X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e354421a57be56163a341f29b8a99155d1fc840d..dbc8873e70bf8b522959bcb7a7a42b9f1d83d528:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 82693cf395..4bba4c119a 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,65 +20,38 @@
-
How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie
-
22nd November 2014
-

By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using -sysvinit as its boot system by default. But how can one keep using -sysvinit in Jessie? It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes, -courtesy of -Erich -Schubert and -Simon -McVittie. - -

If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and -keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file -/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit with this content before -you upgrade:

- -

-Package: systemd-sysv
-Pin: release o=Debian
-Pin-Priority: -1
-

- -

This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider -installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade -solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid -systemd as a default boot system. The end result should be that the -upgraded system keep using sysvinit.

- -

If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to -get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by -debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the -installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot. Either by -using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the -preseed file used. First, the kernel command line argument: - -

-preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core"
-

- -

Next, the line to use in a preseed file:

- -

-d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
-

- -

One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing -the sysvinit-core package.

- -

I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the -sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs -on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware -devices show up during boot. But on the other hand, the new default -boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before -Jessie is released.

+ +
9th July 2015
+

I går fikk vi endelig lansert en norsk version av mySocietys +WhatDoTheyKnow. +Tjenesten heter Mimes brønn, og ble +annonsert +av NUUG via blog, epost og twitter til NUUG-assosierte personer. +Det har tatt noen år, men de siste dagene fikk vi endelig tid til å få +på plass de siste bitene. Vi er to, Gorm og meg selv, som har vært +primus motor for det hele, men vi har fått hjelp med oversettelser og +oppsett fra mange flere. Jeg vil si tusen takk til hver og en av dem, +og er veldig fornøyd med at vi klarte å få tjenesten opp å kjøre før +ferietiden slo inn for fullt.

+ +

Vi er usikker på hvor mye belastning den virtuelle maskinen der +tjenesten kjører klarer, så vi har lansert litt i det stille og ikke +til for mange folk for å se hvordan maskinen klarer seg over sommeren, +før vi går mer aktivt ut og annonserer til høsten. Ta en titt, og se +om du kanskje har et spørsmål til det offentlige som er egnet å sende +inn via Mimes brønn.

+ +

Hvis du lurer på hva i alle dager en slik tjenestes kan brukes til, +anbefaler jeg deg å se +TED-foredraget til +Heather Brook om hvordan hun brukte WhatDoTheyKnow til å lære +hvordan offentlige midler ble misbrukt. Det er en inspirerende +historie.

@@ -86,75 +59,268 @@ Jessie is released.

- -
16th November 2014
-

For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke -juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da -H.264 ble tatt inn i statens -referansekatalog over standarder. Stig Hornnes i FAD tipset meg -om følgende som står i oppsumeringen til høringen om -referansekatalogen versjon 2.0, som jeg siden ved hjelp av en -innsynsforespørsel fikk tak i -PDF-utgaven av -datert 2009-06-03 (saksnummer 200803291, saksbehandler Henrik -Linnestad).

- -

Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:

+ +
7th July 2015
+

After asking the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) +why +they can broadcast and stream H.264 video without an agreement with +the MPEG LA, I was wiser, but still confused. So I asked MPEG LA +if their understanding matched that of NRK. As far as I can tell, it +does not.

+ +

I started by asking for more information about the various +licensing classes and what exactly is covered by the "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" class that NRK pointed me at to explain why NRK +did not need a license for streaming H.264 video:

-4.4 Patentproblematikk - -

NUUG og Opera ser det som særlig viktig at forslagene knyttet til -lyd og video baserer seg på de royalty-frie standardene Vorbis, Theora -og FLAC.

- -

Kommentarene relaterer seg til at enkelte standarder er åpne, men -inneholder tekniske prosedyrer som det i USA (og noen andre land som -Japan) er gitt patentrettigheter til. I vårt tilfelle berører dette -spesielt standardene Mp3 og H.264, selv om Politidirektoratet peker på -at det muligens kan være tilsvarende problematikk også for Theora og -Vorbis. Dette medfører at det i USA kan kreves royalties for bruk av -tekniske løsninger knyttet til standardene, et krav som også -håndheves. Patenter kan imidlertid bare hevdes i de landene hvor -patentet er gitt, så amerikanske patenter gjelder ikke andre steder -enn USA.

- -

Spesielt for utvikling av fri programvare er patenter -problematisk. GPL, en "grunnleggende" lisens for distribusjon av fri -programvare, avviser at programvare kan distribueres under denne -lisensen hvis det inneholder referanser til patenterte rutiner som -utløser krav om royalties. Det er imidlertid uproblematisk å -distribuere fri programvareløsninger under GPL som benytter de -aktuelle standardene innen eller mellom land som ikke anerkjenner -patentene. Derfor finner vi også flere implementeringer av Mp3 og -H.264 som er fri programvare, lisensiert under GPL.

- -

I Norge og EU er patentlovgivningen langt mer restriktiv enn i USA, -men det er også her mulig å få patentert metoder for løsning av et -problem som relaterer seg til databehandling. Det er AIF bekjent ikke -relevante patenter i EU eller Norge hva gjelder H.264 og Mp3, men -muligheten for at det finnes patenter uten at det er gjort krav om -royalties eller at det senere vil gis slike patenter kan ikke helt -avvises.

- -

AIF mener det er et behov for å gi offentlige virksomheter mulighet -til å benytte antatt royaltyfrie åpne standarder som et likeverdig -alternativ eller i tillegg til de markedsledende åpne standardene.

+

According to +a +MPEG LA press release dated 2010-02-02, there is no charge when +using MPEG AVC/H.264 according to the terms of "Internet Broadcast AVC +Video". I am trying to understand exactly what the terms of "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" is, and wondered if you could help me. What +exactly is covered by these terms, and what is not?

+ +

The only source of more information I have been able to find is a +PDF named +AVC +Patent Portfolio License Briefing, which states this about the +fees:

+ +
    +
  • Where End User pays for AVC Video +
      +
    • Subscription (not limited by title) – 100,000 or fewer + subscribers/yr = no royalty; > 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers/yr = + $25,000; >250,000 to 500,000 subscribers/yr = $50,000; >500,000 to + 1M subscribers/yr = $75,000; >1M subscribers/yr = $100,000
    • + +
    • Title-by-Title - 12 minutes or less = no royalty; >12 minutes in + length = lower of (a) 2% or (b) $0.02 per title
    • +
  • + +
  • Where remuneration is from other sources +
      +
    • Free Television - (a) one-time $2,500 per transmission encoder or + (b) annual fee starting at $2,500 for > 100,000 HH rising to + maximum $10,000 for >1,000,000 HH
    • + +
    • Internet Broadcast AVC Video (not title-by-title, not subscription) + – no royalty for life of the AVC Patent Portfolio License
    • +
  • +
+ +

Am I correct in assuming that the four categories listed is the +categories used when selecting licensing terms, and that "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" is the category for things that do not fall into +one of the other three categories? Can you point me to a good source +explaining what is ment by "title-by-title" and "Free Television" in +the license terms for AVC/H.264?

