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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          3rd July 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
  32 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
  33 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
  34 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
  35 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
  36 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
  37 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
  38 Github source, compared it to the source in
  39 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
  40 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
  41 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
  42 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
  43 the recipe how I did it.</p>
  44
  45 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
  46
  47 <pre>
  48 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
  49 </pre>
  50
  51 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
  52 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
  53
  54 <pre>
  55 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
  56 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
  57 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
  58 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
  59 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
  60          });
  61      });
  62
  63 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
  64 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
  65 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
  66 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
  67      var messageReceiver;
  68      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
  69          if (messageReceiver) {
  70 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
  71 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
  72 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
  73 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
  74  ;(function() {
  75      'use strict';
  76 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
  77 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
  78
  79      window.extension = window.extension || {};
  80
  81 EOF
  82 </pre>
  83
  84 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
  85 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
  86 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
  87 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
  88
  89 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
  90 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
  91
  92 <pre>
  93 #!/bin/sh
  94 cd $(dirname $0)
  95 mkdir -p userdata
  96 exec chromium \
  97   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
  98   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
  99 </pre>
 100
 101 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
 102 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
 103 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
 104 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
 105 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
 106
 107 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
 108 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
 109 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
 110 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
 111 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
 112 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
 113 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
 114 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
 115 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
 116 Signal from my laptop.
 117
 118 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
 119 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
 120 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
 121 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
 122 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
 123 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
 124 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
 125 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
 126 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
 127 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
 128 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
 129 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
 130
 131       </div>
 132       <div class="tags">
 133
 134
 135         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 136
 137
 138       </div>
 139     </div>
 140     <div class="padding"></div>
 141
 142     <div class="entry">
 143       <div class="title">
 144         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
 145       </div>
 146       <div class="date">
 147          6th June 2016
 148       </div>
 149       <div class="body">
 150         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
 151 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
 152 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
 153 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
 154 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
 155 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
 156 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
 157 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
 158 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
 159
 160 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
 161 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
 162 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
 163 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
 164 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
 165 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
 166 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
 167
 168 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
 169 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
 170 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
 171 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
 172 toten and parole.</p>
 173
 174 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
 175 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
 176 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
 177 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
 178 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
 179 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
 180 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
 181 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
 182 formats.</p>
 183
 184       </div>
 185       <div class="tags">
 186
 187
 188         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 189
 190
 191       </div>
 192     </div>
 193     <div class="padding"></div>
 194
 195     <div class="entry">
 196       <div class="title">
 197         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
 198       </div>
 199       <div class="date">
 200          5th June 2016
 201       </div>
 202       <div class="body">
 203         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
 204 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
 205 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
 206 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
 207 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
 208 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
 209 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
 210 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
 211 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
 212 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
 213 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
 214 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
 215 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
 216 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
 217 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
 218 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
 219 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
 220 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
 221 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
 222 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
 223
 224 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
 225 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
 226 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
 227 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
 228 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
 229 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
 230 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
 231 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
 232 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
 233 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
 234 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
 235 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
 236 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
 237 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
 238
 239 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
 240 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
 241 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
 242 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
 243 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
 244 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
 245 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
 246 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
 247
 248 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
 249 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
 250 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
 251 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
 252 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
 253 information is collected from
 254 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
 255 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
 256 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
 257 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
 258 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
 259 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
 260 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
 261 type (preferably
 262 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
 263 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
 264 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
 265 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
 266
 267 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
 268 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
 269 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
 270
 271 <p><blockquote><pre>
 272 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 273 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
 274   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
 275     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
 276     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
 277     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
 278   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
 279 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
 280 </pre></blockquote></p>
 281
 282 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
 283 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
 284 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
 285 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
 286
 287 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
 288 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
 289 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
 290
 291 <p><blockquote><pre>
 292 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
 293 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
 294 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
 295 %
 296 </pre></blockquote></p>
 297
 298 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
 299 MimeType= line.</p>
 300
 301 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
 302 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
 303 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
 304 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
 305 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
 306 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
 307 fixed. :)</p>
 308
 309       </div>
 310       <div class="tags">
 311
 312
 313         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 314
 315
 316       </div>
 317     </div>
 318     <div class="padding"></div>
 319
 320     <div class="entry">
 321       <div class="title">
 322         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
 323       </div>
 324       <div class="date">
 325         25th May 2016
 326       </div>
 327       <div class="body">
 328         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
 329 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
 330 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
 331 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
 332 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
 333 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
 334 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
 335 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
 336 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
 337 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
 338 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
 339 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
 340
 341 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
 342 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
 343 is going away and is generally being replaced by
 344 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
 345 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
 346 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
 347 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
 348 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
 349 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
 350 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
 351 and see if it is recognised.</p>
 352
 353 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
 354 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
 355 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
 356
 357 <p><blockquote><pre>
 358 % isenkram-lookup
 359 bluez
 360 cheese
 361 fprintd
 362 fprintd-demo
 363 gkrellm-thinkbat
 364 hdapsd
 365 libpam-fprintd
 366 pidgin-blinklight
 367 thinkfan
 368 tleds
 369 tp-smapi-dkms
 370 tp-smapi-source
 371 tpb
 372 %p
 373 </pre></blockquote></p>
 374
 375 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
 376 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
 377 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 378 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
 379 See
 380 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
 381 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
 382
 383       </div>
 384       <div class="tags">
 385
 386
 387         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 388
 389
 390       </div>
 391     </div>
 392     <div class="padding"></div>
 393
 394     <div class="entry">
 395       <div class="title">
 396         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
 397       </div>
 398       <div class="date">
 399         23rd May 2016
 400       </div>
 401       <div class="body">
 402         <p>Yesterday I updated the
 403 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
 404 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
 405 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
 406 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
 407 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
 408 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
 409 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
 410 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
 411 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
 412 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
 413
 414 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
 415 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
 416 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
 417 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
 418 capacity.</p>
 419
 420 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
 421
 422 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
 423 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
 424 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
 425 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
 426
 427 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
 428
 429 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
 430 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
 431 shrinking. :(</p>
 432
 433 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
 434 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
 435 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
 436 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
 437 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
 438 machine.</p>
 439
 440 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
 441 check out the
 442 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
 443 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
 444 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
 445 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 446 Patches are very welcome.</p>
 447
 448 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 449 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 450 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 451
 452       </div>
 453       <div class="tags">
 454
 455
 456         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 457
 458
 459       </div>
 460     </div>
 461     <div class="padding"></div>
 462
 463     <div class="entry">
 464       <div class="title">
 465         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
 466       </div>
 467       <div class="date">
 468         12th May 2016
 469       </div>
 470       <div class="body">
 471         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
 472 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
 473 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
 474 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
 475 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
 476 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 477 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
 478 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
 479 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
 480 great if you could help out with
 481 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
 482 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
 483
 484       </div>
 485       <div class="tags">
 486
 487
 488         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 489
 490
 491       </div>
 492     </div>
 493     <div class="padding"></div>
 494
 495     <div class="entry">
 496       <div class="title">
 497         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
 498       </div>
 499       <div class="date">
 500          8th May 2016
 501       </div>
 502       <div class="body">
 503         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
 504 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
 505
 506 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
 507 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
 508 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
 509 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
 510 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
 511 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
 512 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
 513 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
 514 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
 515 players.</p>
 516
 517 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
 518 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
 519 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
 520 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
 521 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
 522 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
 523 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
 524 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
 525 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
 526 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
 527 support most file formats.</p>
 528
 529 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
 530 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
 531 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
 532 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
 533 listed first in the table.</p>
 534
 535 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
 536 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
 537 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
 538 support?</p>
 539
 540       </div>
 541       <div class="tags">
 542
 543
 544         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 545
 546
 547       </div>
 548     </div>
 549     <div class="padding"></div>
 550
 551     <div class="entry">
 552       <div class="title">
 553         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
 554       </div>
 555       <div class="date">
 556          4th May 2016
 557       </div>
 558       <div class="body">
 559         A friend of mine made me aware of
 560 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
 561 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
 562 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
 563
 564 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
 565 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
 566 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
 567 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
 568 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
 569 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
 570 production started.</p>
 571
 572 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
 573 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
 574 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
 575
 576       </div>
 577       <div class="tags">
 578
 579
 580         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 581
 582
 583       </div>
 584     </div>
 585     <div class="padding"></div>
 586
 587     <div class="entry">
 588       <div class="title">
 589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 590       </div>
 591       <div class="date">
 592         10th April 2016
 593       </div>
 594       <div class="body">
 595         <p>During this weekends
 596 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
 597 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
 598 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
 599 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
 600 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
 601 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
 602 contributing using
 603 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
 604 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
 605 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
 606 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
 607 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
 608 contributors</a>.</p>
 609
 610 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
 611 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
 612 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
 613 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
 614 available for many more languages.</p>
 615
 616       </div>
 617       <div class="tags">
 618
 619
 620         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 621
 622
 623       </div>
 624     </div>
 625     <div class="padding"></div>
 626
 627     <div class="entry">
 628       <div class="title">
 629         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
 630       </div>
 631       <div class="date">
 632          7th April 2016
 633       </div>
 634       <div class="body">
 635         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
 636 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
 637 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
 638 But I might be wrong.</p>
 639
 640 <p>According to
 641 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
 642 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
 643 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
 644 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
 645 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
 646 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
 647 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
 648 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
 649 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
 650 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
 651
 652 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
 653 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
 654 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
 655 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
 656 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
 657 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
 658 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
 659 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 660 team status page</a>, and
 661 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
 662 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
 663
 664 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
 665 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
 666 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
 667 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
 668 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
