X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e0061d3bb39020fb94a81bdf084b6629b596b90c..4f8c571488fd1bda9fe63931bc0c5ca0fc06b07f:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index efbfea3775..7305a7f25d 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,15 +20,25 @@
-
First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
-
19th February 2012
-

One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to -wrap up and publish the first release candidate for -Debian Edu / Skolelinux based -on Squeeze. The full announcement is -available -on the project announcement list. Check it out if you need a software -solution for your school.

+ +
25th March 2012
+
+ +

The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I +published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how +to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos, +allowing users to check their local email account without providing +any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size, +and also available from vimeo +and download as a +Ogg +Theora file. Check it out below.

+ +

Download video as + Ogg.

+

@@ -41,73 +51,56 @@ solution for your school.

- -
18th February 2012
-

I serien med intervjuer av folk i -Skolelinux-miljøet, får vi nå -høre fra et nyvalgt medlem i foreningen -Fri programvare i -Skolen.

- -

Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?

- -

Jeg heter Olav Dahlum, og er frilans oversetter, tester, -prosjektleder og bruker av fri og åpen programvare som -LibreOffice. Jeg er også et av styremedlemmene i FRISK.

- -

Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?

- -

Jeg kom i kontakt med prosjektet i 2009, da jeg ble ansatt i -stiftelsen Åpne kontorprogram på norsk for å oversette og teste den -norske utgaven av OpenOffice.org. Arbeidet har hele tiden vært -koordinert sammen med Skolelinux, og mange av de samme menneskene er -involvert, så på den måten ble jeg en del av den utvidede -familien.

- -

Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

- -

Skolelinux handler i likhet med utdanningssektoren om å dele -kunnskap med andre, og det er dette som er hovedstyrken til -prosjektet. Selv om Skolelinux hovedsaklig er involvert i utvikling -av programvare, er det også et sted der man kan utfolde seg uavhengig -av bakgrunn og ferdigheter.

- -

Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

- -

Liten utbredelse og manglende støtte fra leverandører som leverer -pedagogisk programvare til skolebruk. Kunne kanskje hatt flere -verktøy som letter administrasjonen ytterligere, slik at også mindre -erfarne databrukere kan utføre lett vedlikehold og rutinejobber.

- -

Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?

- -

Jeg er nesten forpliktet til å si at jeg bruker LibreOffice... Jeg -bruker forøvrig frie og åpne operativsystemer basert på -operativsystemkjernen Linux, for tiden openSUSE 12,1 med KDE4. Men -hvis jeg skal dra fram noen flere eksempler så er nok Mozilla Firefox -og Thunderbird to av de jeg bruker mest. I tillegg er jeg en flittig -bruker av OpenSSH, Irssi, Midnight Commander, Git, Subversion, -Translation Toolkit og Super Maryo Chronicles (litt gøy skal man ha, -og med to håndkontroller liggende er det ikke til å unngå).

- -

Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få -skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?

- -

Vi må få leverandører av pedagogisk programvare med på laget, men -også utvikle vår egen tilpasset det norske markedet. Det er også -mulig å involvere utdanningssektoren direkte i arbeidet, for eksempel -gjennom studentprosjekter der elevene selv er med å utforme -programvare direkte eller indirekte gjennom aktive bidrag. Dette gjør -ikke bare samarbeidet tettere, men fokuset på standarder og friheten -til å velge sin egen løsning vil kanskje stimulere interessen for -framtidig deltakelse i bransjen. Vi som driver med fri og åpen -programvare ønsker oss ikke rene konsumenter, men tenkende og -selvstendige individer som kan være med å skape sin egen fremtid.