+ +

Will a web service providing H.264 encoded video content in a +"video on demand" fashing similar to Youtube and Vimeo, where no +subscription is required and no payment is required from end users to +get access to the videos, fall under the terms of the "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video", ie no royalty for life of the AVC Patent +Portfolio license? Does it matter if some users are subscribed to get +access to personalized services?

+ +

Note, this request and all answers will be published on the +Internet.

+

+ +

The answer came quickly from Benjamin J. Myers, Licensing Associate +with the MPEG LA:

+ +

+

Thank you for your message and for your interest in MPEG LA. We +appreciate hearing from you and I will be happy to assist you.

+ +

As you are aware, MPEG LA offers our AVC Patent Portfolio License +which provides coverage under patents that are essential for use of +the AVC/H.264 Standard (MPEG-4 Part 10). Specifically, coverage is +provided for end products and video content that make use of AVC/H.264 +technology. Accordingly, the party offering such end products and +video to End Users concludes the AVC License and is responsible for +paying the applicable royalties.

+ +

Regarding Internet Broadcast AVC Video, the AVC License generally +defines such content to be video that is distributed to End Users over +the Internet free-of-charge. Therefore, if a party offers a service +which allows users to upload AVC/H.264 video to its website, and such +AVC Video is delivered to End Users for free, then such video would +receive coverage under the sublicense for Internet Broadcast AVC +Video, which is not subject to any royalties for the life of the AVC +License. This would also apply in the scenario where a user creates a +free online account in order to receive a customized offering of free +AVC Video content. In other words, as long as the End User is given +access to or views AVC Video content at no cost to the End User, then +no royalties would be payable under our AVC License.

+ +

On the other hand, if End Users pay for access to AVC Video for a +specific period of time (e.g., one month, one year, etc.), then such +video would constitute Subscription AVC Video. In cases where AVC +Video is delivered to End Users on a pay-per-view basis, then such +content would constitute Title-by-Title AVC Video. If a party offers +Subscription or Title-by-Title AVC Video to End Users, then they would +be responsible for paying the applicable royalties you noted below.

+ +

Finally, in the case where AVC Video is distributed for free +through an "over-the-air, satellite and/or cable transmission", then +such content would constitute Free Television AVC Video and would be +subject to the applicable royalties.

+ +

For your reference, I have attached +a +.pdf copy of the AVC License. You will find the relevant +sublicense information regarding AVC Video in Sections 2.2 through +2.5, and the corresponding royalties in Section 3.1.2 through 3.1.4. +You will also find the definitions of Title-by-Title AVC Video, +Subscription AVC Video, Free Television AVC Video, and Internet +Broadcast AVC Video in Section 1 of the License. Please note that the +electronic copy is provided for informational purposes only and cannot +be used for execution.

+ +

I hope the above information is helpful. If you have additional +questions or need further assistance with the AVC License, please feel +free to contact me directly.

+

+ +

Having a fresh copy of the license text was useful, and knowing +that the definition of Title-by-Title required payment per title made +me aware that my earlier understanding of that phrase had been wrong. +But I still had a few questions:

+ +

+

I have a small followup question. Would it be possible for me to get +a license with MPEG LA even if there are no royalties to be paid? The +reason I ask, is that some video related products have a copyright +clause limiting their use without a license with MPEG LA. The clauses +typically look similar to this: + +

+ This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for + the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer to (a) encode + video in compliance with the AVC standard ("AVC video") and/or (b) + decode AVC video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a + personal and non-commercial activity and/or AVC video that was + obtained from a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No + license is granted or shall be implied for any other use. additional + information may be obtained from MPEG LA L.L.C.

-

Det ser dermed ikke ut til at de har vurdert patentspørsmålet i -sammenheng med opphavsrettsvilkår slik de er formulert for f.eks. -Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Sorenson-verktøyene, -der det kreves brukstillatelse for patenter som ikke er gyldige i -Norge for å bruke disse verktøyene til annet en personlig og ikke -kommersiell aktivitet når det gjelder H.264-video. Jeg må nok lete -videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.

+

It is unclear to me if this clause mean that I need to enter into +an agreement with MPEG LA to use the product in question, even if +there are no royalties to be paid to MPEG LA. I suspect it will +differ depending on the jurisdiction, and mine is Norway. What is +MPEG LAs view on this?

+

+ +

According to the answer, MPEG LA believe those using such tools for +non-personal or commercial use need a license with them:

+ +

+ +

With regard to the Notice to Customers, I would like to begin by +clarifying that the Notice from Section 7.1 of the AVC License +reads:

+ +

THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR +THE PERSONAL USE OF A CONSUMER OR OTHER USES IN WHICH IT DOES NOT +RECEIVE REMUNERATION TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC +STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO") AND/OR (ii) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED +BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND/OR WAS OBTAINED FROM +A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED +OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE +OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM

+ +

The Notice to Customers is intended to inform End Users of the +personal usage rights (for example, to watch video content) included +with the product they purchased, and to encourage any party using the +product for commercial purposes to contact MPEG LA in order to become +licensed for such use (for example, when they use an AVC Product to +deliver Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free Television or Internet +Broadcast AVC Video to End Users, or to re-Sell a third party's AVC +Product as their own branded AVC Product).

+ +

Therefore, if a party is to be licensed for its use of an AVC +Product to Sell AVC Video on a Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free +Television or Internet Broadcast basis, that party would need to +conclude the AVC License, even in the case where no royalties were +payable under the License. On the other hand, if that party (either a +Consumer or business customer) simply uses an AVC Product for their +own internal purposes and not for the commercial purposes referenced +above, then such use would be included in the royalty paid for the AVC +Products by the licensed supplier.

+ +

Finally, I note that our AVC License provides worldwide coverage in +countries that have AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, including +Norway.

+ +

I hope this clarification is helpful. If I may be of any further +assistance, just let me know.

+

+ +

The mentioning of Norwegian patents made me a bit confused, so I +asked for more information:

+ +

+ +

But one minor question at the end. If I understand you correctly, +you state in the quote above that there are patents in the AVC Patent +Portfolio that are valid in Norway. This make me believe I read the +list available from <URL: +http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx +> incorrectly, as I believed the "NO" prefix in front of patents +were Norwegian patents, and the only one I could find under Mitsubishi +Electric Corporation expired in 2012. Which patents are you referring +to that are relevant for Norway?

+ +

+ +

Again, the quick answer explained how to read the list of patents +in that list:

+ +

+ +

Your understanding is correct that the last AVC Patent Portfolio +Patent in Norway expired on 21 October 2012. Therefore, where AVC +Video is both made and Sold in Norway after that date, then no +royalties would be payable for such AVC Video under the AVC License. +With that said, our AVC License provides historic coverage for AVC +Products and AVC Video that may have been manufactured or Sold before +the last Norwegian AVC patent expired. I would also like to clarify +that coverage is provided for the country of manufacture and the +country of Sale that has active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents.

+ +

Therefore, if a party offers AVC Products or AVC Video for Sale in +a country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents (for example, +Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.), then that party would still need +coverage under the AVC License even if such products or video are +initially made in a country without active AVC Patent Portfolio +Patents (for example, Norway). Similarly, a party would need to +conclude the AVC License if they make AVC Products or AVC Video in a +country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, but eventually Sell +such AVC Products or AVC Video in a country without active AVC Patent +Portfolio Patents.