 669 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
 670 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
 671 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
 672 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
 673 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
 674 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
 675 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
 676
 677       </div>
 678       <div class="tags">
 679
 680
 681         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 682
 683
 684       </div>
 685     </div>
 686     <div class="padding"></div>
 687
 688     <div class="entry">
 689       <div class="title">
 690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
 691       </div>
 692       <div class="date">
 693         23rd March 2016
 694       </div>
 695       <div class="body">
 696         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
 697 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
 698 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
 699 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
 700 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
 701 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
 702 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
 703 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
 704
 705 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
 706 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
 707 and lifetime prediction by running:
 708
 709 <p><pre>
 710 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
 711 </pre></p>
 712
 713 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
 714
 715 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
 716 entry yet):</p>
 717
 718 <p><pre>
 719 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
 720 </pre></p>
 721
 722 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
 723 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
 724 few years of data.</p>
 725
 726 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
 727 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
 728 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
 729 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
 730 know.  The issue is reported as
 731 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
 732 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
 733 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
 734 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
 735 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
 736
 737 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
 738 check out the
 739 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
 740 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
 741 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
 742 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 743 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
 744
 745       </div>
 746       <div class="tags">
 747
 748
 749         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 750
 751
 752       </div>
 753     </div>
 754     <div class="padding"></div>
 755
 756     <div class="entry">
 757       <div class="title">
 758         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
 759       </div>
 760       <div class="date">
 761         15th March 2016
 762       </div>
 763       <div class="body">
 764         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
 765 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
 766 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
 767 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
 768 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
 769 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
 770 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
 771 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
 772 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
 773 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
 774 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
 775
 776 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
 777 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
 778 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
 779 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
 780 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
 781 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
 782 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
 783 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
 784 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
 785 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
 786 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
 787
 788 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
 789
 790 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
 791 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
 792 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
 793 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
 794 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
 795 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
 796
 797 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
 798 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
 799 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
 800 and graphing.</p>
 801
 802 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
 803 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
 804 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
 805 on
 806 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 807 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
 808
 809       </div>
 810       <div class="tags">
 811
 812
 813         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 814
 815
 816       </div>
 817     </div>
 818     <div class="padding"></div>
 819
 820     <div class="entry">
 821       <div class="title">
 822         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
 823       </div>
 824       <div class="date">
 825         19th February 2016
 826       </div>
 827       <div class="body">
 828         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
 829 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
 830 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
 831 the code in the package in question, preferably in
 832 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
 833 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
 834
 835 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
 836 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
 837 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
 838 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
 839 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
 840 out what was wrong with
 841 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
 842 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
 843 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
 844 semi-automatically.</p>
 845
 846 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
 847 file based on the code in the source package,
 848 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
 849 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
 850 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
 851 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
 852 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
 853 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
 854 option in
 855 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
 856 blog posts from 2014</a>.
 857
 858 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
 859
 860 <p><pre>
 861 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
 862 </pre></p>
 863
 864 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
 865 this might not be the best option.</p>
 866
 867 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
 868 this approach in
 869 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
 870 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
 871 dpkg-copyright' option:
 872
 873 <p><pre>
 874 cme update dpkg-copyright
 875 </pre></p>
 876
 877 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
 878 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
 879
 880 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
 881 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
 882 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
 883 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
 884 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
 885 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
 886 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
 887 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
 888 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
 889 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
 890
 891 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
 892 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
 893 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
 894 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
 895
 896 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
 897 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
 898 planet.debian.org.</p>
 899
 900 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 901 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 902 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 903
 904 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
 905 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
 906
 907 <p><pre>
 908 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
 909   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
 910 </pre></p>
 911
 912 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
 913 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
 914 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
 915 with my packages in the future.</p>
 916
 917 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
 918 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
 919 command line.</p>
 920
 921       </div>
 922       <div class="tags">
 923
 924
 925         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 926
 927
 928       </div>
 929     </div>
 930     <div class="padding"></div>
 931
 932     <div class="entry">
 933       <div class="title">
 934         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
 935       </div>
 936       <div class="date">
 937          4th February 2016
 938       </div>
 939       <div class="body">
 940         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
 941 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
 942 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
 943 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
 944 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
 945 about. :)</p>
 946
 947 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
 948 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
 949 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
 950 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
 951 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
 952 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
 953
 954 <blockquote><pre>
 955 % apt install appstream
 956 [...]
 957 % apt update
 958 [...]
 959 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
 960   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 961 firmware-qlogic
 962 %
 963 </pre></blockquote>
 964
 965 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
 966 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
 967 a way appstream can use.</p>
 968
 969 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
 970 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
 971 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
 972 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
 973 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
 974 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
 975
 976 <blockquote><pre>
 977 % apt install appstream
 978 [...]
 979 % apt update
 980 [...]
 981 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
 982   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 983 bkchem
 984 phototonic
 985 inkscape
 986 shutter
 987 tetzle
 988 geeqie
 989 xia
 990 pinta
 991 gthumb
 992 karbon
 993 comix
 994 mirage
 995 viewnior
 996 postr
 997 ristretto
 998 kolourpaint4
 999 eog
1000 eom
1001 gimagereader
1002 midori
1003 %
1004 </pre></blockquote>
1005
1006 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
1007 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
1008
1009       </div>
1010       <div class="tags">
1011
1012
1013         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1014
1015
1016       </div>
1017     </div>
1018     <div class="padding"></div>
1019
1020     <div class="entry">
1021       <div class="title">
1022         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
1023       </div>
1024       <div class="date">
1025         24th January 2016
1026       </div>
1027       <div class="body">
1028         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
1029 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
1030 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
1031 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
1032 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
1033 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
1034 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
1035 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
1036 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
1037 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
1038 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
1039 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
1040 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
1041 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
1042 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
1043 entities.</p>
1044
1045 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
1046
1047 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
1048 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
1049 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
1050 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
1051 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
1052 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
1053 tool to do so is called
1054 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
1055 discovered it when I read
1056 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
1057 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
1058 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
1059 The python program was in Debian, but
1060 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
1061 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
1062 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
1063 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
1064 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
1065 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
1066 are now included
1067 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
1068
1069 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
1070 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
1071 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
1072 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
1073 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
1074 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
1075 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
1076 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
1077 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
1078 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
1079 about yourself with the services.</p>
1080
1081 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
1082 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
1083 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
1084 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
1085 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
1086 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
1087 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
1088 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
1089 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
1090 things.  A similar technique have been
1091 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
1092 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
1093 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
1094 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
1095 public.</p>
1096
1097 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
1098 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
1099 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
1100 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
1101
1102 <p>(I have uploaded
1103 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
1104 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
1105 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
1106
1107       </div>
1108       <div class="tags">
1109
1110
1111         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1112
1113
1114       </div>
1115     </div>
1116     <div class="padding"></div>
1117
1118     <div class="entry">
1119       <div class="title">
1120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
1121       </div>
1122       <div class="date">
1123         15th January 2016
1124       </div>
1125       <div class="body">
1126         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
1127 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
1128 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
1129 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
1130 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
1131 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
1132 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
1133 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
1134 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
1135 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
1136 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
1137 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
1138 was not the first to propose this, as the
1139 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
1140 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
1141 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
1142 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
1143
1144 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
1145 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
1146 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
1147 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
1148 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
1149
1150 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
1151 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
1152 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
1153 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
1154 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
1155 done in /etc/.</p>
1156
1157 <blockquote><pre>
1158 apt install apt-transport-tor
1159 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
1160 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
1161 </pre></blockquote>
1162
1163 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
1164 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
1165 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
1166 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
1167
1168 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
1169 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
1170 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
1171 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
1172 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
1173 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
1174
1175 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
1176 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
1177 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
1178 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
1179 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
1180
1181 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
1182 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
1183 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
1184 system.</p>
1185
1186       </div>
1187       <div class="tags">
1188
1189
1190         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1191
1192
1193       </div>
1194     </div>
1195     <div class="padding"></div>
1196
1197     <div class="entry">
1198       <div class="title">
1199         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
1200       </div>
1201       <div class="date">
1202         23rd December 2015
1203       </div>
1204       <div class="body">
1205         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
1206 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
1207 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
1208 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
1209 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
1210 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
1211
1212 <p>A few days I came across
1213 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
1214 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
1215 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
1216 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
1217 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
1218 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
1219 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
1220 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
1221 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
1222 discovered the developer
1223 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
1224 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
1225 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
1226 archive.</p>
1227
1228 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
1229 it into Debian, where it currently
1230 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
1231 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
1232
1233 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
1234 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
1235 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
1236 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
1237 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
1238 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
1239 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
1240 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
1241 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
1242 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
1243 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
1244 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
1245
1246 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
1247 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
1248 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
1249 package show up in unstable.</p>
1250
1251       </div>
1252       <div class="tags">
1253
1254
1255         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1256
1257
1258       </div>
1259     </div>
1260     <div class="padding"></div>
1261
1262     <div class="entry">
1263       <div class="title">
1264         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
1265       </div>
1266       <div class="date">
1267         20th December 2015
1268       </div>
1269       <div class="body">
1270         <p>Around three years ago, I created
1271 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
1272 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
1273 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
1274 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
1275 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
1276 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
1277 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
1278 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
1279 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
1280 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
1281 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
1282 with.</p>
1283
1284 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
1285 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
1286 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
1287 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
1288 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
1289 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
1290 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1291 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
1292 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
1293 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
1294 Debian version of appstream.</p>
1295
1296 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
1297 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
1298 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
1299 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
1300 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
1301 how do add the required
1302 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
1303 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
1304 this content:</p>
1305
1306 <blockquote><pre>
1307 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1308 &lt;component&gt;
1309   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
1310   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
1311   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
1312   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
1313   &lt;description&gt;
1314     &lt;p&gt;
1315       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
1316       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
1317       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
1318       launcher.