+ +
19th March 2012
+

Den siste uka har det vært en del skriverier om hvor store +forskjeller det er mellom skolene når det gjelder digital kompetanse. +Et eksempel er +oppslaget +i Digi. Diskusjonen fikk meg til å bli litt nysgjerrig på om +Linux-skoler har større PC-tettet enn snittet i landet. Grunnlaget +for diskusjonen har vært undersøkelsen +Monitor +2011, som bruker informasjon fra +Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem +(GSI). GSI-data kan lastes ned fra web og jeg lastet ned en Excel-fil +(intet åpen standard-valg tilgjengelig) med navn på alle skoler, +hvilke kommune de befinner seg i og hvor mange elever pr. elev-PC de +har rapportert inn. For å få en ide om svaret trenger jeg deretter å +vite hvilke skoler i landet som bruker Linux, slik at jeg kan slå dem +opp i GSI og finne ut hvor stor PC-tetthet de har.

+ +

Jeg vet om skoler i Balsfjord, Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik, +Nittedal, Nord-Odal, Randaberg og Sunndal som bruker Skolelinux eller +andre Linux-varianter. Jeg tror det er flere enn de 56 skolene jeg +har klart å identifisere de siste dagene, men har ikke klart å få det +bekreftet med offentlige kilder.

+ +

Monitor 2011-rapporteres side 95 forteller at det "ifølge GSI +(20120-2011) er det 3,11 elever per datamaskin når vi tar med alle +grunnskoler (1.-10.trinn)". For de 56 Linux-skolene jeg har klart å +koble mot informasjon i GSI er det 2,28 elever per elevdatamaskin, +hvilket betyr at det er 36% høyere PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler enn +landsgjennomsnittet. Linux-skolen med høyest tettet blant de jeg har +notert -skole er Flora ungdomsskule i Flora kommune med 0.82 elev +pr. PC (482 elever, 588 elevdatamaskiner).

+ +

Skolelinux gir datamaskiner lengre levetid, og en kan dermed få +flere operative datamaskiner for samme budsjett, i tillegg til en +rekke andre fordeler. Kan det være forklaringen på forskjellen?

+ +

Tallene må tas med en liten klype, da GSI ser ut til å ha endel +feilføringer. Jeg synes i hvert fall en skole med 423 elever og 9 +elevmaskiner ser mistenkelig ut. Eller en skole med 346 elever, 0 +elevmaskiner, som er et annet ekstremt eksempel jeg fant.

+ +

Takk til Sturle Sunde, Klaus Ade Johnstad, Ole-Anders Andreassen og +Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.

- Tags: debian edu, intervju, norsk. + Tags: debian edu, norsk.
@@ -115,63 +108,90 @@ selvstendige individer som kan være med å skape sin egen fremtid.

- -
14th February 2012
-

Once in a while my home server have disk problems. Thanks to Linux -Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but -I was -close this summer :). But once a disk is starting to behave -funny, a practical problem present itself. How to get from the Linux -device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify -the disk when the computer is turned off? In my case I have SATA -disks with a unique ID printed on the label. All I need is a way to -figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.

- -

After fumbling a bit, I -found -that hdparm -I will report the disk serial number, which is -printed on the disk label. The following (almost) one-liner can be -used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:

- -
-for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
-do
-    printf "Failed disk $d: "
-    hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
-done
-
- -

Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the -next time, and in case other find it useful.

- -

At the moment I have two failing disk. :(

- -
-Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
-Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
-Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
-
- -

The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on -labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able -to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to -remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label. The vendor -label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are -mounted inside my box.

- -

I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux -Software RAID in the -nagios-plugins-standard -debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would -make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail. At the moment -it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really -should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which -disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.

+ +
19th March 2012
+

Debian Edu / Skolelinux +users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after +the +Squeeze release was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and +long time Linux user in United Kingdom.

+ +

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

+ +

I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings +Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical +author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also +contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of +encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six +years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we +weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable +installations.

+ +

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

+ +

Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in +London which I attended. However at that time our school network had +just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came +along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a +mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as +well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems +have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the +LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all +these things we decided to try it.

+ +

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

+ +

By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart +from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing" +goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which +would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and +low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know +that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25 +Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had +proprietary software everywhere.