+

+ +

As far as I understand it, MPEG LA believe anyone using Adobe +Premiere and other video related software with a H.264 distribution +license need a license agreement with MPEG LA to use such tools for +anything non-private or commercial, while it is OK to set up a +Youtube-like service as long as no-one pays to get access to the +content. I still have no clear idea how this applies to Norway, where +none of the patents MPEG LA is licensing are valid. Will the +copyright terms take precedence or can those terms be ignored because +the patents are not valid in Norway?

@@ -162,81 +328,62 @@ videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.

- -
10th November 2014
-

The right to communicate with your friends and family in private, -without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal -democracy. But this right is under serious attack these days.

- -

A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet -surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by -the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email, -is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor. Such SMTP option would be -a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email -between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails -to the people peeking on the wire. I -proposed -this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October and got a -lot of useful feedback and suggestions. It also became obvious to me -that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and -documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both -the -Mailpile and the Cables systems -propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.

- -

To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service -providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses -looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion. With such addresses -the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will -go to the correct SMTP server. To do this, one need to configure the -Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept -emails for this .onion domain. To learn more about Exim configuration -in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I -set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to -set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian. Getting it to work -were fairly easy, and -the -source code for the Debian package is available from github. I -plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a -useful approach.

- -

If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any -mail system installed (or run apt-get purge exim4-config to -get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned -above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run -/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service and follow -the instructions to get the service up and running. Restart tor and -exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like -this:

- -

-torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
-  --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
-

- -

This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email -address with your own address to test your server. :)

- -

The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made -easier and more automatic. Especially the tor setup need more work. -Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task -should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb -architecture independent. It would probably also make the code easier -to review. The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for -exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd. It would be better if -no daemon and no socket is needed. I suspect it is possible to get -exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a -socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this -system.

- -

Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the -fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion mail address, deliverable over -SMTorP. :)

+ +
5th July 2015
+

Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my +need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback. I wish to +thank every one of these. Several pointed me to the possibility of +fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to +do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the +machine. But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it +with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live +for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement. If I did +not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts +using FrancEcrans, but it +might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.

+ +

One tip I got was to use the +Skinflint web service to +compare laptop models. It seem to have more models available than +prisjakt.no. Another tip I got from someone I know have similar +keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not +very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook +keyboards I tested. Because of this, I will not consider it any further. + +

When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the +newest Thinkpad X model. The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons +(which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with +Debian Sid/Unstable according to +Corsac.net. The reports I +got on the keyboard quality are not consistent. Some say the keyboard +is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good. +Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250 +keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I +keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to +replace it. I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk +activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230. I'm +also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit +noisy. In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian +Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.

+ +

I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was +Pro-Star, another was +Libreboot. +The latter look very attractive to me.

+ +

Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback. It help a lot +as I keep looking for a replacement.

+ +

Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the +lapstore.de web shop for used laptops. They got several +different +old +thinkpad X models, and provide one year warranty.

@@ -244,192 +391,38 @@ SMTorP. :)

- -
27th October 2014
-

I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just -sent out -this -announcement:

- -
-The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
-Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
-
-Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
-various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
-and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
-Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
-roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
-hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
-pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
-
-For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
-installation instructions are available, including detailed
-instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
-setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
-for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
-of at least 5 characters!
-
- [1] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie >
-
-Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
-tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
-reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
-the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
-Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
-
-Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
-mostly in Germany and Norway.
-
-About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-===============================
-
-Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
-on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
-configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
-server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
-waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
-Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
-initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
-machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
-provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
-centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
-services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
-packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
-schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
-environment.
-
- [2] <URL: http://www.skolelinux.org/ >
- [3] <URL: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html >
-
-Full release notes and manual
-=============================
-
-Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
-and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
-list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
-the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
-available, see the manual translation overview[5].
-
- [4] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features >
- [5] <URL: http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ >
-
-Where to get it
----------------
-
-To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
-
- * ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
-
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
-
-New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
-===============================================================================
-
-
-Installation changes
---------------------
-
- * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
-
-Software updates
-----------------
-
-Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
-
- * Linux kernel 3.16.x
- * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
-   LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
-   choose one of the others see manual.)
- * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 
- * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
- * GOsa 2.7.4
- * LTSP 5.5.4
- * CUPS print system 1.7.5
- * new boot framework: systemd
- * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 
- * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
- * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
- * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
- * golearn 0.9
- * tuxpaint 0.9.22
- * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
- * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
-   installation.
- * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
-   notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
-
- [6] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes >
- [7] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual >
-
-Fixed bugs
-----------
-
- * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
-   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
-   information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
- * and many others.
-
-Documentation and translation updates
-------------------------------------- 
-
- * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
-   Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
-   Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
-
-Other changes
--------------
-
- * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
-   server takes more time.
- * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
-   doesn't work.
-
-Regressions / known problems
-----------------------------
-
- * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
-   exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
-   and Debian bug #762103).
- * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
-   #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
- * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
-   work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
-   Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
-
-See the status page[8] for the complete list.
-
- [8] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie >
-
-How to report bugs
-------------------
-
-<URL: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs >
-
-About Debian
-============
-
-The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
-free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
-the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
-volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
-maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
-huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
-operating system.
-
-Contact Information
-For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
-mail to press@debian.org.
-
- [9] <URL: http://www.debian.org/ >
-
+ +
3rd July 2015
+

My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a +replacement soon. The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230 +started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken +cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the +flickering.

+ +

My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is +still as +I +described them in 2013. The last time I bought a laptop, I had +good help from +prisjakt.no +where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin, +wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually. Three button mouse +and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three +laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and +G2) lack three mouse buttons). It is also unclear to me how good the +keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are. I hope Lenovo have not messed up +the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have +deteriorated since X41.

+ +

I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options +seem sensible to me? Are there better services around to search the +set of available laptops for features? Please send me an email if you +have suggestions.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -437,32 +430,82 @@ mail to press@debian.org.
- -
23rd October 2014
-

I spent last weekend at Makercon -Nordic, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and -the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the -Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we -had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in -a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the -regular video equipment for NUUG, with a -dvswitch, a -camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides -live.

- -

Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the -around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is -now becoming -public on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license -NUUG always use on our recordings, which is -Creative -Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge. Many great -talks available. Check it out! :)

+ +
2nd July 2015
+

Last oktober I was involved on behalf of +NUUG with recording the talks at +MakerCon Nordic, a conference for +the Maker movement. Since then it has been the plan to publish the +recordings on Frikanalen, which +finally happened the last few days. A few talks are missing because +the speakers asked the organizers to not publish them, but most of the +talks are available. The talks are being broadcasted on RiksTV +channel 50 and using multicast on Uninett, as well as being available +from the Frikanalen web site. The unedited recordings are +available on +Youtube too.

+ +

This is the list of talks available at the moment. Visit the +Frikanalen video +pages to view them.

