X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/dbc987b1bee09e985a300d54ad413e74b8b57540..b930b26ee67546bfbe60cde22ac5051e9e51e9ea:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index e26281edbd..fe3f46cc65 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,506 +20,996 @@
-
Anonym ferdsel er en menneskerett
-
2010-09-15 12:15
+
How to test if a laptop is working with Linux
+
2010-12-22 14:55
-

Debatten rundt sporveiselskapet i Oslos (Ruter AS) ønske om -å -radiomerke med RFID alle sine kunder og -registerere -hvor hver og en av oss beveger oss pågår, og en ting som har -kommet lite frem i debatten er at det faktisk er en menneskerett å -kunne ferdes anonymt internt i ens eget land.

- -

Fant en grei kilde for dette i et -skriv -fra Datatilsynet til Samferdselsdepartementet om tema:

- -

Retten til å ferdes anonymt kan utledes av -menneskerettskonvensjonen artikkel 8 og av EUs personverndirektiv. -Her heter det at enkeltpersoners grunnleggende rettigheter og frihet -må respekteres, særlig retten til privatlivets fred. I både -personverndirektivet og i den norske personopplysningsloven er -selvråderetten til hver enkelt et av grunnprinsippene, hovedsaklig -uttrykt ved at en må gi et frivillig, informert og uttrykkelig -samtykke til behandling av personopplysninger.

- -

For meg er det viktig at jeg kan ferdes anonymt, og det er litt av -bakgrunnen til at jeg handler med kontanter, ikke har mobiltelefon og -forventer å kunne reise med bil og kollektivtrafikk uten at det blir -registrert hvor jeg har vært. Ruter angriper min rett til å ferdes -uten radiopeiler med sin innføring av RFID-kort, og dokumenterer sitt -ønske om å registrere hvor kundene befant seg ved å ønske å gebyrlegge -oss som ikke registrerer oss hver gang vi beveger oss med -kollektivtrafikken i Oslo. Jeg synes det er hårreisende.

+

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.

+ + + +

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: norsk, nuug, personvern, sikkerhet. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
-
Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera
-
2010-09-09 23:55
+
Some thoughts on BitCoins
+
2010-12-11 15:10
-

A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital -camera, a Canon IXUS 130. It was instructive and very disturbing to -be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to -specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera. -Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras -are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway. What is the -problem, you might ask? It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the -MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences -without asking for permissions that is at risk. - -

On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is -written:

- -
-

This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard -and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding -MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and -non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the -AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.

- -

No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4 -standard.

-
- -

In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology -(MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and -non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations -holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.

- -

This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to -read -"Why -Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the -MPEG-LA" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and -"H.264 Is Not -The Sort Of Free That Matters" by Simon Phipps to learn more about -the issue. The solution is to support the -free and -open standards for video, like Ogg -Theora, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.

+

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: english, fildeling, multimedia, nuug, opphavsrett, personvern, standard, video, web. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Navteq bruker 3-12 måneder, OpenStreetmap.org trenger noen dager
-
2010-09-07 21:40
+
Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten
+
2010-12-11 10:45
-

Jeg ble riktig fascinert av -en -artikkel i Aftenposten om hvor hardt Navteq jobber for å oppdatere -kartene som brukes i navigasjons-GPSer, der det blant annet heter at -"på grunn av teknikken tar det alt fra tre til tolv måneder før -kartene er oppdatert". Når en kjenner hva slags oppdateringshastighet -som er tilgjengelig på -OpenStreetmap som -oppdateres på dugnad, blir det litt trist å se hva noe av det beste en -kan kjøpe for penger får til.

- -

Fra en endrer kartdataene i databasen til OpenStreetmap tar det -ca. 15 minutter før endringen er synlig på kartet som alle kan se på -web. Dernest overføres det daglig til en kartdump som lastes ned av -personen som lager Garmin-kart for Norge ca. en gang i uken. Med -OpenStreetmap.org og Frikart.no -kan en altså ha korreksjonene på plass i sin Garmin-GPS i løpet av en -uke. Det er også av tekniske årsaker at det tar så langt tid. -Jobbene som tegner kartene, henter ut kartdumpene og konverterer til -Garmin-format tar minutter og timer å gjennomføre, slik at de ikke -gjøres kontinuerlig men kun regelmessing.