1319     &lt;/p&gt;
1320   &lt;/description&gt;
1321   &lt;provides&gt;
1322     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
1323   &lt;/provides&gt;
1324 &lt;/component&gt;
1325 </pre></blockquote>
1326
1327 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
1328 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
1329 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
1330 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
1331 0202.</p>
1332
1333 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
1334 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
1335 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
1336 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
1337 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
1338 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
1339 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
1340 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
1341
1342 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
1343 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
1344 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
1345 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
1346 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
1347
1348 <blockquote><pre>
1349 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
1350 </pre></blockquote>
1351
1352 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
1353 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
1354 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
1355 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
1356 question.</p>
1357
1358 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
1359 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
1360
1361 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
1362 try running this command on the command line:</p>
1363
1364 <blockquote><pre>
1365 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
1366 </pre></blockquote>
1367
1368 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1369 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1370 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1371
1372       </div>
1373       <div class="tags">
1374
1375
1376         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1377
1378
1379       </div>
1380     </div>
1381     <div class="padding"></div>
1382
1383     <div class="entry">
1384       <div class="title">
1385         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
1386       </div>
1387       <div class="date">
1388         30th November 2015
1389       </div>
1390       <div class="body">
1391         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
1392 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
1393 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
1394 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
1395 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
1396
1397 <blockquote>
1398
1399 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
1400
1401 <blockquote>
1402 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
1403
1404 The first step is to choose a
1405 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
1406 code.<br/>
1407
1408 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
1409 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
1410
1411 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
1412 work<br/>
1413
1414 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
1415 </blockquote>
1416
1417 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
1418 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
1419 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
1420 0x57</a></small></p>
1421
1422 <p>As the Debian Website
1423 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
1424 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
1425 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
1426 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
1427 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
1428 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
1429 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
1430 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
1431 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
1432 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
1433 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
1434 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
1435 Freedom">FaiF</a>
1436 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
1437 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
1438 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
1439 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
1440 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
1441 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
1442 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
1443 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
1444 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
1445 In March the SFC supported a
1446 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
1447 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
1448 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
1449 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
1450 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
1451 conferences
1452 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
1453 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
1454 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
1455 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
1456 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
1457 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
1458 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
1459 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
1460 Software.</p>
1461
1462 <p>If you support Free Software,
1463 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
1464 what the SFC do, agree with their
1465 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
1466 principles</a>, are happy about their
1467 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
1468 work on a project that is an SFC
1469 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
1470 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
1471 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
1472 Allan Webber</a>,
1473 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
1474 Smith</a>,
1475 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
1476 Bacon</a>, myself and
1477 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
1478 becoming a
1479 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
1480 next week your donation will be
1481 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
1482 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
1483 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
1484 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
1485 social media accounts.</p>
1486
1487 </blockquote>
1488
1489 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
1490 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
1491 supporter too?</p>
1492
1493       </div>
1494       <div class="tags">
1495
1496
1497         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
1498
1499
1500       </div>
1501     </div>
1502     <div class="padding"></div>
1503
1504     <div class="entry">
1505       <div class="title">
1506         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
1507       </div>
1508       <div class="date">
1509         17th November 2015
1510       </div>
1511       <div class="body">
1512         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
1513 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
1514 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
1515 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
1516 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
1517 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
1518 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
1519 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
1520 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
1521 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
1522
1523 <pre>
1524 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
1525       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
1526 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
1527 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
1528 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1529 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1530 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1531 </pre>
1532
1533 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
1534 my old key.</p>
1535
1536 <p>If you signed my old key
1537 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
1538 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
1539 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
1540 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
1541
1542       </div>
1543       <div class="tags">
1544
1545
1546         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1547
1548
1549       </div>
1550     </div>
1551     <div class="padding"></div>
1552
1553     <div class="entry">
1554       <div class="title">
1555         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
1556       </div>
1557       <div class="date">
1558         24th September 2015
1559       </div>
1560       <div class="body">
1561         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
1562 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
1563 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
1564 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
1565 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
1566 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
1567 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
1568
1569 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
1570
1571 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
1572 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
1573 by someone else.  I found
1574 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
1575 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
1576 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
1577 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
1578 from him.  Via
1579 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
1580 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
1581 discovered
1582 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
1583 available in Debian.</p>
1584
1585 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
1586 battery stats ever since. Now my
1587 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
1588 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
1589 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
1590 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
1591
1592 <pre>
1593 #!/bin/sh
1594 # Inspired by
1595 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
1596 # See also
1597 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
1598 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
1599
1600 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
1601     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
1602
1603 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
1604     (
1605         printf "timestamp,"
1606         for f in $files; do
1607             printf "%s," $f
1608         done
1609         echo
1610     ) > "$logfile"
1611 fi
1612
1613 log_battery() {
1614     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
1615     # when several log processes run in parallel.
1616     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
1617         for f in $files; do \
1618             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
1619         done)
1620     echo "$msg"
1621 }
1622
1623 cd /sys/class/power_supply
1624
1625 for bat in BAT*; do
1626     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
1627 done
1628 </pre>
1629
1630 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
1631 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
1632 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
1633 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
1634 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
1635 The code for the Debian package
1636 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
1637 available on github</a>.</p>
1638
1639 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
1640
1641 <pre>
1642 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
1643 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
1644 [...]
1645 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1646 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1647 </pre>