+ +
    + +
  • Evolutionary algorithms as a design tool - from art + to robotics (Kyrre Glette)
  • + +
  • Make and break (Hans Gerhard Meier)
  • + +
  • Making a one year school course for young makers + (Olav Helland)
  • + +
  • Innovation Inspiration - IPR Databases as a Source of + Inspiration (Hege Langlo)
  • + +
  • Making a toy for makers (Erik Torstensson)
  • + +
  • How to make 3D printer electronics (Elias Bakken)
  • + +
  • Hovering Clouds: Looking at online tool offerings for Product + Design and 3D Printing (William Kempton)
  • + +
  • Travelling maker stories (Øyvind Nydal Dahl)
  • + +
  • Making the first Maker Faire in Sweden (Nils Olander)
  • + +
  • Breaking the mold: Printing 1000’s of parts (Espen Sivertsen)
  • + +
  • Ultimaker — and open source 3D printing (Erik de Bruijn)
  • + +
  • Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform: Sparking innovation (Hilde + Sevens)
  • + +
  • How Making is Changing the World – and How You Can Too! + (Jennifer Turliuk)
  • + +
  • Open-Source Adventuring: OpenROV, OpenExplorer and the Future of + Connected Exploration (David Lang)
  • + +
  • Making in Norway (Haakon Karlsen Jr., Graham Hayward and Jens + Dyvik)
  • + +
  • The Impact of the Maker Movement (Mike Senese)
  • + +
+ +

Part of the reason this took so long was that the scripts NUUG had +to prepare a recording for publication were five years old and no +longer worked with the current video processing tools (command line +argument changes). In addition, we needed better audio normalization, +which sent me on a detour to +package +bs1770gain for Debian. Now this is in place and it became a lot +easier to publish NUUG videos on Frikanalen.

@@ -470,96 +513,125 @@ talks available. Check it out! :)

- -
22nd October 2014
-

If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on -alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to -operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password -and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate -and various options for each email address. This take a while for -every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good -job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, -the -listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages -to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two -lists I recently took over:

- -

-% time listadmin xiph
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-
-real    0m1.709s
-user    0m0.232s
-sys     0m0.012s
-%
-

- -

In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that -there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I -currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two -minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days -ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me -less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin -program.

- -

If you install -the listadmin -package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini -with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:

- -

-username username@example.org
-spamlevel 23
-default discard
-discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
-
-password secret
-adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
-mailman-list@lists.example.com
-
-password hidden
-other-list@otherserver.example.org
-

- -

There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to -learn the details.

- -

If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where -the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a -generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment -variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:

- -

-PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
-

- -

If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you -can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the -initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only -lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it -quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your -email.

- -

Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 -mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the -process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of -time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free -software.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- -

Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in -configuration example. Also, I've been told that the -PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone. Not -sure why.

+ +
28th June 2015
+

I en global verden med eierskap på tvers, trengs det informasjon om +hvem som har kontrollen i selskaper og bedrifter. Og for å få tilgang +til slik informasjon for alle som ønsker å analysere eierskap, holder +med ikke med nasjonale databaser over eierskap, det må globale +samledatabaser med åpne data til. Heldigvis finnes det en +internasjonal bevegelse for å gjøre selskapsinformasjon for alle land +offentlig tilgjengelig. En slik database heter +OpenCorporates, der +informasjonen er gratis tilgjengelig med en "del på samme +vilkår"-lisens. De samler inn selskapsinformasjon, eierskap, +konsesjonstildelinger og lignende. De manglet ganske mye for Norge, +da bruksvilkårene til Norsk offentlig informasjon i stor grad +blokkerer OpenCorporates fra å samle den inn.

+ +

Men jeg er jo involvert i +Frikanalen, som har +TV-konsesjon, og tenkte det kunne være fint om informasjon om alle +mediakonsesjoner var tilgjengelig i OpenCorporates, så jeg sendte +avgårde følgende spørsmål til Medietilsynet 2015-06-22:

+ +
+

Hei. Finnes det en oversikt over enhetene som Mediatilsynet fører +tilsyn med som åpne data? Jeg lette etter den på +<URL:http://data.norge.no/> og +<URL:http://hotell.difi.no/> uten å +finne noe der, og fant heller ikke noe under +<URL:http://www.medietilsynet.no/>.

+ +

Jeg tenker på alle som har fått kringkastingskonsesjon og alle som +er omtalt under +<URL:http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebildet/>.

+ +

Jeg skulle gjerne hatt dette maskinlesbart, og inkludert +organisasjonsnummer og hva slags forhold mediatilsynet har til +organisasjonene. Tanken er å importere det i +<URL:https://opencorporates.com/> for analyse, så det bør ikke ha +bruksbegresninger som gjør dette umulig.

+
+ +

To dager senere fikk jeg svar, med de datasettene de hadde +tilgjengelig. Svaret fra Hanne Sekkelsten hos Medietilsynet var +informativt og imøtekommende.

+ +
+

Vi viser til din e-post av 22. juni, der du ber om å få tilsendt oversikter +over aktører Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med.

+ +

Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med kringkastere og audiovisuelle +bestillingstjenester som omfattes av kringkastingsloven, og med +eierskap i aviser, fjernsyn radio og elektroniske medier etter +medieeierskapsloven. I tillegg vil Medietilsynet etter at +beskyttelsesloven trer i kraft fra 1. juli ha tilsyn med en rekke nye +aktører. Nærmere informasjon om den nye loven finnes på Medietilsynets +nettsted, her: +http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebransjen/bildeprogramloven/ +. Vi har ikke utarbeidet oversikter over alle aktørene, men vi sender +deg her de listene vi har utarbeidet, hentet fra våre databaser. Vi +har dessverre ikke ferdige rapporter som inneholder +organisasjonsnummer. Dersom du ønsker flere opplysninger ber vi om at +du tar kontakt med oss slik at vi kan finne ut av hvilke opplysninger +du trenger, og hvilke vi kan fremskaffe.

+ +

Vedlagt følger: + +

    + +
  • Konsesjoner - lokalradio FM pr. 31.12.2014 [PDF (original)]
  • + +
  • Konsesjoner - lokalfjernsyn i det digitale bakkenettet for fjernsyn, pr. mars 2015 [DOCX (original), +PDF]
  • + +
  • Konsesjoner - DAB-radio, status mars 2015 [XPS (original), +PDF]
  • + +
  • Registreringspliktige kringkastere - status mars 2015: [XPS (original), PDF] + +
      +
    • Kabelsendt fjernsyn +
    • Satellittsendt fjernsyn +
    • Nett-tv +
    • Kabelsendt radio +
    • Satellittsendt radio +
    • Nett-radio +
  • +
+ +

Vi må ta forbehold om at det kan være enkelte feil i oversiktene +siden disse ikke er oppdaterte pr. dags dato. Vi vil foreta nye +oppdateringer i august.

+ +

Med hilsen

+ +

Hanne Nistad Sekkelsten +
Seniorrådgiver | Senior Legal Adviser +
Medietilsynet | Norwegian Media Authority +
A: Nygata 4, NO-1607 Fredrikstad +
T: [telefonnummer fjernet] +
E: [adresse fjernet] | W: www.medietilsynet.no +

+
+ +

Desverre er formatene for ustrukturerte til maskinell behandling og +mangler endel informasjon, men det er gode oversikter over hvem +Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med. Filene er på formatene PDF, XPS +(XML-basert PDF-lignende format fra Microsoft) og DOCX, så det vil +være en stor jobb å strukturere informasjonen på en måte som kan +importeres i OpenCorporates. Svaret er ikke i tråd med +Forskrift +om IT-standarder i offentlig forvaltning som sier epostvedlegg +skal sendes som PDF, så jeg har gjorde PDF-utgaver av XPS og +DOCX-utgavene tilgjengelig for å gjøre det enklere for alle å se +innholdet.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn.
@@ -567,114 +639,79 @@ sure why.

