X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e0061d3bb39020fb94a81bdf084b6629b596b90c..7c23669cb919e0fa02024ca63ce913dd96d3f6b2:/blog/index.html?ds=sidebyside diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index efbfea3775..8eeb39b6d6 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,20 +20,54 @@
-
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.

+ +
19th June 2012
+

Aftenposten melder i dag at selgerne av +gatemagasinet =Oslo er +irritert +på at det er kommet en konkurrent på banen fra organisasjonen +Folk er Folk, +som støtter “rumenerne”, de mest uglesette av tiggerne i Norge. Min +første tanke da jeg leste nyheten er at slik må =Oslo-selgerne tåle +når de nekter "rumenerne" og andre utenlandske tiggere å selge +gatemagasinet sitt. Det ble rapportert for noen år siden at +utenlandske +tiggere ikke var velkomne som selgere, og å opprette en konkurrent +virker da for meg som et rasjonelt alternativ. Og at "rumerene" +utelukkes gjelder visst ikke bare i Oslo. I Adresseavisen fant jeg en +artikkel om at selgerne av +gateavisen +Sorgenfri i Trondheim også +utelukker +utenlandske selgere.

+ +

Men situasjonen er visst ikke så rett frem som opprinnelige +artikler kunne tyde på. Mens jeg søkte opp gamle artikler og +referanser om temaet, fant jeg et +leserbrev +fra en av stifterne av =Oslo, som protesterte på +påstander +fra likestillingsombudet om diskriminering og forteller at =Oslo +krever at de som selger magasinet skal kunne kommunisere med kundene +for å kunne representere magasinet utad, og at "rumererne" ikke +ekskluderes for å være utlendinger men pga. at de ikke kan snakke +norsk. Det er jo ikke urimelig å kreve at en selger skal kunne +kommunisere med kundene, men som kjøper har jeg ikke snakket så mye +med =Oslo-selgerne at det ville vært et problem for meg om selgeren +ikke kunne snakke norsk. Jeg er dermed i tvil om hvorvidt +argumentasjonen holder når effekten er at de mest uglesette tiggerne i +Norge ekskluderes.

+ +

Uansett tror jeg ikke markedet for gatemagasiner i Oslo er mettet. +Personlig kunne jeg godt tenkte meg å kjøpe flere, men gidder ikke +kjøpe den samme utgaven av =Oslo flere ganger. En konkurrent som Folk +er Folk kan dermed ende opp med å gjøre markedet større i stedet for å +spise av markedsandelene til =Oslo.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: norsk.
@@ -41,73 +75,52 @@ 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.

+ +
15th June 2012
+

Doffin er det offentlige Norges +portal for annonsering av anbudsutlysninger. Nettstedet er mye brukt, +men rådataene er ikke enkelt tilgjengelig for almenheten. For å bøte +på det har jeg som et NUUG-prosjekt +laget en Scraperwiki-skraper som +lager en +SQL-database +med nøkkelinformasjonen fra Doffin, slik at det er mulig å søke og +analysere Doffin-oppføringene. Det publiseres mellom 900-1500 anbud +hver måned via Doffin. Jeg har ingen konkrete planer for analyse, men +håper enklere tilgjengelighet gjør at flere griper sjansen. På sikt +håper jeg å bruke denne databasen som grunnlag for å lage en database +over anbudsdokumenter, som i dag ikke er tilgjengelig fra doffin, men +må bestilles fra hver enkelt utlyser.

+ +

Jeg var litt usikker på om det var rettighetsproblemer knyttet til +skraping av informasjon fra Doffin, men ser i +vilkårene til +Doffin følgende:

+ +

+ +

Opphavsrett mv

+ +

Ved innleggig av kunngjøringer på Doffin aksepterer Oppdragsgiver +at opphavsrett og andre rettigheter til materialet overføres til +Fornyings- og administrasjonsdepartementet, eller den departementet +utnevner. Oppdragsgiver har imidlertid bruksrett til materialet, og +kan benytte det til de formål de måtte ønske.