1648
1649 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
1650 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
1651 battery.</p>
1652
1653 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
1654 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
1655 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
1656 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
1657 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
1658 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
1659 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
1660 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
1661 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
1662 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
1663 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
1664 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
1665 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
1666 Linux too.</p>
1667
1668 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
1669 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
1670 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
1671 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
1672 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
1673 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
1674 load).</p>
1675
1676 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
1677 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
1678 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
1679 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
1680 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
1681 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
1682 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
1683 those.</p>
1684
1685 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
1686 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
1687 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
1688 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
1689 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
1690 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
1691 specific.</p>
1692
1693       </div>
1694       <div class="tags">
1695
1696
1697         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1698
1699
1700       </div>
1701     </div>
1702     <div class="padding"></div>
1703
1704     <div class="entry">
1705       <div class="title">
1706         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
1707       </div>
1708       <div class="date">
1709          5th July 2015
1710       </div>
1711       <div class="body">
1712         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
1713 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
1714 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
1715 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
1716 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
1717 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
1718 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
1719 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
1720 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
1721 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
1722 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
1723
1724 <p>One tip I got was to use the
1725 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
1726 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
1727 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
1728 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
1729 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
1730 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
1731
1732 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
1733 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
1734 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
1735 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
1736 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
1737 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
1738 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
1739 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
1740 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
1741 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
1742 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
1743 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
1744 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
1745 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
1746 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
1747
1748 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
1749 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
1750 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
1751 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
1752
1753 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
1754 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
1755
1756 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
1757 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
1758 different
1759 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
1760 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
1761
1762       </div>
1763       <div class="tags">
1764
1765
1766         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1767
1768
1769       </div>
1770     </div>
1771     <div class="padding"></div>
1772
1773     <div class="entry">
1774       <div class="title">
1775         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
1776       </div>
1777       <div class="date">
1778          3rd July 2015
1779       </div>
1780       <div class="body">
1781         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
1782 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
1783 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
1784 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
1785 flickering.</p>
1786
1787 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
1788 still as
1789 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
1790 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
1791 good help from
1792 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
1793 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
1794 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
1795 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
1796 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
1797 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
1798 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
1799 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
1800 deteriorated since X41.</p>
1801
1802 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
1803 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
1804 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
1805 have suggestions.</p>
1806
1807 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
1808 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
1809 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
1810
1811       </div>
1812       <div class="tags">
1813
1814
1815         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1816
1817
1818       </div>
1819     </div>
1820     <div class="padding"></div>
1821
1822     <div class="entry">
1823       <div class="title">
1824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
1825       </div>
1826       <div class="date">
1827         22nd November 2014
1828       </div>
1829       <div class="body">
1830         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
1831 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
1832 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
1833 courtesy of
1834 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
1835 Schubert</a> and
1836 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
1837 McVittie</a>.
1838
1839 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
1840 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
1841 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
1842 you upgrade:</p>
1843
1844 <p><blockquote><pre>
1845 Package: systemd-sysv
1846 Pin: release o=Debian
1847 Pin-Priority: -1
1848 </pre></blockquote><p>
1849
1850 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
1851 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
1852 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
1853 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
1854 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
1855
1856 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
1857 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
1858 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
1859 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
1860 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
1861 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
1862
1863 <p><blockquote><pre>
1864 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
1865 </pre></blockquote><p>
1866
1867 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
1868
1869 <p><blockquote><pre>
1870 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
1871 </pre></blockquote><p>
1872
1873 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
1874 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
1875
1876 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
1877 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
1878 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
1879 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
1880 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
1881 Jessie is released.</p>
1882
1883 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
1884 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
1885 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
1886 line.</p>
1887
1888       </div>
1889       <div class="tags">
1890
1891
1892         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1893
1894
1895       </div>
1896     </div>
1897     <div class="padding"></div>
1898
1899     <div class="entry">
1900       <div class="title">
1901         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
1902       </div>
1903       <div class="date">
1904         10th November 2014
1905       </div>
1906       <div class="body">
1907         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
1908 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
1909 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
1910
1911 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
1912 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
1913 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
1914 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
1915 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
1916 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
1917 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
1918 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
1919 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
1920 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
1921 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
1922 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
1923 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
1924 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
1925 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
1926
1927 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
1928 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
1929 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
1930 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
1931 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
1932 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
1933 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
1934 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
1935 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
1936 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
1937 were fairly easy, and
1938 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
1939 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
1940 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
1941 useful approach.</p>
1942
1943 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
1944 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
1945 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
1946 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
1947 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
1948 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
1949 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
1950 this:</p>
1951
1952 <p><blockquote><pre>
1953 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
1954   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
1955 </pre></blockquote></p>
1956
1957 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
1958 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
1959
1960 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
1961 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
1962 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
1963 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
1964 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
1965 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
1966 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
1967 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
1968 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
1969 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
1970 system.</p>
1971
1972 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
1973 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
1974 SMTorP. :)</p>
1975
1976       </div>
1977       <div class="tags">
1978
1979
1980         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1981
1982
1983       </div>
1984     </div>
1985     <div class="padding"></div>
1986
1987     <div class="entry">
1988       <div class="title">
1989         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
1990       </div>
1991       <div class="date">
1992         22nd October 2014
1993       </div>
1994       <div class="body">
1995         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
1996 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
1997 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
1998 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
1999 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
2000 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
2001 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
2002 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
2003 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
2004 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
2005 lists I recently took over:</p>
2006
2007 <p><blockquote><pre>
2008 % time listadmin xiph
2009 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2010 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2011
2012 real    0m1.709s
2013 user    0m0.232s
2014 sys     0m0.012s
2015 %
2016 </pre></blockquote></p>
2017
2018 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
2019 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
2020 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
2021 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
2022 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
2023 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
2024 program.</p>
2025
2026 <p>If you install
2027 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
2028 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
2029 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
2030
2031 <p><blockquote><pre>
2032 username username@example.org
2033 spamlevel 23
2034 default discard
2035 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
2036
2037 password secret
2038 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
2039 mailman-list@lists.example.com
2040
2041 password hidden
2042 other-list@otherserver.example.org
2043 </pre></blockquote></p>
2044
2045 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
2046 learn the details.</p>
2047
2048 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
2049 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
2050 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
2051 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
2052
2053 <p><blockquote><pre>
2054 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
2055 </pre></blockquote></p>
2056
2057 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
2058 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
2059 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
2060 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
2061 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
2062 email.</p>
2063
2064 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
2065 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
2066 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
2067 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
2068 software.</p>
2069
2070 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2071 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2072 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2073
2074 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
2075 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
2076 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
2077 sure why.</p>
2078
2079       </div>
2080       <div class="tags">
2081
2082
2083         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2084
2085
2086       </div>
2087     </div>
2088     <div class="padding"></div>
2089
2090     <div class="entry">
2091       <div class="title">
2092         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
2093       </div>
2094       <div class="date">
2095         17th October 2014
2096       </div>
2097       <div class="body">
2098         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
2099 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
2100 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
2101 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
2102 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
2103 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
2104 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
2105
2106 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
2107 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
2108 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
2109 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
2110 of this story.)</p>
2111
2112 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
2113 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
2114 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
2115 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
2116 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
2117 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
2118 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
2119 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
2120 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
2121 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
2122
2123 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
2124 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
2125 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
2126 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
2127
2128 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
2129 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
2130
2131 <p><blockquote><pre>
2132 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
2133 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
2134 </pre></blockquote></p>
2135
2136 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
2137 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
2138 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
2139 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
2140 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
2141 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
2142 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
2143 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
2144
2145 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
2146 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
2147
2148 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
2149 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
2150 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
2151 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
2152 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
2153
2154 <p><blockquote><pre>
2155 Task: isenkram-packages
2156 Section: hardware
2157 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2158  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
2159  proposed.
2160 Test-new-install: show show
2161 Relevance: 8
2162 Packages: for-current-hardware
2163
2164 Task: isenkram-firmware
2165 Section: hardware
2166 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2167  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
2168  packages are proposed.
2169 Test-new-install: mark show
2170 Relevance: 8
2171 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
2172 </pre></blockquote></p>
2173
2174 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
2175 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
2176 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
2177 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
2178 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
2179
2180 <p><blockquote><pre>
2181 #!/bin/sh
2182 #
2183 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
2184 export PATH
2185 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2186 </pre></blockquote></p>
2187
2188 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
2189 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
2190
2191 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
2192 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
2193 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
2194 install.</p>
2195
2196 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
2197 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
2198 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
2199
2200       </div>
2201       <div class="tags">
2202
2203
2204         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
2205
2206
2207       </div>
2208     </div>
2209     <div class="padding"></div>
2210
2211     <div class="entry">
2212       <div class="title">
2213         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
2214       </div>
2215       <div class="date">
2216          4th October 2014
2217       </div>
2218       <div class="body">
2219         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
2220 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
2221 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
2222 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
2223
2224 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
2225
2226 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
2227 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
2228 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
2229
2230       </div>
2231       <div class="tags">
2232
2233
2234         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2235
2236
2237       </div>
2238     </div>
2239     <div class="padding"></div>
2240
2241     <div class="entry">
2242       <div class="title">
2243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
2244       </div>
2245       <div class="date">
2246          4th October 2014
2247       </div>
2248       <div class="body">
2249         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
2250 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
2251 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
2252 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
2253 Dibb.</p>
2254
2255 <p>I just wrapped up
2256 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
2257 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
2258 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
2259 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
2260 0.17.</p>
2261
2262 <ul>
2263
2264  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
2265  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
2266    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
2267  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
2268  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
2269  <li>Fix include orders</li>
2270  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
2271  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
2272  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
2273    the palette size is the same.</li>
2274  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
2275  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
2276  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
2277  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
2278    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
2279
2280 </ul>
2281
2282 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
2283 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
2284 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
2285
2286       </div>
2287       <div class="tags">
2288
2289
2290         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
2291
2292
2293       </div>
2294     </div>
2295     <div class="padding"></div>
2296
2297     <div class="entry">
2298       <div class="title">
2299         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
2300       </div>
2301       <div class="date">
2302         26th September 2014
2303       </div>
2304       <div class="body">
2305         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2306 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
2307 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
2308 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
2309 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
2310 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
2311 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
2312 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
2313 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
2314 future.  The
2315 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
2316 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
2317 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
2318 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
2319 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
2320
2321 <p>First, download the test ISO via
2322 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
2323 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
2324 or rsync (use
2325 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
2326 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
2327 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
2328 install with some tweaking.</p>
2329
2330 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
2331 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
2332
2333 <p><blockquote><pre>
2334 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
2335 </pre></blockquote></p>
2336
2337 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
2338 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
2339 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
2340 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
2341
2342 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
2343 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
2344 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
2345 your need.</p>
2346
2347 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
2348 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
2349 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
2350 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
2351 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
2352 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
2353 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
2354 days.</p>
2355
2356 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
2357 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
2358 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
2359 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
2360 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
2361 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
2362 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
2363 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
2364 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
2365
2366 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
2367 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
2368 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
2369
2370       </div>
2371       <div class="tags">
2372
2373
2374         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2375
2376
2377       </div>
2378     </div>
2379     <div class="padding"></div>
2380
2381     <div class="entry">
2382       <div class="title">
2383         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
2384       </div>
2385       <div class="date">
2386         25th September 2014
2387       </div>
2388       <div class="body">
2389         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
2390 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
2391 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
2392 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
2393 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
2394 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
2395 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
2396 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
2397 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
2398 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
2399 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
2400 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
2401 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
2402
2403 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
2404 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
2405 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
2406 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
2407 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
2408 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
2409 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
2410 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
2411 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
2412 list</a>. :)</p>
2413
2414       </div>
2415       <div class="tags">
2416
2417
2418         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
2419
2420
2421       </div>
2422     </div>
2423     <div class="padding"></div>
2424
2425     <div class="entry">
2426       <div class="title">
2427         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
2428       </div>
2429       <div class="date">
2430         16th September 2014
2431       </div>
2432       <div class="body">
2433         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
2434 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
2435 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
2436 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
2437 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
2438 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
2439 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
2440 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
2441 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
2442 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
2443 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
2444 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
2445 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
2446 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
2447
2448 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
2449 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
2450 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
2451 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
2452 depend on the small and clever package
2453 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
2454 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
2455 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
2456 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
2457 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
2458 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
2459 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
2460 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
2461 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
2462 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
2463 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
2464
2465 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
2466 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
2467 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
2468 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
2469 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
2470 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
2471 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
2472 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
2473 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
2474 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
2475 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
2476 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
2477 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
2478 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
2479 dialog.</p>
2480
2481 <p><table>
2482
2483 <tr>
2484 <th>Machine/setup</th>
2485 <th>Original tasksel</th>
2486 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
2487 <th>Reduction</th>
2488 </tr>
2489
2490 <tr>
2491 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
2492 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
2493 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
2494 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
2495 </tr>
2496
2497 <tr>
2498 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
2499 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
2500 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
2501 <td>23 min 40%</td>
2502 </tr>
2503
2504 <tr>
2505 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
2506 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
2507 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
2508 <td>11 min 50%</td>
2509 </tr>
2510
2511 <tr>
2512 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
2513 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
2514 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
2515 <td>2 min 33%</td>
2516 </tr>
2517
2518 <tr>
2519 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
2520 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
2521 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
2522 <td>4 min 21%</td>
2523 </tr>
2524
2525 </table></p>
2526
2527 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
2528 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
2529 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
2530 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
2531 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
2532 installed.</p>
2533
2534 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
2535 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
2536 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
2537 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
2538 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
2539 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
2540 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
2541 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
2542 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
2543 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
2544 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
2545 for the entire installation.</p>
2546
2547 <p>I've implemented this in the
2548 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
2549 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
2550 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
2551 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
2552 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
2553
2554 <p><blockquote><pre>
2555 #!/bin/sh
2556 set -e
2557 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
2558 info() {
2559     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
2560 }
2561 error() {
2562     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
2563 }
2564 override_install() {
2565     apt-install eatmydata || true
2566     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
2567         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
2568             file=/usr/bin/$bin
2569             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
2570             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
2571                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
2572                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
2573                     > /target$file.edu
2574                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
2575                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
2576                     --rename --quiet --add $file
2577                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
2578             else
2579                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
2580             fi
2581         done
2582     else
2583         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
2584     fi
2585 }
2586
2587 override_install
2588 </pre></blockquote></p>
2589
2590 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
2591 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
2592
2593 <p><blockquote><pre>
2594 #! /bin/sh -e
2595 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
2596 error() {
2597     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
2598 }
2599 remove_install_override() {
2600     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
2601         file=/usr/bin/$bin
2602         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
2603             rm /target$file
2604             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
2605                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
2606             rm /target$file.edu
2607         else
2608             error "Missing divert for $file."
