X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/f8a36d04e3add7c8b31712f1a5fa449f0092adf2..55ce0004fb554c520b1de9665ac208e8eba1c85b:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 50cf807a1d..892cf1ba15 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,94 +20,92 @@
-
Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen
-
31st July 2014
-

The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for -schools, Debian Edu / -Skolelinux, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people -involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists -from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust -the setup. I managed to interview him this summer.

- -

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

- -

My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self -employed physiotherapist. My former profession is tool maker, but I -haven't worked for 30 years in this job. 30 years ago I started to -support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the -administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu -Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows -Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only -works with Windows . :-(

- -

In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use -Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX. Today we are running a -Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of -children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist, -psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to -work with the documentations of our patients.

- -

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

- -

Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in -his school (Gymnasium -Harsewinkel). They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they -were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the -software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their -computer skills in optional lessons. I'm spending 4-6 hours a week -with this job.

- -

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

- -

The independence.

- -

First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the -software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software -included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.

- -

Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the -possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices. The -servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are -working reliable.

- -

We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45 -workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile -solution for all classrooms. These machines are all booting from the -terminal server. In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile -workstations. Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these -machines in their classrooms. Internet access is realized by a WLAN -router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a -dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.

- -

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

- -

Teachers and pupils are Windows users. <Irony on> And Linux -isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. <Irony -off> They don't realize the stability of the system.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba, -Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)

- -

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

- -

In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide -which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by -teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with -Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS -Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software -instead. Another problem are the publisher of school books. They -develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.

+
Blir det virkelig krav om fingeravtrykk i nasjonale ID-kort?
+
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.

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: norsk, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -115,39 +113,62 @@ develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.

-
98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture
-
23rd July 2014
-

This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian -docbook version of the 2004 book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, -to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright -law. Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text. There -are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page -need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be -translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof -reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations -need to be cleaned up. The work stopped up because I had to give -priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of -the translation show this very well:

- -

- -

If you want to read the result, check out the -github -project pages and the -PDF, -EPUB -and HTML version available in the -archive -directory.

- -

Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if -you find any.

+
Norwegian citizens now required by law to give their fingerprint to the police
+
10th May 2015
+

5 days ago, the Norwegian Parliament decided, unanimously, that all +citizens of Norway, no matter if they are suspected of something +criminal or not, are +required to +give fingerprints to the police (vote details from Holder de +ord). The law make it sound like it will be optional, but in a few +years there will be no option any more. The ID will be required to +vote, to get a bank account, a bank card, to change address on the +post office, to receive an electronic ID or to get a drivers license +and many other tasks required to function in Norway. The banks plan +to stop providing their own ID on the bank cards when this new +national ID is introduced, and the national road authorities plan to +change the drivers license to no longer be usable as identity cards. +In effect, to function as a citizen in Norway a national ID card will +be required, and to get it one need to provide the fingerprints to +the police.

+ +

In addition to handing the fingerprint to the police (which +promised to not make a copy of the fingerprint image at that point in +time, but say nothing about doing it later), a picture of the +fingerprint will be stored on the RFID chip, along with a picture of +the face and other information about the person. Some of the +information will be encrypted, but the encryption will be the same +system as currently used in the passports. The codes to decrypt will +be available to a lot of government offices and their suppliers around +the globe, but for those that do now know anyone in those circles it +is good to know that + +the +encryption is already broken. And they +can +be read from 70 meters away. This can be mitigated a bit by +keeping it in a Faraday cage (metal box or metal wire container), but +one will be required to take it out of there often enough to expose +ones private and personal information to a lot of people that have no +business getting access to that information.

+ +

The new Norwegian national IDs are a vehicle for identity theft, +and I feel sorry for us all having politicians accepting such invasion +of privacy without any objections. So are the Norwegian passports, +but it has been possible to function in Norway without those so far. +That option is going away with the passing of the new law. In this, I +envy the Germans, because for them it is optional how much biometric +information is stored in their national ID.

+ +

And if forced collection of fingerprints was not bad enough, the +information collected in the national ID card register can be handed +over to foreign intelligence services and police authorities, "when +extradition is not considered disproportionate".

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -155,111 +176,62 @@ you find any.

-
From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook
-
17th June 2014
-

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project provide an instruction manual for teachers, system -administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up -and maintaining a Debian Edu installation. This text is about how the -text processing of this manual is handled in the project.