+ +

+ +

Hvis informasjonen er vernet av opphavsrettsloven (hvilket jeg +tviler på, gitt lovens begrensninger om informasjon fra det +offentlige), så er det FAD som har de immaterielle rettighetene. FAD +er en del av staten, som opererer på vegne av folket, og enhver borger +skulle dermed ha rett til å videreformidle informasjonen. Ingen av +offentlighetslovens unntak kommer til anvendelse, i og med at +informasjonen allerede er publisert.

@@ -115,63 +128,153 @@ 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:

+ +
11th June 2012
+

During my work on +Debian Edu +based on Squeeze, I came across some issues that should be +addressed in the Wheezy release. I finally found time to wrap up my +notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit +explanation.

+ +

    + +
  • We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel +changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages +with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation +system depend on tasksel tasks in +/usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package +installation.
  • + +
  • Enable Kerberos login for more services. Now with the Kerberos +foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more +services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions. We should +at least try to enable it for these services: +
      -
      -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
      -
      +
    • CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using + quotas.
    • +
    • Nagios for admins checking the system status.
    • +
    • GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.
    • +
    • LDAP for admins updating LDAP.
    • +
    • Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.
    • +
    • ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.
    • -

      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. :(

    +
  • When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to +authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to +use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it +is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind
  • + +
  • Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install. The split made +sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an +inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.
  • + +
  • Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before +touching the disk if the disk is too small. This is +BTS report #653305 and the +d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply +it and upload. After this is done we need to adjust +debian-edu-install to use this new hook.
  • + +
  • Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install +time config). LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install +packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work +in Wheezy. + +
  • Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow +the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding +up KDE login on slow networks.
  • + +
  • Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to +change on first login. This is useful when handing out password on +paper, to make sure only the user know the password. This require +fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.
  • + +
  • Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary. +The current command line script is not very friendly to people most +familiar with GUIs. This should probably be integrated into GOsa to +have it available where the admin will be looking for it..
  • + +
  • We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service +actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses). None of the +Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.
  • + +
  • We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles +using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less +packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.
  • + +
  • We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password +when changing password using the Kerberos protocol. The hook was +requested in BTS report +#588968 and is now available in Wheezy. We might need to write a +MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.
  • + +
  • We should clean up the set of applications installed by default. +
      -
      -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.

      +
    • reduce the number of chemistry visualisers
    • +
    • consider dropping xpaint
    • +
    • and probably more?
    • +
  • + +
  • Some hardware need external firmware to work properly. This is +mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other +examples too. For popular laptops to work out of the box, such +firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide +some GUI to do this. Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we +could consider using their packages. At the moment we have some +command line script to do this (one for the running system, another +for the LTSP chroot).
  • + + +
  • In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options. We +should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to +install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to +use.
  • + +
  • The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out +interesting educational packages. We should work on the package +tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational +packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install +new applications with a simple mouse click.
  • + +
  • The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place, +with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to +be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable +filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled. We should +implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it, +instead of the "it is documented" method of today.
  • + +
  • A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to +"take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room. +There are at least three implementations, +italc, +controlaula og +epoptes and we should pick one of +them and make it trivial to set it up in a school. The challenges is +how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room +and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a +given room.
  • + +
  • Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we +should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into +the Debian Edu network. Not quite sure how. Perhaps we should +provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for +them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange +configuration and data with the central server. This should be +investigated.
  • + +

+ +

I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy +version.

- Tags: english, raid. + Tags: debian edu, english.
@@ -179,83 +282,82 @@ 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.

+ +
10th June 2012
+

De siste månedene har jeg sammen med andre i NUUG jobbet med å +gjøre det enklere å få innsyn i offentlige dokumenter, og dette +inkluderer å gjøre postjournaler enklere tilgjengelig for maskinell +analyse og søk. I den forbindelse tok jeg i dag å tittet litt på +Offentlig Elektronisk Postjournal +(OEP), FAD/DIFIs fellesløsning for departementer og statlige +etater.

+ +

Her er antall oppføringer pr. måned det siste året, +summert +opp ved hjelp av +en +Scraperwiki-database. Merk at denne Scraperwikien har +ytelsesproblemer pga. mengden data.