- -
17th October 2014
-

When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the -problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly. -And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian. -Normally something more is needed. But thanks to -my isenkram -package and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy -to do this using simple preseeding.

- -

The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install -firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by -the kernel modules for the hardware). (It can also install user space -programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus -of this story.)

- -

To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding -values are needed. First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed -into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed -in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system. This is done by -preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the -isenkram-cli package. The package name is next passed to debootstrap -for installation. With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel -will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific -packages for the machine being installed and install them, because -isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.

- -

Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because -most firmware unfortunately is non-free. This is done by preseeding -the apt-mirror-setup step. This is unfortunate, but for a lot of -hardware it is the only option in Debian.

- -

The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get -firmware installed automatically by the installer:

- -

-base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
-apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
-

- -

The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install -both firmware and user space packages when using this method. It also -do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later. Installing both -firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you -want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware -and one for user space programs. The firmware task is enabled by -default, while the one for user space programs is not. This split is -implemented in the package currently in unstable.

- -

If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how -this recipe work for you. :)

- -

So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work. First and -foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever -files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/. So the -isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find. First there -is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):

- -

-Task: isenkram-packages
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
- proposed.
-Test-new-install: show show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware
-
-Task: isenkram-firmware
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
- packages are proposed.
-Test-new-install: mark show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
-

- -

The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task -should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in -/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/. The scripts use other scripts to get a -list of packages to install. The for-current-hardware-firmware script -look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine: - -

-#!/bin/sh
-#
-PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
-export PATH
-isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
-

- -

With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by -tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)

- -

If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is -installed, run DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test ---new-install to get the list of packages that tasksel would -install.

- -

Debian Edu will be -pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to -install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

+ +
15th June 2015
+

It is a bit work to figure out the ownership structure of companies +in Norway. The information is publicly available, but one need to +recursively look up ownership for all owners to figure out the complete +ownership graph of a given set of companies. To save me the work in +the future, I wrote a script to do this automatically, outputting the +ownership structure using the Graphviz/dotty format. The data source +is web scraping from Proff, because +I failed to find a useful source directly from the official keepers of +the ownership data, Brønnøysundsregistrene.

+ +

To get an ownership graph for a set of companies, fetch +the code from git and run it using the organisation number. I'm +using the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet as an example here, as its +ownership structure is very simple:

+ +
+% time ./bin/eierskap-dotty 958033540 > dagbladet.dot
+
+real    0m2.841s
+user    0m0.184s
+sys     0m0.036s
+%
+
+ +

The script accept several organisation numbers on the command line, +allowing a cluster of companies to be graphed in the same image. The +resulting dot file for the example above look like this. The edges +are labeled with the ownership percentage, and the nodes uses the +organisation number as their name and the name as the label:

+ +
+digraph ownership {
+rankdir = LR;
+"Aller Holding A/s" -> "910119877" [label="100%"]
+"910119877" -> "998689015" [label="100%"]
+"998689015" -> "958033540" [label="99%"]
+"974530600" -> "958033540" [label="1%"]
+"958033540" [label="AS DAGBLADET"]
+"998689015" [label="Berner Media Holding AS"]
+"974530600" [label="Dagbladets Stiftelse"]
+"910119877" [label="Aller Media AS"]
+}
+
+ +

To view the ownership graph, run "dotty dagbladet.dot" or +convert it to a PNG using "dot -T png dagbladet.dot > +dagbladet.png". The result can be seen below:

+ + + +

Note that I suspect the "Aller Holding A/S" entry to be incorrect +data in the official ownership register, as that name is not +registered in the official company register for Norway. The ownership +register is sensitive to typos and there seem to be no strict checking +of the ownership links.

+ +

Let me know if you improve the script or find better data sources. +The code is licensed according to GPL 2 or newer.

+ +

Update 2015-06-15: Since the initial post I've been told that +"Aller +Holding A/S" is a Danish company, which explain why it did not +have a Norwegian organisation number. I've also been told that there +is a web +services API available from Brønnøysundsregistrene, for those +willing to accept the terms or pay the price.

@@ -682,23 +719,59 @@ install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

- -
4th October 2014
-

Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen. Above the -bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu -with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck -on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:

- -

- -

If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known -about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what -errors can reveal.

+ +
11th June 2015
+

Television loudness is the source of frustration for viewers +everywhere. Some channels are very load, others are less loud, and +ads tend to shout very high to get the attention of the viewers, and +the viewers do not like this. This fact is well known to the TV +channels. See for example the BBC white paper +"Terminology +for loudness and level dBTP, LU, and all that" from 2011 for a +summary of the problem domain. To better address the need for even +loadness, the TV channels got together several years ago to agree on a +new way to measure loudness in digital files as one step in +standardizing loudness. From this came the ITU-R standard BS.1770, +"Algorithms to +measure audio programme loudness and true-peak audio level".

+ +

The ITU-R BS.1770 specification describe an algorithm to measure +loadness in LUFS (Loudness Units, referenced to Full Scale). But +having a way to measure is not enough. To get the same loudness +across TV channels, one also need to decide which value to standardize +on. For European TV channels, this was done in the EBU Recommondaton +R128, "Loudness +normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals", which +specifies a recommended level of -23 LUFS. In Norway, I have been +told that NRK, TV2, MTG and SBS have decided among themselves to +follow the R128 recommondation for playout from 2016-03-01.

+ +

There are free software available to measure and adjust the loudness +level using the LUFS. In Debian, I am aware of a library named +libebur128 +able to measure the loudness and since yesterday morning a new binary +named bs1770gain +capable of both measuring and adjusting was uploaded and is waiting +for NEW processing. I plan to maintain the latter in Debian under the +Debian +multimedia umbrella.

+ +

The free software based TV channel I am involved in, +Frikanalen, plan to follow the +R128 recommondation ourself as soon as we can adjust the software to +do so, and the bs1770gain tool seem like a good fit for that part of +the puzzle to measure loudness on new video uploaded to Frikanalen. +Personally, I plan to use bs1770gain to adjust the loudness of videos +I upload to Frikanalen on behalf of the +NUUG member organisation. The program seem to be able to measure +the LUFS value of any media file handled by ffmpeg, but I've only +successfully adjusted the LUFS value of WAV files. I suspect it +should be able to adjust it for all the formats handled by ffmpeg.

@@ -706,49 +779,332 @@ about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what
- -
4th October 2014
-

The lsdvd project -got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original -developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood. -This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve -Dibb.

- -

I just wrapped up -a -new lsdvd release, available in git or from -the -download page. This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version -0.17.