+ +

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

+ +

As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and +how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with +various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only +English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as +users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba, +OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the +desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I +use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if +that counts...)

+ +

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?

+ +

That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed +and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels +the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office +applications". However, schools today are experiencing budget +constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows +XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use +iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no +longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last +realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're +putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the +first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.

+ +

I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use +free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu users in this country has to be part of it.

- Tags: english, raid. + Tags: debian edu, english, intervju.
@@ -179,78 +199,48 @@ disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.

- -
13th February 2012
-

New in the Squeeze version of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux is the -ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings -based on their environment. We want all systems on the client to use -the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from http://wpad/wpad.dat, to -allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make -sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings. The schools can -change the global proxy setting by editing -tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat and the change propagate -to all Debian Edu clients in the network.

- -

The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system. -In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a -simple one, they can run arbitrary code):

- -
-function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
-{
-   if (!isResolvable(host) ||
-       isPlainHostName(host) ||
-       dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
-      return "DIRECT";
-   else
-      return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
-}
-
- -

to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:

- -
-http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
-ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
-
- -

To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute -the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that -would be used for -http://www.debian.org/, -and insert this extracted proxy URL in /etc/environment and -/etc/apt/apt.conf. The perl script wpad-extract work just -fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the -javascript code is no longer -able to build because the C library it depended on is now a C++ -library. I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy -is frozen. An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to -use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no -known alternative is known at the moment.

- -

This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka -laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop -is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to -automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD -feature when it is connected to other networks. And if no proxy is -announced, direct connections will be used instead.

- -

Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy -or security problem. But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network -could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP -and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that -distinction to be academic. If you are afraid of using the wrong -proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the -first place. In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and -ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time -the network setup changes.

- -

The WPAD system is documented in a -IETF -draft and a -Wikipedia -page for those that want to learn more.

+ +
16th March 2012
+

Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and +it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the +translated versions in sync. To do this we have come up with what we +believe is a very efficient work flow.

+ +
    + +
  1. The documentation is written in a +moinmoin wiki (see for example +the +Squeeze release manual) with support for exporting the content as +docbook XML.
  2. + +
  3. This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style +.pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files +with the translated text.
  4. + +
  5. The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell +which part of the original wiki document is new or changed. They can +use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write +the translation. There is even a system in place to handle translated +images.
  6. + +
  7. The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook +XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.
  8. + +
  9. The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and +create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.
  10. + +
+ +

This setup work very well, but have a few issues. The biggest +issue is that the docbook support +we use in moinmoin is not actively maintained. The docbook +support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to +make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.

+ +

If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the +debian-edu-doc +package.

@@ -263,81 +253,115 @@ page for those that want to learn more.

- -
7th February 2012
-

I serien med intervjuer av folk i -Skolelinux-miljøet har jeg -fått en av oversetterne som har vært med siden starten i tale.

+ +
13th March 2012
+

I dag presenterte jeg ny versjon av Skolelinux for NUUGs medlemmer. +Lysark +er tilgjengelige allerede og +video-opptak +kommer så snart videogruppa til NUUG får publisert den. Jeg kom på +endel punkter om nye ting i Squeeze-utgaven under veis som jeg burde +hatt med, og har sikkert skrevet noe tull på lysarkene som jeg ennå +ikke har oppdaget. Denne presentasjonen ble smurt ihop på veldig kort +tid, og jeg rakk ikke finpusse den. Håper den kan være lærerik +likevel.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, norsk, nuug. + + +
+
+
+ +
+ +
12th March 2012
+

Første ut i serien med intervjuer av folk i +Skolelinux-miljøet etter at +ny +versjon av Skolelinux ble lansert i helga, er nylig valgte +styremedlem i foreningen +Fri programvare i +Skolen (FRiSK) som organiserer +Skolelinux-utviklingen og daglig leder i +Skolelinux Drift AS, selskapet +prosjektet opprettet som et tilbud til skoler som ønsket en +kommersiell samarbeidsparter. Det bør nevnes at jeg er styremedlem i +Skolelinux Drift AS og styreleder i selskapets hovedeier stiftelsen +SLX Debian Labs +som beskytter verdiene til Skolelinux-prosjektet, og kjenner Kåre den +veien.

Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?

-

Jeg heter Axel Bojer og er datalærer, tysklærer, oversetter med -mere.

+

Jeg har siden januar 2010 vært daglig leder i Skolelinux Drift AS, +som leverer support, installasjon, tilpasning, drift, og opplæring på +Debian Edu / Skolelinux. Fra 2012 er jeg valgt inn som styremedlem i +FRiSK. Min forrige jobb var som KAM i Redpill Linpro (som er en av +eierne i Skolelinux Drift). Før det var jeg daglig leder i et eget 7 +manns konsulent selskap som også startet med fri programvare mot +slutten.

Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?

-

Tror jeg så en annonsering på nettet i slutten av 2001 og ville -være med som oversetter. Jeg kom med på en utviklersamling og -prosjektet var da helt i starten. Det var spennende å være med mens -prosjektet vokste til og utviklet seg.

- -

Jeg har «alltid» vært språkinteressert og hadde nettopp startet med -Linux og tror jeg tenkte det passet å bidra. Var også glad for å få -en Debian-distribusjon, og ville gjerne bruke den selv. Til å begynne -med brukte jeg først Mandrake og så Debian. Og siden jeg oppdaget at -det ikke var noen mulighet for å bruke den som enkeltstående i lang -tid, så gikk jeg etterhvert over til Kubuntu

+

Jeg hørte om det først når jeg jobbet i Redpill Linpro. Men jeg +har også en datter som går på en friskole, som også bruker Skolelinux. +Som kjent har ikke friskoler de samme økonomiske rammebetingelsene som +offentlige skoler, så for dem var det det absolutt beste alternativet. +De anser også Skolelinux som et stabilt system, som bare går og går (i +motsetning til det lille Windows-baserte nettverket de har på +admin-siden).

Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

-

Løsningen er forholdsvis lett å sette opp, gratis, fri programvare -og gjør det mulig å gjenbruke eldre maskiner. Det fine med Debian er -at det er stabilt og har en veldig stor mengde programmer. Jeg liker -også apt. :-) Jeg liker også friheten ved Linux og muligheten til å -delta og forme sin egen datahverdag.

+

Sentralisert drift av tynne og diskløse arbeidsstasjoner. Således +lydløse og raskere arbeidsstasjoner som er bedre i klasserommet. +Lengre levetid på PC'er. Store besparelser på maskinvare og drift. Og +så klart fjerning av alle lisenskostnader. Personlig synes jeg også at +mange av programmene er bedre enn alternativene. Men dette er ofte en +smakssak og avhengig om man må ha det man er vant til fra før.

Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

-

Skolelinux er for lite kjent og for sent ute med å gi ut nye -versjoner.

- -

Da jeg selv i hovedsak bruker Kubuntu, så kan jeg egentlig ikke -svare så detaljert rundt ulempene med Skolelinux. Hovedårsaken til at -jeg bruker Kubuntu er nok at da vi begynte med det mener jeg det ikke -var noen annen løsning. «Vandrende arbeidsstasjon» mener jeg ikke -fantes da. Dessuten ville jeg ha siste versjon, da den KDE-versjonen -som var i Skolelinux den gangen var en god del enklere (tror det var -KDE 2) var dårligere i mine øyne enn versjon 3.

+

For lite kjentskap til løsningen. Noen ganger for dårlig +kompatibilitet med arbeidsstasjoners/bærbare maskiner sine +nettverksdrivere eller skjermkort. Men dette løser vi i skolene ved +standardisering. Ellers er det få, om nesten ingen, av de kjente +maskinvare / infrastruktur leverandørene til fylkes- / kommuner som +tilbyr denne plattformen. Skal dette endre seg så må kommunene selv +sette slike krav til leverandørene.

Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?

-

Jeg bruker blant annet Kubuntu, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, -Kate, Comix og Konsole. Og -en hel haug andre ved behov :-)

- -

Har oversatt Comix selv, men det er jo ikke skjedd noe med Comix -siden 2009, så den er det nok bare jeg som har. Om andre vil ha den -gir jeg den gjerne videre. Ser at noen har startet på -MComix siden jeg så på så -på dette sist, så nå er jeg igang med å teste og oversette den -også.

+

Har brukt OpenOffice.org siden starten (2001 ?), Kun Linux på +desktop siden 2005. Bruker i dag Kubuntu, Libreoffice og ymse annet +programvare til ulik kontorbruk som er lett å installere / teste via +alle programarkivene som finnes.

Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?

-

Det viktigste er å forankre beslutningen i kollegiet og med de som -er ansvarlige for å vedlikeholde og bruke datamaskinene. Flest mulig -bør være med på å holde det (sosialt) vedlike, kjenne og støtte -prinsippene. Som enkeltmannsprosjekt blir det lett veldig sårbart, -særlig når (Skole)linux ennå i stor grad er en motkultur og ikke noe -en stor nok andel av beslutningstakere, brukere osv kjenner til og -bruker.

- -

Jeg tror det viktigste er å fortsette å holde fri programvare godt, -oppdatert, minimere antall feil, ha en god kontakt med brukerne og -attraktivt og spennende programmer. Beholde alt som er bra og ha det -tilgjengelig samtidig som man tilbyr det nyeste og rareste for de som -vil ha det.

+

Fortsette å presentere flere av de gode eksemplene hvor Debian Edu +/ Skolelinux brukes i kommuner og enkeltskoler. Vi må få bedre frem +at det er mulig tilknytte både Windows og Mac klienter på denne +plattformen (selv om det vil øke driftskostnadene). Dette gjøres +mange steder. Spesielt er det mange lærere som ønsker å bruke +Windows/Mac-bærbare, gjerne som sin private PC også. Det er også mulig +for kommunen å integrere med Active Directory i stedet for OpenLDAP +som kommer med ut av boksen (selv om også dette øker kostnadene). +Dette vil muligens bidra til å fjerne noe motstand hos noen +potensielle brukere / driftpersonell for å ta i bruk noe +nytt. Fremveksten av mobile brukere og nettbrett går i vår favør. +Brukerne blir kjent og vant til flere nye operativsystemer / +brukergrensesnitt. Så utviklerfellesskapet bør jobbe videre med å +integrere flere nye klienttyper, som ultra lav-kostklienter og +nettbrett (blant annet fri programvare-alternativet +Spark med +Mer OS og +KDE Active Plasma).

@@ -350,40 +374,19 @@ vil ha det.

- -
5th February 2012
-

Since the Lenny version of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux, a -feature to save power have been included. It is as simple as it is -practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again -in the morning. This is done using the -shutdown-at-night Debian package.

- -

To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to -the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts. For Debian Edu, this is done in -LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check -every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and -shut it down if it is. If the hardware in question is supported by -the -nvram-wakeup -package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +- -10 minutes. If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to -try to turn on the client. The wake-on-lan option is only documented -and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.

- -

It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can -blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like -the common setup for a classroom. The nvram-wakeup method only work -for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock. I've seen old -machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were -starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot. If you have one of -those, you have to turn on the computer manually.

- -

The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can -also be used outside the Debian Edu environment. For those without a -central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file -/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night to enable it. -Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?

+ +
11th March 2012
+

This weekend we finally published the first stable release of +Skolelinux / Debian Edu based +on Debian/Squeeze. The full announcement is +available +from the project announcement list. Now is a good time to test if it +you have not done so already.

+ +

I plan to present the new version at +a NUUG +meeting on tuesday. I look forward to seeing you there if you are +in Oslo, Norway.

@@ -396,58 +399,118 @@ Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?