- -

One goal of the project is to provide information in the native -language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations. -But we also want to make sure each language contain the same -information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations -in sync. And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the -documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to -contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to -edit the documentation using a web browser. We also want it to be -easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them -help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of -tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these -goals.

- -

We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the -Debian -wiki, as several wiki pages written in English. It consist of one -front page with references to the different chapters, several pages -for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the -chapters together into one large web page (aka -the -AllInOne page). The AllInOne page is the one used for further -processing and translations. Thanks to the fact that the -MoinMoin installation on -wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in -the Docbook format, we can fetch -the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne -page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the -manual. This process also download images and transform image -references to use the locally downloaded images. The generated -Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done -using the documentation/scripts/get_manual program, and the -result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and -a handfull of images. The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML -and epub versions of the English manual. This is the basic step of -our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and -epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files -are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.

- -

But English documentation is not enough for us. We want translated -documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to -track the English original. For this we use the -poxml package, -which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a -translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based -translation tools used by those translating free software. The pot -file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po -files), which the translations update with the native language -translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the -original. The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML -and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to -create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case -debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml). This translated (or partly -translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can -then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version -of the documentation.

- -

The translators use different tools to edit the .po files. We -recommend using -lokalize, -while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like -Poodle or -Transifex. All we care about -is where the .po file end up, in our git repository. Updated -translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as -bug reports -against the debian-edu-doc package.

- -

One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if -they show translated user applications), and are needed in different -formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in -this regard). For this we transform the original PNG images to the -needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide -translated images by storing translated versions in -images/$LANGUAGECODE/. I am a bit unsure about the details here. The -package maintainers know more.

- -

If you wonder what the result look like, we provide -the content -of the documentation packages on the web. See for example the -Italian -PDF version or the -German -HTML version. We do not yet build the epub version by default, -but perhaps it will be done in the future.

- -

To learn more, check out -the -debian-edu-doc package, -the -manual on the wiki and -the -translation instructions in the manual.

+
What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?
+
1st May 2015
+

Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost +to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the +cost of around 20 million NOK (2.4 mill EUR) for all the calls in a +year. I got curious and wondered what the same calculation would look +like today. To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is +needed for each minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in +Norway sums up to, and the cost of data storage.

+ +

The 2005 numbers are from +digi.no, +the 2012 numbers are from +a +NKOM report, and I got the 2013 numbers after asking NKOM via +email. I was told the numbers for 2014 will be presented May 20th, +and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very +different from the numbers from 2013.

+ +

The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted +quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that 8 Kbit/s is +enough. See for example a +summary +on voice quality from Cisco for some alternatives. 8 Kbit/s is 60 +Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes +to get the storage requirements.

+ +

Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies, +availability requirements etc. But a simple way to calculate can be +to use the price of a TiB-disk (around 1000 NOK / 120 EUR) and double +it to take space, power and redundancy into account. It could be much +higher with high speed and good redundancy requirements.

+ +

But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone +calls in Norway? Not much. Here is a small table showing the +estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium +and large organisations:

+ + + + + + +
YearCall minutesSizePrice in NOK / EUR
200524 000 000 0001.3 PiB3 mill / 358 000
201218 000 000 0001.0 PiB2.2 mill / 262 000
201317 000 000 000950 TiB2.1 mill / 250 000
+ +

This is the cost of buying the storage. Maintenance need to be +taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise +for the reader. But it is obvious to me from those numbers that +recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be +stopped because it is too expensive. I wonder if someone already is +collecting the data?

- Tags: debian, debian edu, docbook, english. + Tags: english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -267,57 +239,194 @@ translation instructions in the manual.

-
Hvordan enkelt laste ned filmer fra NRK med den "nye" løsningen
-
16th June 2014
-

Jeg har fortsatt behov for å kunne laste ned innslag fra NRKs -nettsted av og til for å se senere når jeg ikke er på nett, men -min -oppskrift fra 2011 sluttet å fungere da NRK byttet -avspillermetode. I dag fikk jeg endelig lett etter oppdatert løsning, -og jeg er veldig glad for å fortelle at den enkleste måten å laste ned -innslag er å bruke siste versjon 2014.06.07 av -youtube-dl. Støtten i -youtube-dl kom -inn for 23 dager siden og -versjonen i -Debian fungerer fint også som backport til Debian Wheezy. Det er -et lite problem, det håndterer kun URLer med små bokstaver, men hvis -en har en URL med store bokstaver kan en bare gjøre alle store om til -små bokstaver for å få youtube-dl til å laste ned. Rapporterte -nettopp -problemet til -utviklerne, og antar de får fikset det snart.