+

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: kart, norsk, nuug. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu
-
2010-09-04 10:10
+
Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet
+
2010-12-09 21:25
-

In the Debian -popularity-contest numbers, the adobe-flashplugin package the -second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth -most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that -working flash is important for Debian users. Around 10 percent of the -users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package -installed.

- -

In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008 -(«Skolelinux -i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og -stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs»), one of the most important problems -schools experienced with Debian -Edu/Skolelinux was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational -web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in -the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a -good reason to stay with Windows.

- -

I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was -said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand -everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a -comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and -non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common -understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for -example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because -it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux -distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web -pages they want to visit.

- -

This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian -and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the -distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google -Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance -to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as -the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in -unstable. The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7. -The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the -release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree -with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus -accept the new package into Squeeze.

+

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: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video, web. + Tags: norsk, personvern.
-
My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot
-
2010-09-01 21:00
+
Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer
+
2010-12-09 19:30
-

This evening I made my first Perl GUI application. The last few -days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently -aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought -that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least. -It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to -allow me to drive the robot around. I picked PerlQt as I have had -positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes -browsing the web for examples. Using Qt Designer seemed like a short -cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and -compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from -libqt-perl. Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and -drive around.

- -

The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for -controlling the robot. Here is an small example on how to use it:

- -

-use Spykee;
-Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
-my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
-my $spykee = Spykee->new();
-$spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
-$spykee->left();
-sleep 2;
-$spykee->right();
-sleep 2;
-$spykee->forward();
-sleep 2;
-$spykee->back();
-sleep 2;
-$spykee->stop();
-

- -

Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could -peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to -implement the protocol used by the robot. I've implemented several of -the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera -support to make it possible to control the robot from remote. First I -want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring -the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot -without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux, -so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing -going. :).

- -

Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out -where to make it available first. I will add a link to -the NUUG wiki for -those that want to check back later to find it.

+

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: english, nuug, robot. + Tags: 3d-printer, english, reprap.
-
Forslag i stortinget om å stoppe elektronisk stemmegiving i Norge
-
2010-08-31 21:00
+
Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK
+
2010-11-29 18:40
-

Ble tipset i dag om at et forslag om å stoppe forsøkene med -elektronisk stemmegiving utenfor valglokaler er -til -behandling i Stortinget. -Forslaget -er fremmet av Erna Solberg, Michael Tetzschner og Trond Helleland.

- -

Håper det får flertall.

+

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: norsk, nuug, sikkerhet. + Tags: debian edu, english, nuug.
-
Broken hard link handling with sshfs
-
2010-08-30 19:30
+
Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?
+
2010-11-27 11:30
-

Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my -previous -post about sshfs. He reported another problem with sshfs. It -fail to handle hard links properly. A simple way to spot this is to -look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree. These should have -a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1. I just tested to see -what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:

- -
-% ln foo bar
-ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
-%
-
- -

I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file -system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to -avoid surprised unix programs. Not as useful as working file locking -and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful -nevertheless. :)

- -

The latest version of the file system test code is available via -git from -http://github.com/gebi/fs-test

+

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: debian edu, english, nuug. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video, web.
-
Sikkerhetsteateret på flyplassene fortsetter
-
2010-08-28 10:40
+
DND hedrer overvåkning av barn med Rosingsprisen
+
2010-11-23 14:15
-

Jeg skrev for et halvt år siden hvordan -samfunnet -kaster bort ressurser på sikkerhetstiltak som ikke fungerer. Kom -nettopp over en -historie -fra en pilot fra USA som kommenterer det samme. Jeg mistenker det -kun er uvitenhet og autoritetstro som gjør at så få protesterer. Har -veldig sans for piloten omtalt i Aftenposten 2007-10-23, -og skulle ønske flere rettet oppmerksomhet mot problemet. Det gir -ikke meg trygghetsfølelse på flyplassene når jeg ser at -flyplassadministrasjonen kaster bort folk, penger og tid på tull i -stedet for ting som bidrar til reell økning av sikkerheten. Det -forteller meg jo at vurderingsevnen til de som burde bidra til økt -sikkerhet er svært sviktende, noe som ikke taler godt for de andre -tiltakene.