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
MÃ¥nedAntall
2011-07164355
2011-08153662
2011-09173134
2011-10170665
2011-11198409
2011-12175908
2012-01206875
2012-02202862
2012-03204225
2012-04207931
2012-05223754

+ +

Det er også interessant å se hvor ofte ulike etater sender inn sine +journaloppføringer til OEP. OEP inneholder en liste med sist +innrapporteringsdato for alle som sender til OEP, og ved å se når og +hvor ofte det blir sendt inn fra etatene kan +frekvensen +beregnes. Her er bunnlista, dvs. de som leverer sjeldnere enn hver 10. +dag beregnet fra +en +Scraperwiki-database:

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Etat Frekvens Leveringer
Norges geologiske undersøkelse 83.7527546296 1
Medietilsynet 33.7527546296 1
Departementenes servicesenter 23.8763773148 2
Kunnskapsdepartementet 15.8763773148 2
Kompetansesenter for distriktsutvikling 15.3763773148 2
Toll- og avgiftsdirektoratet 15.3763773148 2
Fredskorpset 12.5842515432 3
Statens legemiddelverk 12.1881886574 4
Utlendingsnemnda 11.5842515432 3
Politidirektoratet 10.9175848765 3
Skattedirektoratet 10.9175848765 3
Statens innkrevingssentral 10.5842515432 3
Barne-, ungdoms- og familiedirektoratet 10.2509182099 3
Kunst i offentlige rom 10.2509182099 3

+ +

En kan beregne lignende frekvenser ved å sammenligne +journalføringsdato med publiseringsdato for hver enkelt oppføring i +OEP, men den lenken legger jeg ikke ved her for å unngå at +søkemotorroboter begynner å overbelaste Scraperwiki-databasen.

+ +

Jeg har spurt Norges geologiske undersøkelse om hvorfor de leverer +så sjelden, og det kommer av at de har problemer etter oppgradering av +arkivsystemet sitt og jobber med å fikse det slik at de kan gå tilbake +til å levere hver uke. Har ikke undersøkt noen av de andre.

@@ -263,86 +365,28 @@ 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.

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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.

- -

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.

- -

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.

- -

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.

+ +
9th June 2012
+

Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a +TV +with face recognition to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to +me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face +recognition on the TV image itself. It could let the viewer know who +is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility, +company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better +evaluate what is being said and done. That would be a feature I would +be willing to pay for.

+ +

I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my +household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel. +It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book +1984 by George +Orwell.

@@ -350,45 +394,38 @@ 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?

+ +
6th June 2012
+

A few days ago +I +reported how to get the support status out of Dell using an +unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was +discovered +by Daniel De Marco in february. Combined with my web scraping +code for HP, Dell and IBM +from +2009, I got inspired and wrote +a +web service based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the +support status and get a machine readable result back.

+ +

This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON +output: + +

+% GET https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1
+supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
+%
+
+ +

It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add +support for other vendors. The python source is available on +Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: english, nuug.
@@ -396,58 +433,57 @@ 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?

+ +
2nd June 2012
+

Jeg oppdaget nylig en +artikkel +i Adresseavisa i Trondheim som nevner FiksGataMi, og der Trondheim +kommune ser ut til å fortelle at de ikke følger forvaltningslovens +krav ved mottak av meldinger sendt inn via FiksGataMi. La derfor +nettopp inn denne kommentaren til artikkelen:

+ +

+ +

Her er en liten faktaoppdatering om FiksGataMi-tjenesten, da noen +ser ut til å ha misforstått hvordan den fungerer.