- -
4th February 2012
-

I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and -publish the third beta version of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux based -on Squeeze. If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with -out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and -installing new machines, check it out. If you need a software -solution for your school, check it out too. The full announcement is -available -on the project announcement list.

- -

I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since -beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):

- -
    - -
  • It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from - 10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after - the installation.
  • - -
  • Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main - Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.
  • - -
  • The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all - disabled queues are restarted every hour. This should cut down on - the amount of manual administration needed for printers.
  • - -
  • The set of initial users have been changed. Now a personal user - for the local system administrator is created during installation - instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users, - and this user is granted administrative privileges using group - membership. This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep - up to date on the system.
  • - -
- -

The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my -private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home. I will use it look -for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the -final Squeeze release is published.

- -

Next weekend the project organise a -developer -gathering in Oslo. We will continue the work on the Squeeze -version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version. Perhaps I -will see you there?

+ +
9th March 2012
+

Inspired by the +interview series conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian +interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux +community. This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a +more international audience.

+ +

While Debian Edu and +Skolelinux originated in France and Norway, and have most users in +Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away +from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator +and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to +work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions, +and am happy to share the response with you. :) + + +

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

+ +

My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko, +and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT +Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a +teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics, +Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but +I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches +primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person, +so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster, +also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python +to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really +appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.

+ +

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

+ +

In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a +server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central +samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered +Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I +did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server" +and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading +there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my +problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my +previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used +Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I +downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the +Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and +my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.

+ +

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

+ +

For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the +workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured +ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is +designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who +doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian +school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with +Japan.

+ +

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

+ +

The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who +have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who +make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people +who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be +important to the school. School administrators or directors, for +instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly +default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some +kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and +Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A +second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to +customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required +multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It +took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups. +I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will +help.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for +studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux +(customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop +still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my +house, that's very useful for the family photos and music. At school +the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still +have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every +day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are +installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also +have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution +and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.

+ +

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?

+ +

Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry, +and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the +popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have +to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about +file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago. The Edu aspect is +also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the +Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is +budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not +compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That +is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People +are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser +doesn't play flash, for example.

@@ -455,57 +518,23 @@ will see you there?

- -
27th January 2012
-

With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs. -This is the sad fact of todays computers. In the next version of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux based -on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make -firmware blobs easier to handle. The common use case I run into is a -laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to -work, but there are other use cases as well.

- -

First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD -with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free -included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them -during installation. This take care firmware for network devices used -by the installer when installing from from local media. But for -example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are -not taken care of by this.

- -

For non-network devices, we provide the script -/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware which -search through the dmesg output for drivers requesting extra -firmware. The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz -file available in the package repository, and the packages providing -the requested firmware file(s) is installed. I have proposed to do -something similar in debian-installer (BTS report -#655507), to allow PXE -installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better. Run the -script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed -firmware packages.

- -

Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and -because some machines need firmware to get their network cards -working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware -included to be able to install at all. To fill the PXE installation -initrd with extra firmware, the -/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware script is -provided. Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the -PXE initrd with firmware packages.

- -

Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their -network cards working. For this, -/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware is -provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs. It is used -the same way as the other firmware related tools.

- -

At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation. We -do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use -non-free software, and it is their choice.

- -

We plan to release beta3 this weekend. You might want to give it a -try.

+ +
7th March 2012
+
+ +

One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a +screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on +Debian Edu Squeeze. The video is embedded here in quarter size, and +also available from vimeo and +download as a +Ogg +Theora file. Check it out below.

+ +

Download video as + Ogg.

+

@@ -518,111 +547,34 @@ try.

- -
26th January 2012
-

For morro skyld har jeg gjennomført en nordsamisk installasjon for -neste utgave av Skolelinux -(Squeeze) og knipset skjermbilder av resultatet.