2609         fi
2610     done
2611     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
2612 }
2613
2614 remove_install_override
2615 </pre></blockquote></p>
2616
2617 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
2618 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
2619 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
2620
2621 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
2622 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
2623 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
2624 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
2625 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
2626 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
2627 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
2628 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
2629 everyone.</p>
2630
2631 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
2632 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
2633 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
2634 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
2635
2636 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
2637 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
2638 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
2639 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
2640 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
2641
2642 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
2643 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
2644 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
2645 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
2646 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
2647
2648       </div>
2649       <div class="tags">
2650
2651
2652         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2653
2654
2655       </div>
2656     </div>
2657     <div class="padding"></div>
2658
2659     <div class="entry">
2660       <div class="title">
2661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
2662       </div>
2663       <div class="date">
2664         10th September 2014
2665       </div>
2666       <div class="body">
2667         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
2668 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
2669 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
2670 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
2671 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
2672 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
2673 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
2674 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
2675 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
2676 those problems are gone now.</p>
2677
2678 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
2679 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
2680 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
2681 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
2682 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
2683
2684 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
2685 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
2686 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
2687
2688 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
2689 line:</p>
2690
2691 <p><blockquote><pre>
2692 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
2693 </pre></blockquote></p>
2694
2695 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
2696 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
2697 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
2698 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
2699
2700 <p><blockquote><pre>
2701 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
2702 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
2703 %
2704 </pre></blockquote></p>
2705
2706 <p>Now if only
2707 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
2708 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
2709 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
2710 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
2711 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
2712 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
2713 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
2714 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
2715 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
2716
2717       </div>
2718       <div class="tags">
2719
2720
2721         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2722
2723
2724       </div>
2725     </div>
2726     <div class="padding"></div>
2727
2728     <div class="entry">
2729       <div class="title">
2730         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
2731       </div>
2732       <div class="date">
2733         17th June 2014
2734       </div>
2735       <div class="body">
2736         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2737 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
2738 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
2739 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
2740 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
2741
2742 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
2743 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
2744 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
2745 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
2746 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
2747 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
2748 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
2749 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
2750 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
2751 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
2752 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
2753 goals.</p>
2754
2755 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
2756 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
2757 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
2758 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
2759 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
2760 chapters together into one large web page (aka
2761 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
2762 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
2763 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
2764 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
2765 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
2766 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
2767 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
2768 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
2769 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
2770 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
2771 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
2772 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
2773 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
2774 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
2775 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
2776 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
2777 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
2778 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
2779
2780 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
2781 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
2782 track the English original.  For this we use the
2783 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
2784 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
2785 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
2786 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
2787 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
2788 files), which the translations update with the native language
2789 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
2790 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
2791 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
2792 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
2793 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
2794 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
2795 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
2796 of the documentation.</p>
2797
2798 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
2799 recommend using
2800 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
2801 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
2802 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
2803 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
2804 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
2805 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
2806 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
2807 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
2808
2809 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
2810 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
2811 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
2812 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
2813 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
2814 translated images by storing translated versions in
2815 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
2816 package maintainers know more.</p>
2817
2818 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
2819 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
2820 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
2821 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
2822 PDF version</a> or the
2823 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
2824 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
2825 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
2826
2827 <p>To learn more, check out
2828 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
2829 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
2830 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
2831 manual on the wiki</a> and
2832 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
2833 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
2834
2835       </div>
2836       <div class="tags">
2837
2838
2839         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2840
2841
2842       </div>
2843     </div>
2844     <div class="padding"></div>
2845
2846     <div class="entry">
2847       <div class="title">
2848         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
2849       </div>
2850       <div class="date">
2851         23rd April 2014
2852       </div>
2853       <div class="body">
2854         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
2855 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
2856 So I implemented one, using
2857 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
2858 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
2859 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
2860 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
2861 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
2862 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
2863
2864 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
2865 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
2866 packages to install.  The first part is in
2867 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
2868 this:</p>
2869
2870 <p><blockquote><pre>
2871 Task: isenkram
2872 Section: hardware
2873 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2874  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
2875  proposed.
2876 Test-new-install: mark show
2877 Relevance: 8
2878 Packages: for-current-hardware
2879 </pre></blockquote></p>
2880
2881 <p>The second part is in
2882 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
2883 this:</p>
2884
2885 <p><blockquote><pre>
2886 #!/bin/sh
2887 #
2888 (
2889     isenkram-lookup
2890     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2891 ) | sort -u
2892 </pre></blockquote></p>
2893
2894 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
2895 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
2896 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
2897 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
2898 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
2899 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
2900
2901 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
2902 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
2903 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
2904 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
2905 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
2906 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
2907 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
2908 the python-apt code (bug
2909 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
2910 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
2911 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
2912 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
2913 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
2914 unstable today.</p>
2915
2916 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
2917 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
2918 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
2919 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
2920 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
2921 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
2922 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
2923 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
2924 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
2925
2926 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
2927 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
2928 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
2929 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
2930 package.  See also
2931 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
2932 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
2933 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
2934 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
2935
2936       </div>
2937       <div class="tags">
2938
2939
2940         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2941
2942
2943       </div>
2944     </div>
2945     <div class="padding"></div>
2946
2947     <div class="entry">
2948       <div class="title">
2949         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
2950       </div>
2951       <div class="date">
2952         15th April 2014
2953       </div>
2954       <div class="body">
2955         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2956 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
2957 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
2958 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
2959 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
2960 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
2961
2962 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
2963 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
2964 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
2965 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
2966 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
2967 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
2968 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
2969
2970 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
2971 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
2972 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
2973 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
2974 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
2975 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
2976 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
2977 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
2978 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
2979 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
2980 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
2981 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
2982
2983 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
2984 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
2985 become root:</p>
2986
2987 <p><pre>
2988 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2989   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2990   u-boot-tools
2991 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2992   freedom-maker
2993 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2994 </pre></p>
2995
2996 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2997 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
2998 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
2999 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
3000 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
3001 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
3002 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
3003 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
3004
3005 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
3006 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
3007 the preseed values:</p>
3008
3009 <p><pre>
3010 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
3011 </pre></p>
3012
3013 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
3014 it still work.</p>
3015
3016 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
3017 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
3018 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
3019 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
3020 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
3021 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
3022 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
3023
3024 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
3025 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
3026 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
3027 irc.debian.org)</a> and
3028 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3029 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3030
3031       </div>
3032       <div class="tags">
3033
3034
3035         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3036
3037
3038       </div>
3039     </div>
3040     <div class="padding"></div>
3041
3042     <div class="entry">
3043       <div class="title">
3044         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
3045       </div>
3046       <div class="date">
3047          9th April 2014
3048       </div>
3049       <div class="body">
3050         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
3051 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
3052 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
3053 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
3054 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
3055 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
3056 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
3057 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
3058 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
3059 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
3060 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
3061 have looked at a system called
3062 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
3063 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
3064
3065 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
3066 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
3067 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
3068 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
3069 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
3070 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
3071 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
3072 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
3073 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
3074 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
3075 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
3076 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
3077 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
3078
3079 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
3080 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
3081 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
3082 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
3083 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
3084 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
3085 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
3086 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
3087 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
3088 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
3089 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
3090 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
3091 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
3092 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
3093 account.</p>
3094
3095 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
3096 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
3097 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
3098 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
3099 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
3100 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
3101 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
3102
3103 <p><blockquote><pre>
3104 [s3c]
3105 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3106 backend-login: API-login
3107 backend-password: API-password
3108 fs-passphrase: local-password
3109 </pre></blockquote></p>
3110
3111 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
3112 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
3113 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
3114 details and password to create it:</p>
3115
3116 <p><blockquote><pre>
3117 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
3118 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3119   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3120 Enter backend login:
3121 Enter backend password:
3122 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
3123 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
3124 Enter encryption password:
3125 Confirm encryption password:
3126 Generating random encryption key...
3127 Creating metadata tables...
3128 Dumping metadata...
3129 ..objects..