+ +

FiksGataMi er et privat initiativ opprettet og drevet av +medlemsforeningen NUUG. FiksGataMi tar imot meldinger om feil i +offentlig infrastruktur, og sender meldingen skriftlig videre på vegne +av innmelder til aktuell aktør i det offentlige, det være seg kommune, +fylke eller vegvesenregion. Offentlig etat blir valgt ut fra +geografisk plassering og kategori valgt av innsender. Offentlige +etater er i følge forvaltningsloven pliktig å følge opp og besvare +skriftlige henvendelser, og hvis noen av mottakerne ikke gjør dette +kan en klage på lovbrudd i det offentlige. FiksGataMi fungerer dermed +som en slags epostklient for innbyggerne der kopi av innsendte +meldinger gjøres tilgjengelig og knyttes til kartplassering for enkel +gjenfinning. Å sende inn nye problemrapporter via FiksGataMi er +dermed ikke avhengig av at kommunen aktivt må følge med på meldinger +hos FiksGataMi, da de får dem tilsendt på sine offisielle +epostmottakspunkter. Hvorvidt noe blir fikset og om innbyggerne er +opp til mottaker av meldingene. For Trondheim kommune er +mottaksadressen bydrift.vegdrift@trondheim.kommune.no, en adresse jeg +inntil jeg leste denne artikkelen trodde ble håndtert i henhold til +forvaltningslovens krav.

+ +

Kan ellers fortelle at 57 kommuner lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine +nettsider, og at 37 % (4182 av 11266 ) av problemrapportene sendt inn +via FiksGataMi er markert som løst i løsningen. Trondheim kommune har +fått tilbud om å få rapportene levert på datamaskinlesbart format i +stedet for epost, men har ikke takket ja så langt.

+ +

Vennlig hilsen Petter Reinholdtsen, en av NUUG-folkene bak FiksGataMi.no

+ +

+ +

Det høres for meg ut som om innbyggerne i Trondheim burde klage på +kommunens potensielle lovbrudd.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: fiksgatami, norsk.
@@ -455,62 +491,168 @@ 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.

+ +
2nd June 2012
+

Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the +Debian Edu and Skolelinux +mailing list. He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and +thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the +Debian Edu +Squeeze version.

+ +

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

+ +

My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel, +Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner +(Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed +by Angela).

+ +

During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator +and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work +touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During +the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in +becoming an osteopath.

+ +

Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel) +have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at +introducing free software into schools. The project's name is +"IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT +skills with communication skills.

+ +

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

+ +

While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for +"IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to +reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available, +people said. From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux +distributions that target being used for school networks.

+ +

At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a +commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen, +Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we +went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing +and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian +Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that +got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most +attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within +the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.

+ +

In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local +people. People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data +protection experts, other IT professionals.

+ +

We came to two conclusions:

+ +

First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in +bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit +by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup +whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard +IT solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and +customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are +possible. In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a +standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some +degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here +locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting +point.

+ +

Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at +all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions +for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What +has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment +of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule" +tries to provide an approach for this.

+ +

Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains, +defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in +Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT +equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin) +teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there +spare time.

+ +

We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were +networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school +here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to +teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi +non-existent until 2010/2011.

+ +

Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in +class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this +avoidance do exist.

+ +

We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this +social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey +for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with +several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and +they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management +at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new +and probably a gain for all.

+ +

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

+ +

There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to +any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian, +the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone +workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within +project communication, honest communication within the group of +developers, etc.

+ +

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

+ +

Every coin has two sides:

+ +

Technically: BTS issue +#311188, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network +client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation +should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think +about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into +several portions (to make it easier for new developers to +contribute).

+ +

Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should +find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for +Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany +promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are +there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring +these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and +all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last +meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people +there being rather disconnected from the development department of +Debian Edu / Skolelinux.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.

+ +

For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For +serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for +more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.

+ +

I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the +development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI. +PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently +is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.

+ +

For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde +as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber +I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also +the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive +whiteboard.

+ +

My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.

+ +

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

+ +

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people, +enrol people.

@@ -518,51 +660,98 @@ 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.

