsystem, debian, english. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
-
A manual for standards wars...
-
2010-06-06 14:15
+
Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images
+
2010-11-22 11:20
-

Via the -blog -of Rob Weir I came across the very interesting essay named -The Art of -Standards Wars (PDF 25 pages). I recommend it for everyone -following the standards wars of today.

+

Most of the computers in use by the +Debian Edu/Skolelinux project +are virtual machines. And they have been Xen machines running on a +fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate +them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine. This was a +bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual +machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I +know is not supported by KVM. So to migrate, we had to convert +several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.

+ +

I found +a +nice recipe to do this, and wrote the following script to do the +migration. It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk +image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk +image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data. I NFS mounted the +new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.

+ +
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Based on
+# http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
+
+set -e
+set -x
+
+if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
+    echo "Usage: $0 <hostname>"
+    exit 1
+else
+    host="$1"
+fi
+
+if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
+    echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
+disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
+swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
+totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
+
+img=$host.img
+#dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
+qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
+
+parted $img mklabel msdos
+parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
+parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
+parted $img set 1 boot on
+
+modprobe dm-mod
+losetup /dev/loop0 $img
+kpartx -a /dev/loop0
+
+dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
+fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
+mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
+
+kpartx -d /dev/loop0
+losetup -d /dev/loop0
+
+ +

The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but +if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.

+ +

After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with +the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and +set up grub to boot from the disk image. After this, the KVM machines +seem to work just fine.

- Tags: debian, debian edu, english, standard. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
@@ -763,7 +1039,19 @@ following the standards wars of today.

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  • @@ -812,66 +1100,70 @@ following the standards wars of today.

    Tags

    -Created by Chronicle v3.7 +Created by Chronicle v3.2