3130 ..blocks..
3131 ..inodes..
3132 ..inode_blocks..
3133 ..symlink_targets..
3134 ..names..
3135 ..contents..
3136 ..ext_attributes..
3137 Compressing and uploading metadata...
3138 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
3139 # </pre></blockquote></p>
3140
3141 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
3142
3143 <p><blockquote><pre>
3144 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3145   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
3146 Using 4 upload threads.
3147 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
3148 Reading metadata...
3149 ..objects..
3150 ..blocks..
3151 ..inodes..
3152 ..inode_blocks..
3153 ..symlink_targets..
3154 ..names..
3155 ..contents..
3156 ..ext_attributes..
3157 Mounting filesystem...
3158 # df -h /s3ql
3159 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
3160 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
3161 #
3162 </pre></blockquote></p>
3163
3164 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
3165 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
3166 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
3167 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
3168 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
3169 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
3170
3171 <p><blockquote><pre>
3172 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
3173 #
3174 </pre></blockquote></p>
3175
3176 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
3177 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
3178 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
3179 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
3180 file system:</p>
3181
3182 <p><blockquote><pre>
3183 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3184 Using cached metadata.
3185 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
3186 Checking DB integrity...
3187 Creating temporary extra indices...
3188 Checking lost+found...
3189 Checking cached objects...
3190 Checking names (refcounts)...
3191 Checking contents (names)...
3192 Checking contents (inodes)...
3193 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
3194 Checking objects (reference counts)...
3195 Checking objects (backend)...
3196 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
3197 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
3198 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
3199 Checking objects (sizes)...
3200 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
3201 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
3202 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
3203 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
3204 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
3205 Checking inodes (sizes)...
3206 Checking extended attributes (names)...
3207 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
3208 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
3209 Checking directory reachability...
3210 Checking unix conventions...
3211 Checking referential integrity...
3212 Dropping temporary indices...
3213 Backing up old metadata...
3214 Dumping metadata...
3215 ..objects..
3216 ..blocks..
3217 ..inodes..
3218 ..inode_blocks..
3219 ..symlink_targets..
3220 ..names..
3221 ..contents..
3222 ..ext_attributes..
3223 Compressing and uploading metadata...
3224 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
3225 #
3226 </pre></blockquote></p>
3227
3228 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
3229 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
3230 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
3231 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
3232 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
3233 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
3234 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
3235 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
3236 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
3237 working set.</p>
3238
3239 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
3240 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
3241 busy:</p>
3242
3243 <p><blockquote><pre>
3244 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3245   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
3246 Using 8 upload threads.
3247 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
3248 #
3249 </pre></blockquote></p>
3250
3251 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
3252 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
3253 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
3254 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
3255 s3qlctrl:
3256
3257 <p><blockquote><pre>
3258 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
3259 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
3260 #
3261 </pre></blockquote></p>
3262
3263 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
3264 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
3265 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
3266 a report:</p>
3267
3268 <p><blockquote><pre>
3269 # s3qlstat /s3ql
3270 Directory entries:    9141
3271 Inodes:               9143
3272 Data blocks:          8851
3273 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
3274 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
3275 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
3276 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
3277 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
3278 #
3279 </pre></blockquote></p>
3280
3281 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
3282 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
3283 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
3284 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
3285 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
3286 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
3287 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
3288 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
3289 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
3290 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
3291 best.</p>
3292
3293 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
3294 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
3295 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
3296 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
3297 poster is titled
3298 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
3299 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
3300 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
3301 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
3302 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
3303
3304 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
3305 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
3306 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
3307 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
3308 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
3309 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
3310 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
3311 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
3312
3313 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
3314 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
3315 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
3316 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
3317 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
3318 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
3319 only read from it.</p>
3320
3321 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3322 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3323 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3324
3325       </div>
3326       <div class="tags">
3327
3328
3329         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3330
3331
3332       </div>
3333     </div>
3334     <div class="padding"></div>
3335
3336     <div class="entry">
3337       <div class="title">
3338         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
3339       </div>
3340       <div class="date">
3341         14th March 2014
3342       </div>
3343       <div class="body">
3344         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
3345 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
3346 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
3347 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
3348 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
3349 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
3350 release (0.2).</p>
3351
3352 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
3353 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
3354 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
3355 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
3356 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
3357 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
3358 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
3359 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
3360 and build using
3361 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
3362 with a user with sudo access to become root:
3363
3364 <pre>
3365 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
3366   freedom-maker
3367 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
3368   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
3369   u-boot-tools
3370 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
3371 </pre>
3372
3373 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
3374 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
3375 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
3376 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
3377 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
3378 kpartx call.</p>
3379
3380 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
3381 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
3382 the preseed values:</p>
3383
3384 <pre>
3385 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
3386 </pre>
3387
3388 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
3389 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
3390 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
3391 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
3392 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
3393 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
3394
3395 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
3396 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
3397 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
3398 irc.debian.org)</a> and
3399 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3400 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3401
3402       </div>
3403       <div class="tags">
3404
3405
3406         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3407
3408
3409       </div>
3410     </div>
3411     <div class="padding"></div>
3412
3413     <div class="entry">
3414       <div class="title">
3415         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
3416       </div>
3417       <div class="date">
3418         22nd February 2014
3419       </div>
3420       <div class="body">
3421         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
3422 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
3423 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
3424 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
3425 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
3426 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
3427 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
3428 proper home since then.</p>
3429
3430 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
3431 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
3432 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
3433 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
3434 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
3435
3436 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
3437 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
3438 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
3439 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
3440 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
3441 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
3442 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
3443 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
3444 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
3445
3446       </div>
3447       <div class="tags">
3448
3449
3450         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3451
3452
3453       </div>
3454     </div>
3455     <div class="padding"></div>
3456
3457     <div class="entry">
3458       <div class="title">
3459         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
3460       </div>
3461       <div class="date">
3462          3rd February 2014
3463       </div>
3464       <div class="body">
3465         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
3466 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
3467 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
3468 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
3469 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
3470 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
3471 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
3472 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
3473 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
3474
3475 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
3476 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
3477 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
3478 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
3479 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
3480 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
3481
3482 <p><blockquote><pre>
3483 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
3484 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
3485 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
3486 dhclient /dev/eth0
3487 </pre></blockquote></p>
3488
3489 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
3490 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
3491 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
3492
3493 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
3494 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
3495 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
3496 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
3497 side.</p>
3498
3499 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
3500 stuff:</p>
3501
3502 <p><blockquote><pre>
3503 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3504 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
3505 EOF
3506 apt-get update
3507 apt-get dist-upgrade
3508 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
3509     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
3510 update-alternatives --config runsystem
3511 </pre></blockquote></p>
3512
3513 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
3514 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
3515 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
3516 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
3517 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
3518 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
3519 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
3520 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
3521 ssh instead.
3522
3523 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
3524 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
3525 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
3526 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
3527 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
3528 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
3529
3530 <p><blockquote><pre>
3531 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3532 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
3533 EOF
3534 </pre></blockquote></p>
3535
3536 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
3537 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
3538 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
3539 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
3540
3541 <p><blockquote><pre>
3542 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
3543 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
3544 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
3545 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
3546 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
3547 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
3548 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
3549 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
3550 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
3551 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
3552 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
3553 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
3554 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
3555 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
3556 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
3557 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
3558 #
3559 </pre></blockquote></p>
3560
3561 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
3562 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
3563 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
3564 command line stuff.<p>
3565
3566       </div>
3567       <div class="tags">
3568
3569
3570         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3571
3572
3573       </div>
3574     </div>
3575     <div class="padding"></div>
3576
3577     <div class="entry">
3578       <div class="title">
3579         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
3580       </div>
3581       <div class="date">
3582         14th January 2014
3583       </div>
3584       <div class="body">
3585         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
3586 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
3587 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
3588 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
3589 the source.  The company behind it provide
3590 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
3591 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
3592 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
3593 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
3594 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
3595 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
3596 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
3597 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
3598 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
3599 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
3600 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
3601 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
3602 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
3603 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
3604 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
3605 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
3606 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
3607 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
3608 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
3609
3610 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
3611
3612 <ul>
3613
3614   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
3615   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
3616   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
3617
3618 </ul>
3619
3620 <p>You can
3621 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3622 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3623 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3624 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3625 include a test suite check.</p>
3626
3627       </div>
3628       <div class="tags">
3629
3630
3631         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3632
3633
3634       </div>
3635     </div>
3636     <div class="padding"></div>
3637
3638     <div class="entry">
3639       <div class="title">
3640         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
3641       </div>
3642       <div class="date">
3643         24th November 2013
3644       </div>
3645       <div class="body">
3646         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
3647 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
3648 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
3649 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
3650 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
3651 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
3652 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
3653 is working on.  I checked the
3654 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
3655 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
3656 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
3657 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
3658 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
3659 These are the release notes:</p>
3660
3661 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
3662
3663 <ul>
3664
3665   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
3666    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
3667    up.</li>
3668
3669   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
3670
3671   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
3672    Matthias Klose.</li>
3673
3674   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
3675    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
3676
3677   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
3678    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
3679    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
3680
3681 </ul>
3682
3683 <p>You can
3684 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3685 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3686 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3687 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3688 include a testsuite check.</p>
3689
3690       </div>
3691       <div class="tags">
3692
3693
3694         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3695
3696
3697       </div>
3698     </div>
3699     <div class="padding"></div>
3700
3701     <div class="entry">
3702       <div class="title">
3703         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
3704       </div>
3705       <div class="date">
3706          2nd November 2013
3707       </div>
3708       <div class="body">
3709         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
3710 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
3711 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
3712 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
3713 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
3714
3715 <p><pre>
3716 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
3717 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
3718 # Provides:          rsyslog
3719 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
3720 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
3721 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
3722 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
3723 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
3724 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
3725 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
3726 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
3727 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
3728 ### END INIT INFO
3729 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
3730 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
3731 </pre></p>
3732
3733 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
3734 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
3735 info/comments.</p>
3736
3737 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
3738 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
3739
3740 <p><pre>
3741 #!/bin/sh
3742
3743 # Define LSB log_* functions.