- -

Dermed er alt klart til å laste ned dokumentarene om -USAs -hemmelige avlytting og -Selskapene -bak USAs avlytting, i tillegg til -intervjuet -med Edward Snowden gjort av den tyske tv-kanalen ARD. Anbefaler -alle å se disse, sammen med -foredraget -til Jacob Appelbaum på siste CCC-konferanse, for å forstå mer om -hvordan overvåkningen av borgerne brer om seg.

- -

Takk til gode venner på foreningen NUUGs IRC-kanal -#nuug på irc.freenode.net -for tipsene som fikk meg i mål.

- -

Oppdatering 2014-06-17: Etter at jeg publiserte -denne, ble jeg tipset om bloggposten -"Downloading -HD content from tv.nrk.no" av Ingvar Hagelund, som har alternativ -implementasjon og tips for å lage mkv-fil med undertekstene inkludert. -Kanskje den passer bedre for deg? I tillegg ble feilen i youtube-dl -ble fikset litt senere ut på dagen i går, samt at youtube-dl fikk -støtte for å laste ned undertitler. Takk til Anders Einar Hilden for -god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.

+
First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release
+
26th April 2015
+

I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out +this +announcement today:

+ +
+the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first
+*beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first
+time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable
+release, Debian 8 "Jessie".
+
+(As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been
+released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish
+later today ;)
+
+We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming
+weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades
+from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will
+be possible and encouraged!
+
+Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit
+bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
+
+Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete
+operating system for schools, universities and other
+organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles
+administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which
+will work in harmony on the school network.  With Debian Edu, the
+teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a
+complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or
+days.
+
+Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the
+world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come
+with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian
+archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach.
+
+For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
+installation instructions are available, including detailed
+instructions in the manual 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!
+
+== Where to download ==
+
+A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
+can be downloaded at the following locations:
+
+    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso
+    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso . 
+
+The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a
+
+Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also
+available, with more software included (saving additional download
+time):
+
+    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
+    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso 
+
+The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636
+
+Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
+http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
+options.
+
+== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==
+
+Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
+the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.
+
+This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian,
+Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists
+for Spanish.  See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for
+online version of the translated manual.
+
+More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the
+release notes and the installation manual:
+- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
+- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
+
+
+== Errata / known problems ==
+
+    It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
+    DHCP (#780461).
+
+    The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). 
+
+Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
+hostname immediately.
+
+Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
+more current and complete list.
+
+== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==
+
+=== Software updates ===
+
+Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:
+
+ * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for
+   i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like
+   Intel Pentium and AMD K5).
+
+ * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14,
+   Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
+   * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
+   * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of
+     the others see the manual.
+ * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
+ * 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 14.12
+ * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
+ * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
+ * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
+ * golearn 0.9
+ * tuxpaint 0.9.22
+ * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
+ * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation.
+ * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release
+   notes and the installation manual, see the link above.
+
+=== Installation changes ===
+
+    Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
+    for the hardware present.
+
+=== Fixed bugs ===
+
+A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
+from a user perspective:
+
+ * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
+   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
+   information is corrected (710362)
+
+ * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). 
+
+=== Sugar desktop removed ===
+
+As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
+available in Debian Edu jessie.
+
+
+== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==
+
+Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on
+Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
+configured school network. Directly 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 and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
+can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
+environment.
+
+== 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.
+
+== Thanks ==
+
+Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
+You rock.
+
- Tags: multimedia, norsk, video, web. + Tags: debian edu, english.
@@ -325,59 +434,193 @@ god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.

-
Free software car computer solution?
-
29th May 2014
-

Dear lazyweb. I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer -in my car, connected to -a -small screen next to the rear mirror. I plan to hook it up with a -GPS and a USB wifi card too. The idea is to get my own -"Carputer". But I -wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for -such car computer.

- -

This is my current wish list for such system:

+
Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal
+
15th April 2015
+

It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete +computer system for schools I've involved in, +Debian Edu / Skolelinux, was +being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an +interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish +Agarwal.

-
    +

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

    -
  • Work on Raspberry Pi.
    • +

    My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and +historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India. +My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips, +installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different +fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with +few software start-ups as well.