+ +
10th June 2015
+

Helt siden jeg i 2012 fikk beskjed fra MPEG LA om at +NRK +trengte patentavtale med dem hvis de distribuerte H.264-video til +sluttbrukere, har jeg lurt på hva som gjør at NRK ikke har slik +avtale. For noen dager siden fikk jeg endelig gjort noe med min +undring, og sendte 2015-05-28 følgende epost til info (at) nrk.no med +tittel "Hva gjør at NRK kan distribuere H.264-video uten patentavtale +med MPEG LA?":

+ +

+

Jeg lurer på en ting rundt NRKs bruk av H.264-video på sine +websider samt distribusjon via RiksTV og kabel-TV. Har NRK vurdert om +det er behov for en patentavtale med +MPEG LA slik det står i +programvarelisensene til blant annet Apple Final Cut Studio, Adobe +Premiere Pro, Avid og Apples Final Cut Pro X?

+ +

Hvis dere har vurdert dette, hva var utfallet av en slik vurdering?

+ +

Hvis dere ikke har vurdert dette, har NRK planer om å vurdere behovet +for patentavtale?

+ +

I følge en artikkel på +NRK +Beta i 2012 har NRK brukt eller testet både Apple Final Cut +Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Apples Final Cut Pro X til bruk +for å redigere video før sending. Alle disse har bruksvilkår +understøttet av opphavsretten som sier at de kun kan brukes til å lage +filmer til personlig og ikke-kommersiell bruk - med mindre en har en +lisensavtale med MPEG LA om bruk av patenter utstedt i USA for H.264. +Se f.eks. bruksvilkårene for Avid, Adobe Premiere og Apple Final +Cut Studio og søk etter "MPEG LA".

+ +

Dette får meg til å lure på om det er brudd på opphavsretten å bruke +disse verktøyene i strid med bruksvilkårene uten patentavtale med MPEG +LA. Men NRK bruker jo tilsynelatende disse verktøyene uten patentavtale +med MPEG LA.

+ +

I følge forfatteren av Open Broadcast Encoder finnes det to typer +H.264-relaterte avtaler en kan få med MPEG LA. Det er én for å lage +programvare og utstyr som produserer H.264-video, og en annen for å +kringkaste video som bruker H.264. Dette forteller meg at selv om +produsentene av utstyr og programvare som NRK bruker har en slik avtale +med MPEG LA, så trenges det en egen avtale for å kringkaste video på det +formatet.

+ +

I følge Ryan Rodriguez hos MPEG LA, da jeg spurte ham på epost i +juni 2012, har NRK ikke en slik avtale med MPEG LA. Han sa videre at +NRK trenger en slik avtale hvis NRK tilbyr H.264-kodet video til +sluttbrukere. Jeg sjekket listen med +organisasjoner +med avtale med MPEG LA og NRK står fortsatt ikke der.

+ +

Jeg lurer dermed på hva som gjør at NRK kan bruke de overnevnte +videoredigeringsverktøyene, som tilsynelatende har krav om avtale med +MPEG LA for å kunne brukes slik NRK bruker dem, til å lage videofiler +for distribusjon uten å ha en avtale med MPEG LA om distribusjon av +H.264-video? Dette er spesielt interessant å vite for oss andre som +også vurderer å spre H.264-video etter å ha redigert dem med disse mye +brukte videoredigeringsverktøyene.

+

+ +

Samme dag fikk jeg automatisk svar om at min henvendelse hadde fått +saksid 1294699. Jeg fikk deretter følgende respons fra NRK +2015-06-09:

+ +

+

Hei, beklager lang svartid, men det tok litt tid å finne ut hvem som kunne +svare på dette.

+ +

For selskaper som leverer h.264 til sluttbrukere på nett (f.eks +NRKs nett- tv utgaver som bruker h.264) - og som leverer slike +tjenester uten betaling fra forbrukere – er det heller ikke påkrevd +noen patentavtale.

+ +

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100825006629/en/MPEG-LA%E2%80%99s-AVC-License-Charge-Royalties-Internet#.VWb2ws_774Y

+ +

Med vennlig hilsen +
Gunn Helen Berg +
Informasjonskonsulent, Publikumsservice

+ +

NRK +
Strategidivisjonen +
Sentralbord: +47 23 04 70 00 +
Post: NRK Publikumsservice, 8608 Mo i Rana +
nrk.no / info (at) nrk.no

+

+ +Da dette ikke helt var svar på det jeg lurte på, sendte jeg samme dag +oppfølgerepost tilbake: + +

+

[Gunn Helen Berg] +
> Hei, beklager lang svartid, men det tok litt tid å finne ut hvem som +
> kunne svare på dette.

+ +

Takk for svar. Men det besvarte ikke helt det jeg spurte om.

+ +

> For selskaper som leverer h.264 til sluttbrukere på nett (f.eks NRKs +
> nett- tv utgaver som bruker h.264) - og som leverer slike tjenester +
> uten betaling fra forbrukere – er det heller ikke påkrevd noen +
> patentavtale. +
> +
> http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100825006629/en/MPEG-LA%E2%80%99s-AVC-License-Charge-Royalties-Internet#.VWb2ws_774Y

+ +

Spørsmålet er ikke kun om MPEG LA krever patentavtale eller ikke +(hvilket ikke helt besvares av pressemeldingen omtalt over, gitt at +pressemeldingen kom i 2010, to år før MPEG LA ansvarlige for +internasjonal lisensiering egen Ryan Rodriguez fortalte meg på epost +at NRK trenger en lisens.

+ +

Det er uklart fra pressemeldingen hva "Internet Broadcast AVC +Video" konkret betyr, men i følge en +presentasjon +fra MPEG LA med tema "AVC PAtent Portfoli License Briefing" datert +2015-05-15 gjelder "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" kun kringkasting +på Internet som ikke tilbyr valg av enkeltinnslag ("not +title-by-title"), hvilket jo NRK gjør på sine nettsider. I tillegg +kringkaster jo NRK H.264-video også utenom Internet (RiksTV, kabel, +satelitt), hvilket helt klart ikke er dekket av vilkårene omtalt i +pressemeldingen.

+ +

Spørsmålet mitt er hvordan NRK kan bruke verktøy med bruksvilkår +som krever avtale med MPEG LA for det NRK bruker dem til, når NRK ikke +har avtale med MPEG LA. Hvis jeg forsto spørsmålet riktig, så mener +NRK at dere ikke trenger avtale med MPEG LA, men uten slik avtale kan +dere vel ikke bruke hverken Apple Final Cut Studio, Adobe Premiere +Pro, Avid eller Apples Final Cut Pro X for å redigere video før +sending?