3744 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
3745 # and status_of_proc is working.
3746 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
3747
3748 #
3749 # Function that starts the daemon/service
3750
3751 #
3752 do_start()
3753 {
3754         # Return
3755         #   0 if daemon has been started
3756         #   1 if daemon was already running
3757         #   2 if daemon could not be started
3758         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
3759                 || return 1
3760         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
3761                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
3762                 || return 2
3763         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
3764         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
3765         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
3766 }
3767
3768 #
3769 # Function that stops the daemon/service
3770 #
3771 do_stop()
3772 {
3773         # Return
3774         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
3775         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
3776         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
3777         #   other if a failure occurred
3778         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
3779         RETVAL="$?"
3780         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
3781         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
3782         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
3783         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
3784         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
3785         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
3786         # sleep for some time.
3787         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
3788         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
3789         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
3790         rm -f $PIDFILE
3791         return "$RETVAL"
3792 }
3793
3794 #
3795 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
3796 #
3797 do_reload() {
3798         #
3799         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
3800         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
3801         # then implement that here.
3802         #
3803         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
3804         return 0
3805 }
3806
3807 SCRIPTNAME=$1
3808 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
3809 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
3810 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
3811     script="$1"
3812     shift
3813     . $script
3814 else
3815     exit 0
3816 fi
3817
3818 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
3819 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
3820
3821 # Exit if the package is not installed
3822 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
3823
3824 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
3825 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
3826
3827 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
3828 . /lib/init/vars.sh
3829
3830 case "$1" in
3831   start)
3832         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
3833         do_start
3834         case "$?" in
3835                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
3836                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
3837         esac
3838         ;;
3839   stop)
3840         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
3841         do_stop
3842         case "$?" in
3843                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
3844                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
3845         esac
3846         ;;
3847   status)
3848         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
3849         ;;
3850   #reload|force-reload)
3851         #
3852         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
3853         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
3854         #
3855         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
3856         #do_reload
3857         #log_end_msg $?
3858         #;;
3859   restart|force-reload)
3860         #
3861         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
3862         # 'force-reload' alias
3863         #
3864         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
3865         do_stop
3866         case "$?" in
3867           0|1)
3868                 do_start
3869                 case "$?" in
3870                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
3871                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
3872                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
3873                 esac
3874                 ;;
3875           *)
3876                 # Failed to stop
3877                 log_end_msg 1
3878                 ;;
3879         esac
3880         ;;
3881   *)
3882         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
3883         exit 3
3884         ;;
3885 esac
3886
3887 :
3888 </pre></p>
3889
3890 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
3891 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
3892 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
3893 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
3894
3895 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
3896 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
3897 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
3898 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
3899 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
3900
3901       </div>
3902       <div class="tags">
3903
3904
3905         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3906
3907
3908       </div>
3909     </div>
3910     <div class="padding"></div>
3911
3912     <div class="entry">
3913       <div class="title">
3914         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
3915       </div>
3916       <div class="date">
3917          1st November 2013
3918       </div>
3919       <div class="body">
3920         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
3921 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
3922 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
3923 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
3924 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
3925 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
3926 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
3927 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
3928 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
3929 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
3930 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
3931 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
3932
3933 <p>The source is now available from
3934 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
3935
3936       </div>
3937       <div class="tags">
3938
3939
3940         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3941
3942
3943       </div>
3944     </div>
3945     <div class="padding"></div>
3946
3947     <div class="entry">
3948       <div class="title">
3949         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
3950       </div>
3951       <div class="date">
3952         27th October 2013
3953       </div>
3954       <div class="body">
3955         <p>The
3956 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
3957 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
3958 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
3959 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
3960 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
3961 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
3962 of a plan to simplify the build system for
3963 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
3964 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
3965 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
3966 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
3967 Raspberry Pi.</p>
3968
3969 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
3970 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
3971 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
3972 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
3973 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
3974 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
3975 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
3976 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
3977 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
3978 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
3979 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
3980 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
3981 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
3982 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
3983 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
3984 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
3985 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
3986 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
3987 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
3988 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
3989 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
3990 available from
3991 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
3992 upstream project page</a>.</p>
3993
3994 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
3995 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
3996 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
3997 list:</p>
3998
3999 <p><pre>
4000 #!/bin/sh
4001 set -e # Exit on first error
4002 rootdir="$1"
4003 cd "$rootdir"
4004 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
4005 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
4006 EOF
4007 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
4008 # install a kernel somewhere too.
4009 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
4010     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4011 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4012 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
4013 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
4014 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
4015 </pre></p>
4016
4017 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
4018 to build the image:</p>
4019
4020 <pre>
4021 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
4022     --variant minbase \
4023     --arch armel \
4024     --distribution jessie \
4025     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
4026     --image test.img \
4027     --size 600M \
4028     --bootsize 64M \
4029     --boottype vfat \
4030     --log-level debug \
4031     --verbose \
4032     --no-kernel \
4033     --no-extlinux \
4034     --root-password raspberry \
4035     --hostname raspberrypi \
4036     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
4037     --customize `pwd`/customize \
4038     --package netbase \
4039     --package git-core \
4040     --package binutils \
4041     --package ca-certificates \
4042     --package wget \
4043     --package kmod
4044 </pre></p>
4045
4046 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
4047 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
4048 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
4049 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
4050 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
4051 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
4052 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
4053
4054 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
4055 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
4056 build dependency list.</p>
4057
4058 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
4059 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
4060 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
4061 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
4062
4063       </div>
4064       <div class="tags">
4065
4066
4067         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
4068
4069
4070       </div>
4071     </div>
4072     <div class="padding"></div>
4073
4074     <div class="entry">
4075       <div class="title">
4076         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
4077       </div>
4078       <div class="date">
4079         15th October 2013
4080       </div>
4081       <div class="body">
4082         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
4083 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
4084 these. :)</p>
4085
4086 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
4087 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
4088 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
4089 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
4090 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
4091 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
4092 hope you will to. :)</p>
4093
4094 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
4095 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
4096 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
4097 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
4098 donated.  Are you next?</p>
4099
4100 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
4101 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
4102 statement under the heading
4103 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
4104 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
4105 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
4106 too.</p>
4107
4108       </div>
4109       <div class="tags">
4110
4111
4112         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4113
4114
4115       </div>
4116     </div>
4117     <div class="padding"></div>
4118
4119     <div class="entry">
4120       <div class="title">
4121         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
4122       </div>
4123       <div class="date">
4124         27th September 2013
4125       </div>
4126       <div class="body">
4127         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
4128 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
4129 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
4130 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
4131
4132 <ul>
4133
4134 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
4135 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
4136
4137 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
4138 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4139
4140 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
4141 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
4142 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
4143 (Youtube)</li>
4144
4145 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
4146 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
4147
4148 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
4149 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4150
4151 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
4152 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
4153 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
4154
4155 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
4156 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
4157 (Youtube)</li>
4158
4159 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
4160 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
4161
4162 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
4163 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
4164
4165 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
4166 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
4167 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
4168
4169 </ul>
4170
4171 <p>A larger list is available from
4172 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
4173 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
4174
4175 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
4176 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
4177 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
4178 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
4179 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
4180 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
4181 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
4182 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
4183 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
4184 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4185 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4186
4187       </div>
4188       <div class="tags">
4189
4190
4191         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4192
4193
4194       </div>
4195     </div>
4196     <div class="padding"></div>
4197
4198     <div class="entry">
4199       <div class="title">
4200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
4201       </div>
4202       <div class="date">
4203         10th September 2013
4204       </div>
4205       <div class="body">
4206         <p>I was introduced to the
4207 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
4208 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
4209 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
4210 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
4211 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
4212 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
4213 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
4214 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
4215
4216 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
4217 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
4218 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
4219 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
4220 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
4221
4222 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
4223 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
4224 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
4225 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
4226 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
4227 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
4228 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
4229 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
4230 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
4231 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
4232 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
4233 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
4234 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
4235 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
4236 missing in Debian).</p>
4237
4238 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
4239 scripts
4240 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
4241 and a administrative web interface
4242 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
4243 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
4244 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
4245 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
4246 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
4247 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
4248 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
4249 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
4250 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
4251 this is really working yet, see
4252 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
4253 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
4254 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
4255 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
4256 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
4257 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
4258 with lots of half baked features.</p>
4259
4260 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
4261 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
4262 at.</p>
4263
4264 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
4265
4266 <ol>
4267
4268 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
4269 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
4270 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
4271 to the Debian installer:<p>
4272 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
4273
4274 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
4275 install on.</li>
4276
4277 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
4278 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
4279
4280 </ol>
4281
4282 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
4283
4284 <ol>
4285
4286 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
4287 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
4288 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
4289 <pre>
4290 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
4291 </pre></li>
4292 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
4293 <pre>
4294 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
4295    apt-key add -
4296 apt-get update
4297 apt-get install freedombox-setup
4298 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
4299 </pre></li>
4300 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
4301
4302 </ol>
4303
4304 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
4305 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
4306 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
4307 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
4308 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
4309
4310 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
4311 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
4312 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
4313 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
4314
4315 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
4316 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
4317 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
4318 irc.debian.org and the
4319 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
4320 mailing list</a>.</p>
4321
4322 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
4323 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
4324 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
4325 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
4326 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
4327 default password is 'secret'.</p>
4328
4329       </div>
4330       <div class="tags">
4331
4332
4333         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4334
4335
4336       </div>
4337     </div>
4338     <div class="padding"></div>
4339
4340     <div class="entry">
4341       <div class="title">
4342         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
4343       </div>
4344       <div class="date">
4345         18th August 2013
4346       </div>
4347       <div class="body">
4348         <p>Earlier, I reported about
4349 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
4350 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
4351 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
4352 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
4353 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