    -
  • Show current speed limit based on location, and warn if going too - fast (for example using color codes yellow and red on the screen, - or make a sound). This could be done either using either data from - Openstreetmap or OCR - info gathered from a dashboard camera.
    • +

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

    -
  • Track automatic toll road passes and their cost, show total spent - and make it possible to calculate toll costs for planned - route.
    • +

    It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few +years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was +anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free +educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many +nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as +it was known then. Since then I have started using the various +education meta-packages provided by the project.

    -
  • Collect GPX tracks for use with OpenStreetMap.
    • +

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

    -
  • Automatically detect and use any wireless connection to connect - to home server. Try IP over DNS - (iodine) or ICMP - (Hans) if direct - connection do not work.
    • +

    It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational +software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and +figuratively). Even if I take the simplest software which is +gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of +the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even +pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered +#781841 and +#781842.

    + +

    I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions, +as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the +possibility of a larger life span. Of course with both it's more a +question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both +for the developer per-se.

    + +

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

    -
  • Set up mesh network to talk to other cars with the same system, - or some standard car mesh protocol.
    • +

    I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I +think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take +help from people and the larger community wherever possible.

    + +

    I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact +that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it. +However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is +pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done +but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them. +Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but +still) I have had for a long time :

    + +

    1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions +each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how +far would each travel and similar questions like these. + +

    The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can +be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in +interactive manner. While sites such as the +Ask +Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem (as an example or point of +inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done. I dunno +if there is a free software which does something like this. The idea +being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does +this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or +colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question +or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour. +This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how +the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started, +psychics and everything in-between.

    + +

    One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on +one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they +meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could +also be used.

    + +

    2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have +enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary. I don't think it +should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and +sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers +from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be +the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on +the user's input.

    + +

    3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called +palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What +needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and +copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into +nature, history etc. and let it loose. This could turn to be really +huge collection of images. One source could be taken from +commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free +stock photos. Potential is immense.

    + +

    Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag +both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a +lot. This is more so in educational software as these applications +need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is +immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and +maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know +of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and +maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.

    -
  • Warn when approaching speed cameras and speed camera ranges - (speed calculated between two cameras).
    • +

    Which free software do you use daily?

    -
  • Suport dashboard/front facing camera to discover speed limits and - run OCR to track registration number of passing cars.
    • +

    That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt, +aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays), +quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly +between kpat and Aiselriot. In desktops it's a tie between +gnome-flashback and mate.

    -
+

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

-

If you know of any free software car computer system supporting -some or all of these features, please let me know.

+

I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in +whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it. +Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the +school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the +people now understand the concept of a repository because of the +various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.

+ +

What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and +passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers +then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as +well.

+ +

I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For +instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but +there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La +Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.

+ +

One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates +and upgrades. People have this myth that each update and upgrade +means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this +innumerable times. That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers +like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because +it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that +changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with +the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS +releases.

+ +

The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest +is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu +is aimed at. + +

Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for +around 2 years, and +gathered +some experience there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered +there was :

+ +
    + +
  1. Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects + and they do not want you to teach anything out of the + portion/syllabus given.
    2. + +
  2. They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever + is in the syllabus.
    3. + +
  3. There are huge barriers both with the English language and at + times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris + you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's + say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be + as recognizable as say a + Puneri + Pagdi so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever + possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words + which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in + parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or + something but that is something for upstream to do.
    4. + +
- Tags: english. + Tags: debian edu, english, intervju.
@@ -385,54 +628,33 @@ some or all of these features, please let me know.

-
Half the Coverity issues in Gnash fixed in the next release
-
29th April 2014
-

I've been following the Gnash -project for quite a while now. It is a free software -implementation of Adobe Flash, both a standalone player and a browser -plugin. Gnash implement support for the AVM1 format (and not the -newer AVM2 format - see -Lightspark for that one), -allowing several flash based sites to work. Thanks to the friendly -developers at Youtube, it also work with Youtube videos, because the -Javascript code at Youtube detect Gnash and serve a AVM1 player to -those users. :) Would be great if someone found time to implement AVM2 -support, but it has not happened yet. If you install both Lightspark -and Gnash, Lightspark will invoke Gnash if it find a AVM1 flash file, -so you can get both handled as free software. Unfortunately, -Lightspark so far only implement a small subset of AVM2, and many -sites do not work yet.