+ +

Mine konkrete spørsmål var altså:

    -
  • Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks
  • -
  • Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is - non-existant, to work around additional copy protection
  • -
  • Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles
  • -
  • Fix pallete display of first entry
  • -
  • Fix include orders
  • -
  • Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway
  • -
  • Fix the chapter count
  • -
  • Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising - the palette size is the same.
  • -
  • Fix array printing.
  • -
  • Correct subsecond calculations.
  • -
  • Add sector information to the output format.
  • -
  • Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings - with more GCC compiler warnings.
  • +
  • Hvis NRK har vurdert om det er behov for en patentavtale med MPEG LA + slik det er krav om i programvarelisensene til blant annet Apple + Final Cut Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Apples Final Cut Pro X, + hva var utfallet av en slik vurdering? Kan jeg fÃ¥ kopi av vurderingen + hvis den er gjort skriftlig?
  • + +
  • Hvis NRK ikke har vurdert dette, har NRK planer om Ã¥ vurdere behovet + for patentavtale?
  • + +
  • Hva slags saksnummer fikk min henvendelse i NRKs offentlige + postjournal? Jeg ser at postjournalen ikke er publisert for den + aktuelle perioden ennÃ¥, sÃ¥ jeg fikk ikke sjekket selv.
+

+ +

Det hjelper å ha funnet rette vedkommende i NRK, for denne gangen +fikk jeg svar tilbake dagen etter (2015-06-10), fra Geir Børdalen i +NRK:

-

This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various -Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the -project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)

+

+

Hei Petter Reinholdtsen

+ +

Jeg har sjekket saken med distribusjonssjef for tv, Arild Hellgren +(som var teknologidirektør da bakkenettet ble satt opp). NRK v/ +Hellgren hadde møte med MPEG LA sammen med den europeiske +kringkastingsunionen EBU før bakkenettet for TV ble satt opp +(igangsatt høsten 2007). I dette møtet ble det avklart at NRK/EBU ikke +trengte noen patentavtale for h.264 i forbindelse med oppsett av +bakkenettet eller bruk av MPEG4 h.264 som kompresjonsalgoritme fordi +tjenesten «in full»(nor: helt) var betalt av utsendelseselskapene og +ikke av forbrukerne.

+ +

http://www.nrk.no/oppdrag/digitalt-bakkenett-1.3214555

+ +

Det er også klart slått fast at selskaper som leverer video basert +på MPEG4 h.264 til sluttbrukere på nett, heller ikke påkrevd noen +patentavtale – så lenge de leverer slike tjenester uten betaling fra +sluttbrukere.

+ +http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100825006629/en/MPEG-LA%E2%80%99s-AVC-License-Charge-Royalties-Internet#.VWb2ws_774Y + +

“MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will +continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to +end users (known as “Internet Broadcast AVC Video”) during the entire +life of this License. MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge +royalties for such video through December 31, 2015 (see +http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf), +and today’s announcement makes clear that royalties will continue not +to be charged for such video beyond that time. Products and services +other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be +royalty-bearing.”

+ +

Vi har derfor ikke noe behov for å vurdere noen patentavtale med +MPEG LA.

+ +

Understreker for øvrig at NRK ikke er låst til MPEG4 – h.264 som +utsendelsesformat – og at vi har brukt og bruker flere andre +alternativer i våre tjenester. Ulike «devicer» har ofte behov for +forskjellige løsninger – og NRK har forsøkt å levere med best mulig +kvalitet /økonomi /stabilitet avhengig av +plattform. Produksjonsformater i NRK spenner for øvrig over en rekke +forskjellige formater – hvor MPEG4 bare er en av disse. Når NRK kjøper +teknisk utstyr er betaling for kodekstøtte ofte en del av +anskaffelsesprisen for denne maskinvaren (enten dette er spesialiserte +enkodere eller forskjellige typer produksjonsutstyr).

+ +

Vennlig hilsen +
Geir Børdalen

+ +

________________________________________ +
Geir Børdalen +
Investeringsansvarlig NRK / Hovedprosjektleder - Origo +
Avdeling for utvikling, innovasjon, investering og eiendom +
NRK medietjenester +
Sentralbord: +47 23 04 70 00 +
Post: NRK, AUTV (RBM5), Pb. 8500 Majorstuen, 0340 Oslo +
nrk.no +

+ +

Et godt og grundig svar, som var informativt om hvordan NRK tenker +rundt patentavtale med MPEG LA, men heller ikke helt besvarte det jeg +lurte på, så jeg sendte epostoppfølging samme dag.

+ +

+

[Geir Børdalen] +
> Hei Petter Reinholdtsen

+ +

Hei, og takk for raskt svar. Er min henvendelse journalført slik +at den dukker opp i NRKs postjournal?

+ +

Svaret ditt var meget nyttig, og jeg forstår ut fra det du skriver +at avklaringen med MPEG LA rundt H.264-distribusjon via bakkenettet +gjelder alle TV-kanaler i Norge. Hvilke saksnummer fikk dokumenter +som ble opprettet i forbindelse med det omtalte møtet NRK v/Hellgren +og EBU hadde med MPEG LA (dvs. referater, avtaler, etc), +f.eks. dokumentet der formuleringen "in full" som du omtaler +finnes?

+ +

Men det er et par ting jeg fortsatt ikke forstår. Det ene er +hvorfor NRKs forståelse av hva "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" dekker +ser ut til å avvike fra det som presenteres i +lysark +fra MPEG LA i mai, der MPEG LA på lysark med overskriften +"AVC/H.264 License Terms Participation Fees" og undertittel "Where +remuneration is from other sources" skriver "Internet Broadcast AVC +Video (not title-by-title, not subscription) – no royalty for life of +the AVC Patent Portfolio License".

+ +

Her leser jeg MPEG LA dithen at det kun er kringkasting uten +abonnement via Internet som er dekket at vilkårne omtalt i +pressemeldingen, mens jeg forstår deg dithen at NRK mener NRKs +nettsider som også har enkeltfilmer og innslag (som jeg forstår dekket +av formuleringen "title-by-title") dekkes av "Internet Broadcast AVC +Video" fra MPEG LA. Hva baserer dere denne tolkningen på? Jeg har +ikke sett noe skriftlig fra MPEG LA som støtter NRKs tolkning, og +lurer på om dere har andre kilder enn den pressemeldingen fra 5 år +tilbake, der NRKS forståelse av hva "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" +dekker er beskrevet?

+ +

Det andre er at eposten din ikke nevnte spørsmålet mitt om +bruksvilkårene til videoredigeringsverktøyene som NRK bruker. Disse +har som tidligere nevnt krav om at de kun skal brukes til private og +ikke-kommersielle formål med mindre en har avtale med MPEG LA, og uten +avtale med MPEG LA kan det jo virke som om NRK bruker verktøyene i +strid med bruksvilkårene. Hva gjør at disse bruksvilkårene ikke +gjelder for NRK?

+

+ +

Noen minutter senere får jeg foreløpig siste svar i +føljetongen:

+ +

+

Hei igjen

+ +

Vårt dokumentarkiv har fått en kopi (journalføringsnr kan jeg +dessverre ikke gi deg).

+ +

> Svaret ditt var meget nyttig, og jeg forstår ut fra det du +
> skriver at avklaringen med MPEG LA rundt H.264-distribusjon via +
> bakkenettet gjelder alle TV-kanaler i Norge.

+ +

Svar: Kan ikke svare for andre enn for NRK/EBU - og for bakkenettet +i Norge er det kun NRK som er et lisensbasert selskap. Kan ikke gi noe +svar på saksnr på dokumenter eller ytterligere informasjon da jeg selv +ikke var del i dette.

+ +

> Men det er et par ting jeg fortsatt ikke forstår. ...