- -

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

+ +
1st June 2012
+

A few years ago I wrote +how +to extract support status for your Dell and HP servers. Recently +I have learned from colleges here at the +University of Oslo that Dell have +made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service. Given +the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine +readable information about the support status. This perl code +demonstrate how to do it:

+ +

+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use SOAP::Lite;
+use Data::Dumper;
+my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
+my $App = 'test';
+my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
+my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
+my $s = SOAP::Lite
+    -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
+    -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
+    -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
+    ;
+my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
+    SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
+    SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
+    SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
+);
+print Dumper($a -> result) ;
+

+ +

The output can look like this:

+ +

+$VAR1 = {
+          'Asset' => {
+                     'Entitlements' => {
+                                       'EntitlementData' => [
+                                                            {
+                                                              'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+                                                              'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'Provider' => '',
+                                                              'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'DaysLeft' => '0'
+                                                            },
+                                                            {
+                                                              'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+                                                              'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'Provider' => '',
+                                                              'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'DaysLeft' => '0'
+                                                            },
+                                                            {
+                                                              'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+                                                              'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'Provider' => '',
+                                                              'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+                                                              'DaysLeft' => '0'
+                                                            }
+                                                          ]
+                                     },
+                     'AssetHeaderData' => {
+                                          'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
+                                          'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
+                                          'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
+                                          'Buid' => '2323',
+                                          'Region' => 'Europe',
+                                          'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
+                                          'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
+                                        }
+                   }
+        };
+

+ +

I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this +service outside the +inline +documentation, and according to +one +comment it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than +scraping HTML pages. :)

+ +

Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service. If +you know of one, drop me an email. :)

- Tags: debian edu, norsk. + Tags: english, nuug.
@@ -570,59 +759,44 @@ men det har vært veldig liten aktivitet der de siste årene.

- -
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.

+ +
1st June 2012
+

På onsdag rakk jeg såvidt innom +Oslo Open Data Forums +møte, og fikk lagt hendene mine på DIFIs helt nye veileder +"Åpne data. Del og skap +verdier. Veileder i tilgjengeliggjøring av offentlig data" (også +tilgjengelig +som PDF fra DIFI).

+ +

Veilederen er veldig bra, og nevner viktige problemstillinger og +skisserer f.eks. både verdiskapningspotensialet og formatmulighetene +som en bør ha i bakhodet når en publiserer offentlig informasjon på +maskinlesbart format. Kildekoden til veilederen er +tilgjengelig via +github, og en kan rapportere tilbakemeldinger og forslag til +forbedringer der (eller via epost og twitter for de som ønsker +det).

+ +

Det eneste jeg virkelig savnet i veilederen var omtale av +w3cs +stjerneklassifisering av åpne datakilder, som jeg tror ville være +nyttige mentale knagger for de som vurderer å publisere sin +informasjon på som åpne data. Jeg har +rapportert +en github-bug om dette, så får vi se hvordan den blir behandlet.

+ +

Det slo meg at det var veldig lite konkret i veilederen om valg av +bruksvilkår ved publisering (aka lisens), men jeg er ikke sikker på om +det hører hjemme der, da det er et vanskelig tema som kanskje heller +hører hjemme i sin egen veileder. Uansett, anbefaler alle å ta en +titt på veilederen og sikre at alle offentlige etater en har kontakt +med får en kopi.

@@ -642,7 +816,15 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • January (7)
  • -
  • February (7)
  • +
  • February (10)
  • + +
  • March (17)
  • + +
  • April (12)
  • + +
  • May (12)
  • + +
  • June (10)
  • @@ -763,19 +945,21 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • debian (54)
  • -
  • debian edu (77)
  • +
  • debian edu (104)
  • + +
  • digistan (8)
  • -
  • digistan (7)
  • +
  • drivstoffpriser (3)
  • -
  • english (108)
  • +
  • english (135)
  • -
  • fiksgatami (13)
  • +
  • fiksgatami (16)
  • fildeling (12)
  • -
  • intervju (14)
  • +
  • intervju (27)
  • -
  • kart (15)
  • +
  • kart (16)
  • ldap (8)
  • @@ -783,17 +967,19 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • ltsp (1)
  • -
  • multimedia (14)
  • +
  • multimedia (16)
  • + +
  • norsk (172)
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  • @@ -805,25 +991,29 @@ original text, and have added it to the text now.

  • rss (1)
  • +
  • ruter (4)
  • + +
  • scraperwiki (1)
  • +
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  • sitesummary (4)
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