- -

Mon tro hva som skjer hvis det fantes en enkel brosjyre å skrive ut -fra Internet som forklarte hva som er galt med sikkerhetsopplegget på -flyplassene, og folk skrev ut og la en bunke på flyplassene når de -passerte. Kanskje det ville fått flere til å få øynene opp for -problemet.

- -

Personlig synes jeg flyopplevelsen er blitt så avskyelig at jeg -forsøker å klare meg med tog, bil og båt for å slippe ubehaget. Det -er dog noe vanskelig i det langstrakte Norge og for å kunne besøke de -delene av verden jeg ønsker å nå. Mistenker at flere har det slik, og -at dette går ut over inntjeningen til flyselskapene. Det er antagelig -en god ting sett fra et miljøperspektiv, men det er en annen sak.

+

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: norsk, nuug, personvern, sikkerhet. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.
-
Skolelinux i Osloskolen
-
2010-08-26 22:25
+
Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove
+
2010-11-22 14:15
-

Denne høsten skal endelig alle Osloskolene få mulighet til å bruke -Skolelinux. Ny IT-løsning -har vært rullet ut i noen måneder nå, og så vidt jeg fikk vite før -sommeren skulle alle skoler ha nytt opplegg på plass før oppstart nå i -høst. På alle skolene skal en kunne velge ved installasjon om en skal -ha Windows eller Skolelinux på maskinene, og en kan i tillegg -PXE-boote maskinene over nett som tynne klienter eller diskløse -arbeidsstasjoner. Jeg er spent på hvor mange skoler som velger å ta i -bruk Skolelinux, og gleder meg til å se hvordan dette utvikler seg. -Løsningen leveres av -Logica med -Skolelinux Drift AS som -underleverandør, og jeg har vært involvert i utviklingen av løsningen -via Skolelinux Drift AS siden prosjektet starter. Jeg synes det er -fantastisk at Skolelinux er kommet så langt siden vi startet i 2001 at -alle elevene i Osloskolene nå skal få mulighet til å bruke -løsningen. Jeg håper de vil sette pris på alle de -fantastiske -brukerprogrammene som er tilgjengelig i Skolelinux.

+

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: debian edu, norsk. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
-
Broken umask handling with sshfs
-
2010-08-26 13:30
+
Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images
+
2010-11-22 11:20
-

My file system sematics program -presented -a few days ago is very useful to verify that a file system can -work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit. I'm -looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the -University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs. My friend -Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian -Edu, but stopped because of problems. I asked today what the problems -where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly. -Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing -script:

- -
-mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
-  mode_t retval = 0;
-  int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
-  if (-1 != fd) {
-    unlink(name);
-    struct stat statbuf;
-    if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
-      retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
-    }
-    close(fd);
-  }
-  return retval;
-}
-
-/* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
-int test_umask(void) {
-  printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
-
-  mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
-  mode_t newmode;
-  if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
-    printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
-           newmode);
-  }
-  umask(007);
-  if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
-    printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
-           newmode);
-  }
-
-  umask (orig_umask);
-  return 0;
-}
-
-int main(int argc, char **argv) {
-  [...]
-  test_umask();
-  return 0;
-}
-
- -

Sure enough. On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:

- -
-Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
-info: testing symlink creation
-info: testing subdirectory creation
-info: testing fcntl locking
-  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
-  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
-  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
-info: testing umask effect on file creation
-
- -

When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this -result:

+

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.

-Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
-info: testing symlink creation
-info: testing subdirectory creation
-info: testing fcntl locking
-  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
-  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
-  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
-  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
-info: testing umask effect on file creation
-  error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
-  error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
+#!/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
-

So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a -Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home -directory.

- -

Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in -BTS report #594498

+

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.

-

Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the -script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in -http://github.com/gebi/fs-test.

+

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 edu, english, nuug. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english.
@@ -555,7 +1045,13 @@ script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
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    • @@ -604,61 +1100,63 @@ script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in

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