- -

A few months ago, I started looking at -Coverity, the static source -checker used to find heaps and heaps of bugs in free software (thanks -to the donation of a scanning service to free software projects by the -company developing this non-free code checker), and Gnash was one of -the projects I decided to check out. Coverity is able to find lock -errors, memory errors, dead code and more. A few days ago they even -extended it to also be able to find the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. -There are heaps of checks being done on the instrumented code, and the -amount of bogus warnings is quite low compared to the other static -code checkers I have tested over the years.

- -

Since a few weeks ago, I've been working with the other Gnash -developers squashing bugs discovered by Coverity. I was quite happy -today when I checked the current status and saw that of the 777 issues -detected so far, 374 are marked as fixed. This make me confident that -the next Gnash release will be more stable and more dependable than -the previous one. Most of the reported issues were and are in the -test suite, but it also found a few in the rest of the code.

- -

If you want to help out, you find us on -the -gnash-dev mailing list and on -the #gnash channel on -irc.freenode.net IRC server.

+
I'm going to the Open Source Developers' Conference Nordic 2015!
+
7th April 2015
+

I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the Open Source Developers' +Conference Nordic 2015!

+ +

It take place Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of May in Oslo next to +where I work, and I finally got around to submitting +a talk proposal for +it (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted). As +part of my involvement with the +Norwegian Unix User Group member +association I have been slightly involved in the planning of this +conference for a while now, with a focus on organising a Civic Hacking +Hackathon with our friends +over at mySociety and +Holder de ord. This part is +named the 'My Society' track in the program. There is still space for +more talks and participants. I hope to see you there.

+ +

Check out the talks +submitted and accepted so far.

- Tags: english, multimedia, video, web. + Tags: english, fiksgatami, nuug, offentlig innsyn.
@@ -440,94 +662,30 @@ irc.freenode.net IRC server.

-
Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)
-
23rd April 2014
-

It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware -related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically. -So I implemented one, using -my Isenkram -package. To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and -run tasksel as user root. You should be presented with a new option, -"Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)". When you -select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for -the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.

- -

The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry -description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of -packages to install. The first part is in -/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc and look like -this:

- -

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

- -

The second part is in -/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware and look like -this:

- -

-#!/bin/sh
-#
-(
-    isenkram-lookup
-    isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
-) | sort -u
-

- -

All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it -trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to -have installed on our machines. I've not been able to find a way to -get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install -before doing the installation. So if you are curious or careful, -check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.

- -

The information about which packages are handling which hardware is -fetched either from the isenkram package itself in -/usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package -database (using the Modaliases header). The APT package database -parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs -#719837 and -#730704). The cause is in -the python-apt code (bug -#745487), but using a -workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and -reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to -around 2 MiB per hardware detection. It should make the desktop -daemon a lot more useful. The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to -unstable today.

- -

I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in -Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to -use the AppStream data source for this. A proposal for getting proper -AppStream support into Debian is floating around as -DEP-11, and -GSoC -project will take place this summer to improve the situation. I -look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to -start using the information when it is ready.

- -

If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either -add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in -the pymissile -package or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram -package. See also -all my -blog posts tagged isenkram for details on the notation. I expect -the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the -moment I got no better place to store it.

+
Proof reading the Norwegian translation of Free Culture by Lessig
+
4th April 2015
+

During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian +docbook version of the 2004 book +Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. +At the moment I am proof reading the finished text, looking for typos, +inconsistent wordings and sentences that do not flow as they should. +I'm more than two thirds done with the text, and welcome others to +check the text up to chapter 13. The current status is available on the +github +project pages. You can also check out the +PDF, +EPUB +and HTML version available in the +archive +directory.

+ +

Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if +you find any.

- Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.
@@ -535,88 +693,61 @@ moment I got no better place to store it.

-
FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid
-
15th April 2014
-

The Freedombox -project is working on providing the software and hardware to make -it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication -at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family -encrypted and away from prying eyes. It is still going strong, and -today a major mile stone was reached.

- -

Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to -created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable. It was -the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images -during build and on the first boot. Now all one need to get going is -the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from -Debian. And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can -build everything directly from Debian. :)

- -

Some key packages used by Freedombox are -freedombox-setup, -plinth, -pagekite, -tor, -privoxy, -owncloud and -dnsmasq. There -are plans to integrate more packages into the setup. User -documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki. Please -check out -the manual and help us improve it.