- -

Som en kan se der er det noen oversettelser som mangler. Det hadde -vært hyggelig hvis alle tekstene som vises i Skolelinux-installasjonen -ble oversatt til nordsamisk, men for å få det til må noen som forstår -språket melde seg til dyst. Det er mangel på nordsamiske oversettere -av fri programvare. Hvis noen starter raskt, så bør en rekke å -fullføre Wheezy-utgaven før den gis ut. :)

- -

Se oversetterstatistikk for -debian installer for detaljert status. Jeg har tipset -epostlisten for samiskoversettelser, -men det har vært veldig liten aktivitet der de siste årene.

- -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

+ +
5th March 2012
+

Tok nettopp en titt på listen over løste problemer i +FiksGataMi (hentet via +Open311-søkegrensesnittet), +og lot meg imponere over Hamar kommunes raske respons. Sjekk +rapport #10791, der +Hamar kommune kl. 10:19 i dag får beskjed om at det er dårlig +brøyting, allerede 10:50 melder kommunen tilbake at de er på saken. +18:26 samme dag melder så innsender at problemet er løst. Hatten av +for folkene i Hamar kommune!

+ +

Apropos bra respons. En bruker sendte for noen dager inn følgende +tilbakemelding til oss som står bak tjenesten.

+ +

Rapporterte inn slukte gatelys på Torsnesveien, og to +uker etterpå er lysene tilbake. Flott service!

+ +

Det er veldig hyggelig å høre at FiksGataMi fungerer bra for +innbyggerne. Måtte alle landets innbyggere få samme gode erfaring med +FiksGataMi og det offentlige. I dag er det 52 kommuner som har lenke +til FiksGataMi fra sine nettsider, og dermed indikerer at de liker vår +tjeneste. Måtte de få følge av resten av landets kommuner snart. :)

- Tags: debian edu, norsk. - - -
-
-
- -
- -
25th January 2012
-

The next version of Debian Edu -/ Skolelinux will include a new tool -sitesummary2ldapdhcp, which can be used to quickly set up all -the computers in a school without much manual labour. Here is a short -summary on how to use it to set up a new school.

- -

First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the -central server in the network. Next, PXE boot all the client machines -as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to -allow the clients to report their existence to the central server. When -this is done, log on to the central server and run -sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a in the konsole to use the -collected information to generate system objects in LDAP. The output -will look similar to this:

- -

-% sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
-info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
-info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
-
-Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
-
-Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-enter password: *******
-% 
-

- -

After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the -root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be -populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with -automatically generated names. The final step to set up the school is -then to log into GOsa, -the web based user, group and system administration system to change -system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally -enable DHCP and DNS for the systems. All clients that should be used -as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts -group. After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE -and get their assigned names and group based configuration -automatically.

- -

We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature -enabled this weekend. You might want to give it a try.

- -

Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new -hosts, one need to add the option -a. I forgot to mention this in my -original text, and have added it to the text now.

-
-
- - - Tags: debian edu, english, sitesummary. + Tags: fiksgatami, norsk.
@@ -642,7 +594,9 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • January (7)
  • -
  • February (7)
  • +
  • February (10)
  • + +
  • March (13)
  • @@ -763,17 +717,17 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • debian (54)
  • -
  • debian edu (77)
  • +
  • debian edu (91)
  • digistan (7)
  • -
  • english (108)
  • +
  • english (117)
  • -
  • fiksgatami (13)
  • +
  • fiksgatami (14)
  • fildeling (12)
  • -
  • intervju (14)
  • +
  • intervju (19)
  • kart (15)
  • @@ -785,9 +739,9 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • multimedia (14)
  • -
  • norsk (145)
  • +
  • norsk (152)
  • -
  • nuug (119)
  • +
  • nuug (120)
  • open311 (2)
  • @@ -805,6 +759,8 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • rss (1)
  • +
  • ruter (4)
  • +
  • sikkerhet (23)
  • sitesummary (4)
  • @@ -819,7 +775,7 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • valg (6)
  • -
  • video (22)
  • +
  • video (23)
  • vitenskap (1)