+ +

Svar: Kan ikke gå ytterligere inn i dette fra min side og mitt +fagfelt som er produksjon/publisering og systemstrukturene bak +disse. For øvrig ligger det etter vår formening ingen begrensninger +for NRK i mulighetene til publisering mht til kodek i +produksjonssystemer. Som tidligere skrevet mener vi at NRK ikke +trenger noen avtale med MPEG LA og støtter oss til det vi allerede har +kommunisert i forrige epost.

+ +

Mvh +
Geir Børdalen

+

+ +

Det syntes vanskelig å komme videre når NRK ikke ønsker å gå inn i +problemstillingen rundt bruksvilkårene til videoredigeringsverktøyene +NRK bruker, så jeg sendte takk for svarene og avsluttet utvekslingen +så langt:

+ +

+

Tusen takk for rask respons, og oppklarende forklaring om hvordan +NRK tenker rundt MPEG LA.

+ +

Jeg vil høre med NRK-arkivet for å se om de kan spore opp de +omtalte dokumentene. Jeg setter pris på om du kan dele titler, dato +eller annen informasjon som kan gjøre det enklere for arkivet å finne +dem.

+ +

Når det gjelder hvordan bruksvilkårene til +videoredigeringsverktøyene skal tolkes, så skal jeg høre med MPEG LA +og produsentene av verktøyene for å forsøke å få klarhet i hva de +mener er rikgig rettstilstand.

+

+ +

Jeg ble litt klokere, men fortsatt er det uklart for meg hva som er +grunnlaget til NRK for å se bort fra bruksvilkår i +videoredigeringsprogramvare som krever MPEG LA-avtale til alt annet +enn privat og ikke-kommersiell bruk.

@@ -756,77 +1112,92 @@ project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)

- -
26th September 2014
-

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project provide a Linux solution for schools, including a -powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing -web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE -boot of both clients without disk and the installation to install Debian -Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small -to mention here). We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on -the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the -freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the -future. The -current -status can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of -work left. Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer, -but it is possible to work around these to get anyway. Here is a -recipe on how to get the installation limping along.

- -

First, download the test ISO via -ftp, -http -or rsync (use -ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso). -The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every -12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to -install with some tweaking.

- -

When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2 -(use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run

- -

-nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
-

- -

and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata -optimization. Return to the installation, select the profile you want -and continue. Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install -due to a known bug in eatmydata.

- -

When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if -this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be. All my -test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit -your need.

- -

If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as -root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the -education-desktop-XXX metapackage. XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce -or mate. If you want several desktop options, install more than one -metapackage. Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working -graphical login screen. This workaround should no longer be needed -once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two -days.

- -

I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new -tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to -update the debian-cd git repository. The eatmydata, grub and desktop -issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up -on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again. Well the -eatmydata optimization is really just disabled. The proper fix -require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch -provided in bug #702711. -The rest have proper fixes in unstable.

- -

I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are -quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based -installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.

+ +
12th May 2015
+

Noen finner det vanskelig å tro at Stortinget faktisk har vedtatt å +kreve at alle norske borgerne må avgi fingeravtrykk til politiet for å +fungere i samfunnet. Jeg er blitt spurt hva som er grunnlaget for +min +påstand i forrige bloggpost om at det nå blir krav om å avgi +fingeravtrykk til politiet for å fungere som borger i Norge. De som +spør klarer ikke lese det ut fra det som er vedtatt. Her er en liten +oppsummering om hva jeg baserer det på. Det sies ikke direkte i +hverken proposisjon, innstilling eller vedtak, men fremgår når en ser +på indirekte formuleringer.

+ +

I +stortingsproposisjon +66, avsnitt 6.3.5 (Avgivelse av biometriske personopplysninger) +står det

+ +

+ +

Departementet foreslår at både ansiktsfoto og fingeravtrykk skal + kunne opptas og lagres som identifikasjonsdata i de nasjonale + ID-kortene, på samme måte som i passene. Lovforslaget er derfor + utformet i tråd med passloven § 6 annet ledd, som fastslår at det + til bruk for senere verifisering eller kontroll av passinnehaverens + identitet kan innhentes og lagres i passet biometrisk + personinformasjon i form av ansiktsfoto og fingeravtrykk (to + fingre). Dagens ordning med lagring av ansiktsfoto og fingeravtrykk + i et kontaktløst smartkort i passet er basert på internasjonale + standarder. Fingeravtrykkene i nasjonalt ID-kort vil bli beskyttet + på samme måte som fingeravtrykkene i passene.

+ +

[...]

+ +

For norske forhold understreker departementet at innføring av + nasjonale ID-kort sammen med innføring av nye systemer for sikrere + utstedelse og kontroll av pass og relaterte dokumenter gir mulighet + til å utforme ordningen slik at den best mulig møter utfordringene + forbundet med identitetskriminalitet. Det tilsier at fingeravtrykk + opptas og lagres i alle nasjonale ID-kort.

+

+ +

Departementet sier altså at sin anbefaling er at fingeravtrykk skal +opptas og lagres i alle nasjonale ID-kort. Det skrives som om det +blir valgfritt, på samme måten som det skrives passloven, der det i +loven sier at det kan +«innhentes +og lagres i passet biometrisk personinformasjon i form av ansiktsfoto +og fingeravtrykk (to fingre)». Men på tross av bruken av «kan» i +passloven er det innført krav om å avgi fingeravtrykk for å få et pass +i Norge. Proposisjonen sier i tillegg i del 1 (Proposisjonens +hovedinnhold) at ID-kortene skal være like pålitelig som pass og ha +samme sikkerhetsnivå som pass. Departementet foreslår altså at +ID-kortene skal gis etter samme regler som for pass.

+ +

Formuleringene fra hovedinnholdet i proposisjonen er videreført i +innstillingen +fra stortingskomiteen, der det konkret står «De foreslåtte reglene +vil gi befolkningen tilbud om et offentlig utstedt identitetsbevis som +vil være like pålitelig som passet, og mer praktisk å bruke som +legitimasjon» og «Det nasjonale ID-kortet skal også holde samme +sikkerhetsnivå som passet». Komiteen har altså ingen kommentarer +eller innsigelser til dette forslaget, og gjorde i debatten da saken +ble vedtatt det klart at dette var en god sak og at en enstemmig +komité var glad for resultatet. Stortinget har dermed stilt seg helt +og fullt bak departementets forslag.

+ +

For meg er det åpenbart når en leser proposisjonen at «like +pålitelig» og «samme sikkerhetsnivå» vil bli tolket av departementet +som «med samme biometrisk informasjon som i passene», og departementet +forklarer i tillegg i proposisjonen at de har tenkt at +fingeravtrykkene «vil bli beskyttet på samme måte som fingeravtrykkene +i passene». Jeg ser det dermed som åpenbart at den samme +tvangsinnhentingen av fingeravtrykk som gjelder for pass vil bli +viderført til de nasjonale ID-kortene.

+ +

Det eneste som kan endre dette er massive protester fra +befolkningen på at folk som ikke er mistenkt for noe kriminelt skal +tvinges til å gi fingeravtrykket til politiet for å f.eks. kunne få +bankkonto eller stemme ved valg. Det kunne få departementet til å +snu. Det tror jeg ikke vil skje.

@@ -841,6 +1212,25 @@ installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.

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