- -

To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox -setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to -become root:

- -

-sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
-  mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
-  u-boot-tools
-git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
-  freedom-maker
-make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
-

- -

Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback -devices. See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more -details on the build. If you do not want all three images, trim the -make line. Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really -virtualbox specific. It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu, -vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment. You might need -the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it -include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.

- -

If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed -method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load -the preseed values:

- -

-url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat
-

- -

I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if -it still work.

- -

If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using -systemd as the boot system. It will become the default for Linux in -Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox. I did -a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start -during boot when using systemd. I suspect there are other problems -too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can -be run from the plinth web interface.

- -

Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help -us get the new release published. :) Please join us on -IRC (#freedombox on -irc.debian.org) and -the -mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

+
Frikanalen, Norwegian TV channel for technical topics
+
9th March 2015
+

The Norwegian Unix User Group, +where I am a member, and where people interested in free software, +open standards and UNIX like operating systems like Linux and the BSDs +come together, record our monthly technical presentations on video. +The purpose is to document the talks and spread them to a wider +audience. For this, the the Norwegian nationwide open channel +Frikanalen is a useful venue. +Since a few days ago, when I figured out the +REST API to program the +channel time schedule, +the channel has been filled with NUUG talks, related recordings and +some Creative Commons licensed TED talks (from archive.org). I fill +all "leftover bits" on the channel with content from NUUG, which at +the moment is almost 17 of 24 hours every day.

+ +

The list of NUUG videos +uploaded so far +include things like a +one hour talk by John +Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo, a presentation of +Haiku, the BeOS +re-implementation, the +history of FiksGataMi, +the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet, the good old +Warriors of the net +video and many others.

+ +

We have a large backlog of NUUG talks not yet uploaded to +Frikanalen, and plan to upload every useful bit to the channel to +spread the word there. I also hope to find useful recordings from the +Chaos Computer Club and Debian conferences and spread them on the +channel as well. But this require locating the videos and their meta +information (title, description, license, etc), and preparing the +recordings for broadcast, and I have not yet had the spare time to +focus on this. Perhaps you want to help. Please join us on IRC, +#nuug on irc.freenode.net +if you want to help make this happen.

+ +

But as I said, already the channel is already almost exclusively +filled with technical topics, and if you want to learn something new +today, check out the Ogg Theora +web stream or use one of the other ways to get access to the +channel. Unfortunately the Ogg Theora recoding for distribution still +do not properly sync the video and sound. It is generated by recoding +a internal MPEG transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to +Ogg Theora / Vorbis, and we have not been able to find a way that +produces acceptable quality. Help needed, please get in touch if you +know how to fix it using free software.

- Tags: debian, english, freedombox, sikkerhet, surveillance, web. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
@@ -624,88 +755,36 @@ mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

-
Språkkoder for POSIX locale i Norge
-
11th April 2014
-

For 12 år siden, skrev jeg et lite notat om -bruk av språkkoder -i Norge. Jeg ble nettopp minnet på dette da jeg fikk spørsmål om -notatet fortsatt var aktuelt, og tenkte det var greit å repetere hva -som fortsatt gjelder. Det jeg skrev da er fortsatt like aktuelt.

- -

Når en velger språk i programmer på unix, så velger en blant mange -språkkoder. For språk i Norge anbefales følgende språkkoder (anbefalt -locale i parantes):

- -

-
nb (nb_NO)
Bokmål i Norge
-
nn (nn_NO)
Nynorsk i Norge
-
se (se_NO)
Nordsamisk i Norge
-

- -

Alle programmer som bruker andre koder bør endres.

- -

Språkkoden bør brukes når .po-filer navngis og installeres. Dette -er ikke det samme som locale-koden. For Norsk Bokmål, så bør filene -være navngitt nb.po, mens locale (LANG) bør være nb_NO.

- -

Hvis vi ikke får standardisert de kodene i alle programmene med -norske oversettelser, så er det umulig å gi LANG-variablen ett innhold -som fungerer for alle programmer.

- -

Språkkodene er de offisielle kodene fra ISO 639, og bruken av dem i -forbindelse med POSIX localer er standardisert i RFC 3066 og ISO -15897. Denne anbefalingen er i tråd med de angitte standardene.

- -

Følgende koder er eller har vært i bruk som locale-verdier for -"norske" språk. Disse bør unngås, og erstattes når de oppdages:

- -

- - - - - - - - -
norwegian-> nb_NO
bokmål -> nb_NO
bokmal -> nb_NO
nynorsk -> nn_NO
no -> nb_NO
no_NO -> nb_NO
no_NY -> nn_NO
sme_NO -> se_NO

- -

Merk at når det gjelder de samiske språkene, at se_NO i praksis -henviser til nordsamisk i Norge, mens f.eks. smj_NO henviser til -lulesamisk. Dette notatet er dog ikke ment å gi råd rundt samiske -språkkoder, der gjør -Divvun-prosjektet en bedre -jobb.

- -

Referanser:

- -
    - -
  • RFC 3066 - Tags - for the Identification of Languages (Erstatter RFC 1766)
    • - -
  • ISO - 639 - Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages
    • - -
  • ISO - DTR 14652 - locale-standard Specification method for cultural - conventions
    • - -
  • ISO - 15897: Registration procedures for cultural elements (cultural - registry), - (nytt - draft)
    • - -
  • ISO/IEC - JTC1/SC22/WG20 - Gruppen for i18n-standardisering i ISO
    • - -
      +
      The Citizenfour documentary on the Snowden confirmations to Norway
      +
      28th February 2015
      +

      Today I was happy to learn that the documentary +Citizenfour by +Laura Poitras +finally will show up in Norway. According to the magazine +Montages, a deal has finally been +made for +Cinema +distribution in Norway and the movie will have its premiere soon. +This is great news. As part of my involvement with +the Norwegian Unix User Group, me and +a friend have +tried +to get the movie to Norway ourselves, but obviously +we +were too late and Tor Fosse beat us to it. I am happy he did, as +the movie will make its way to the public and we do not have to make +it happen ourselves. +The trailer +can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this +is.

      + +

      The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum +here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.

      - Tags: norsk. + Tags: english, nuug, personvern, surveillance.
      @@ -713,287 +792,59 @@ jobb.

      -
      S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software
      -
      9th April 2014
      -

      For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup -solution for use at home. My requirements are simple, it must be -cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption -keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files). -One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud -storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage, -writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail -service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space. On top -of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have -lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage. But -I never found time to implement such system. But the last few weeks I -have looked at a system called -S3QL, a locally -mounted network backed file system with the features I need.

      - -

      S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage, -handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3, -Google Drive or OpenStack API. There are heaps of such storage -providers. S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which -combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server. S3QL -include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots -and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as -a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local, -while the content is stored in the cloud as well. This allow me to -have a backup that should survive fire. The file system can not be -shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can -mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and -access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.

      - -

      It is simple to use. I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the -package is included already. So to get started, run apt-get -install s3ql. Next, pick a storage provider. I ended up picking -Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on -how -to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service, because I trust the laws -in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal -data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company -in Iceland. Another nice recipe is available from the article -S3QL -Filesystem for HPC Storage by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of -Admin magazine. When the provider is picked, figure out how to get -the API key needed to connect to the storage API. With Greencloud, -the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my -account.

      - -

      Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file -system. First, create a new bucket in the cloud. This bucket is the -file system storage area. I picked a bucket name reflecting the -machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do. -I'll refer to it as bucket-name below. In addition, one need -the API login and password, and a locally created password. Store it -all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this: - -

      -[s3c]
-storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-backend-login: API-login
-backend-password: API-password
-fs-passphrase: local-password
-

      - -

      I create my local passphrase using pwget 50 or similar, -but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it. -Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API -details and password to create it:

      - -

      -# mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
-# mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Enter backend login: 
-Enter backend password: 
-Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
-the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
-Enter encryption password: 
-Confirm encryption password: 
-Generating random encryption key...
-Creating metadata tables...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
-#

      - -

      The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available. - -

      -# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 4 upload threads.
-Downloading and decompressing metadata...
-Reading metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Mounting filesystem...
-# df -h /s3ql
-Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
-s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
-#
-

      - -

      The file system is now ready for use. I use rsync to store my -backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at -mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by -running rsync. To unmount, one should not use the normal umount -command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but -instead running the umount.s3ql command like this: - -

      -# umount.s3ql /s3ql
-# 
-

      - -

      There is a fsck command available to check the file system and -correct any problems detected. This can be used if the local server -crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already -mounted" flag. This is what it look like when processing a working -file system:

      - -

      -# fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Using cached metadata.
-File system seems clean, checking anyway.
-Checking DB integrity...
-Creating temporary extra indices...
-Checking lost+found...
-Checking cached objects...
-Checking names (refcounts)...
-Checking contents (names)...
-Checking contents (inodes)...
-Checking contents (parent inodes)...
-Checking objects (reference counts)...
-Checking objects (backend)...
-..processed 5000 objects so far..
-..processed 10000 objects so far..
-..processed 15000 objects so far..
-Checking objects (sizes)...
-Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
-Checking blocks (refcounts)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
-Checking inodes (refcounts)...
-Checking inodes (sizes)...
-Checking extended attributes (names)...
-Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
-Checking symlinks (inodes)...
-Checking directory reachability...
-Checking unix conventions...
-Checking referential integrity...
-Dropping temporary indices...
-Backing up old metadata...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
-# 
-

      - -

      Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very -quick, about the same speed as local file access. Uploading large -amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my -house. Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s, -which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same -Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed. -Both were measured using dd. So for me, the bottleneck is my -network, not the file system code. I do not know what a good cache -size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your -working set.

      - -

      I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the -time. If another machine try, it is told that the file system is -busy:

      - -

      -# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 8 upload threads.
-Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
-#
-

      - -

      The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the -metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default. To ensure the -file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the -file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using -s3qlctrl: - -

      -# s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
-# s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
-# 
-

      - -

      If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the -cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the -storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get -a report:

      - -

      -# s3qlstat /s3ql
-Directory entries:    9141
-Inodes:               9143
-Data blocks:          8851
-Total data size:      22049.38 MB
-After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
-After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
-Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
-(some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
-#
-

      - -

      I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of -storage. I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least -Greenqloud, -Google Drive, -Amazon S3 web serivces, -Rackspace and -Crowncloud. The latter even -accept payment in Bitcoin. Pick one that suit your need. Some of -them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are -quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you -best.

      - -

      While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers -and posters discussing the S3QL file system. There are several, which -told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the -science community and increased my confidence in using it. One nice -poster is titled -"An -Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject -Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach" by Hsing-Bung -Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields -and Pamela Smith. Please have a look.

      - -

      Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to -check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as -a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when -it come to locking and umask handling etc). Running -my -test code to check file system semantics, I was happy to discover that -no error was found. So the file system can be used for home -directories, if one chooses to do so.

      - -

      If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that -work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the -Tarsnap service, which also -provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client. It have -a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write -access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to -only read from it.

      - -

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

      +
      The Norwegian open channel Frikanalen - 24x7 on the Internet
      +
      25th February 2015
      +

      The Norwegian nationwide open channel +Frikanalen is still going +strong. It allow everyone to send the video they want on national +television. It is a TV station administrated completely using a web +browser, running only Free +Software, providing a REST +api for administrators and members, and with distribution on the +national DVB-T distribution network RiksTV. But only between 12:00 +and 17:30 Norwegian time. This has finally changed, after many years +with limited distribution. A few weeks ago, we set up a Ogg Theora +stream via icecast to allow everyone with Internet access to check out +the channel the rest of the day. This is presented on +the Frikanalen web site now. And +since a few days ago, the channel is also available +via multicast on +UNINETT, available for those using IPTV TVs and set-top boxes in +the Norwegian National Research and Education network.

      + +

      If you want to see what is on the channel, point your media player +to one of these sources. The first should work with most players and +browsers, while as far as I know, the multicast UDP stream only work +with VLC.

      + + + +

      The Ogg Theora / icecast stream is not working well, as the video +and audio is slightly out of sync. We have not been able to figure +out how to fix it. It is generated by recoding a internal MPEG +transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to Ogg Theora / +Vorbis, and the result is less then stellar. If you have ideas how to +fix it, please let us know on frikanalen (at) nuug.no. We currently +use this with ffmpeg2theora 0.29:

      + +
      +./ffmpeg2theora.linux <OBE_gemini_URL.ts> -F 25 -x 720 -y 405 \
+ --deinterlace --inputfps 25 -c 1 -H 48000 --keyint 8 --buf-delay 100 \
+ --nosync -V 700 -o - | oggfwd video.nuug.no 8000 <pw> /frikanalen.ogv
+
      + +

      If you get the multicast UDP stream working, please let me know, as +I am curious how far the multicast stream reach. It do not make it to +my home network, nor any other commercially available network in +Norway that I am aware of.

      - Tags: debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
      @@ -1008,6 +859,21 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

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