4354 currently on the disk.</p>
4355
4356 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
4357 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
4358 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
4359 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
4360 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
4361 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
4362 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
4363 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
4364 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
4365 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
4366 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
4367 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
4368 the broken disks.</p>
4369
4370       </div>
4371       <div class="tags">
4372
4373
4374         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4375
4376
4377       </div>
4378     </div>
4379     <div class="padding"></div>
4380
4381     <div class="entry">
4382       <div class="title">
4383         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
4384       </div>
4385       <div class="date">
4386         17th July 2013
4387       </div>
4388       <div class="body">
4389         <p>Today I switched to
4390 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
4391 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
4392 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
4393 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
4394 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
4395 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
4396 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
4397 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
4398 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
4399 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
4400 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
4401 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
4402 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
4403 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
4404 station from now on.</p>
4405
4406 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
4407 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
4408 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
4409 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
4410 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
4411 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
4412 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
4413 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
4414 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
4415 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
4416 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
4417 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
4418
4419 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
4420 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
4421 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
4422 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
4423 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
4424 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
4425 parameters are tuned:</p>
4426
4427 <ul>
4428
4429 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
4430     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
4431
4432 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
4433     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
4434     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
4435
4436 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
4437     systems.</li>
4438
4439 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
4440     /etc/fstab.</li>
4441
4442 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
4443
4444 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
4445     cron.daily).</li>
4446
4447 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
4448     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
4449
4450 </ul>
4451
4452 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
4453 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
4454 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
4455 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
4456 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
4457 from getting the data on the disk (see
4458 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
4459 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
4460 right thing to do.</p>
4461
4462 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
4463 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
4464 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
4465
4466 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
4467 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
4468 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
4469 instead of during my work.</p>
4470
4471 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
4472 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
4473
4474 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
4475 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
4476 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
4477
4478 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
4479 there.</p>
4480
4481 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
4482 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
4483 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
4484 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
4485 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
4486 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
4487 back.</p>
4488
4489       </div>
4490       <div class="tags">
4491
4492
4493         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4494
4495
4496       </div>
4497     </div>
4498     <div class="padding"></div>
4499
4500     <div class="entry">
4501       <div class="title">
4502         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
4503       </div>
4504       <div class="date">
4505         10th July 2013
4506       </div>
4507       <div class="body">
4508         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
4509 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
4510 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
4511 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
4512 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
4513 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
4514 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
4515 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
4516
4517 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
4518 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
4519 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
4520 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
4521 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
4522 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
4523 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
4524 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
4525 lock up when I download a new
4526 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
4527 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
4528 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
4529
4530 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
4531 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
4532 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
4533 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
4534 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
4535 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
4536
4537 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
4538 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
4539 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
4540 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
4541 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
4542 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
4543
4544 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
4545 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
4546 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
4547 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
4548 exist).</p>
4549
4550       </div>
4551       <div class="tags">
4552
4553
4554         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4555
4556
4557       </div>
4558     </div>
4559     <div class="padding"></div>
4560
4561     <div class="entry">
4562       <div class="title">
4563         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
4564       </div>
4565       <div class="date">
4566          9th July 2013
4567       </div>
4568       <div class="body">
4569         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
4570 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
4571 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
4572 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
4573 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4574 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
4575 Bitraf</a>.</p>
4576
4577 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
4578 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
4579 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
4580 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
4581 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
4582
4583       </div>
4584       <div class="tags">
4585
4586
4587         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
4588
4589
4590       </div>
4591     </div>
4592     <div class="padding"></div>
4593
4594     <div class="entry">
4595       <div class="title">
4596         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
4597       </div>
4598       <div class="date">
4599          5th July 2013
4600       </div>
4601       <div class="body">
4602         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
4603 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
4604 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
4605 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
4606 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
4607 ended up picking a
4608 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
4609 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
4610 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
4611 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
4612 on that below.</p>
4613
4614 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
4615 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
4616 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
4617 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
4618 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
4619 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
4620 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
4621 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
4622 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
4623
4624 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
4625 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
4626 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
4627 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
4628 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
4629 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
4630 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
4631
4632 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
4633 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
4634
4635 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
4636 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
4637 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
4638 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
4639 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
4640 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
4641 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
4642 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
4643 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
4644 kernel developers as
4645 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
4646 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
4647 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
4648 Lenovo forums, both for
4649 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
4650 2012-11-10</a> and for
4651 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
4652 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
4653 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
4654 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
4655 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
4656 There is even a
4657 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
4658 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
4659 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
4660
4661 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
4662 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
4663 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
4664 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
4665 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
4666 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
4667 fixed. :)</p>
4668
4669       </div>
4670       <div class="tags">
4671
4672
4673         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4674
4675
4676       </div>
4677     </div>
4678     <div class="padding"></div>
4679
4680     <div class="entry">
4681       <div class="title">
4682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
4683       </div>
4684       <div class="date">
4685          4th July 2013
4686       </div>
4687       <div class="body">
4688         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
4689 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
4690 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
4691 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
4692 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
4693 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
4694 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
4695 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
4696 with an expencive door stop.</p>
4697
4698 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
4699 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
4700 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
4701 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
4702 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
4703 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
4704 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
4705
4706 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
4707 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
4708 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
4709 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
4710 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
4711 new laptop now. :)</p>
4712
4713 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
4714
4715       </div>
4716       <div class="tags">
4717
4718
4719         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4720
4721
4722       </div>
4723     </div>
4724     <div class="padding"></div>
4725
4726     <div class="entry">
4727       <div class="title">
4728         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
4729       </div>
4730       <div class="date">
4731         25th June 2013
4732       </div>
4733       <div class="body">
4734         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
4735 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
4736 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
4737 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
4738 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
4739 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
4740 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
4741 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
4742 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
4743 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
4744 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
4745
4746 <p><pre>
4747 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
4748 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
4749 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
4750 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
4751 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
4752 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
4753 firmware-ipw2x00
4754 firmware-ipw2x00
4755 Preconfiguring packages ...
4756 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
4757 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
4758 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
4759 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
4760 #
4761 </pre></p>
4762
4763 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
4764 printed instead:</p>
4765
4766 <p><pre>
4767 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
4768 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
4769 #
4770 </pre></p>
4771
4772 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
4773 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
4774
4775 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
4776 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
4777 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
4778 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
4779 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
4780 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
4781 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
4782 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
4783 machine.</p>
4784
4785 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
4786 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
4787 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
4788 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
4789 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
4790 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
4791
4792       </div>
4793       <div class="tags">
4794
4795
4796         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4797
4798
4799       </div>
4800     </div>
4801     <div class="padding"></div>
4802
4803     <div class="entry">
4804       <div class="title">
4805         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
4806       </div>
4807       <div class="date">
4808         11th June 2013
4809       </div>
4810       <div class="body">
4811         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
4812 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
4813 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
4814 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
4815 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
4816 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
4817 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
4818 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
4819 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
4820 i915 driver used by the
4821 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
4822 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
4823
4824 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
4825 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
4826 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
4827 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
4828 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
4829
4830 <pre>
4831 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
4832 update-initramfs -u -k all
4833 </pre>
4834
4835 <p>Since March 2012 there is
4836 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
4837 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
4838 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
4839 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
4840 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
4841 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
4842 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
4843 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
4844 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
4845 number.</p>
4846
4847 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
4848 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
4849
4850 <p><pre>
4851 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
4852     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
4853     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
4854  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
4855  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
4856     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
4857  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
4858     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
4859  Latency: 0
4860  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
4861  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
4862  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
4863  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
4864  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
4865  Capabilities: <access denied>
4866  Kernel driver in use: i915
4867 </pre></p>
4868
4869 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
4870
4871 <p><pre>
4872 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
4873        ...
4874         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
4875         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
4876        ...
4877 }
4878 </pre></p>
4879
4880 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
4881 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
4882 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
4883 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
4884 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
4885 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
4886 yet shown up in
4887 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
4888 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
4889 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
4890 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
4891 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
4892 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
4893
4894 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
4895 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
4896 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
4897 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
4898 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
4899 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
4900 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
4901 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
4902 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
4903 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
4904 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
4905 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
4906
4907 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
4908 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
4909 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
4910 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
4911 backlight.</p>
4912
4913       </div>
4914       <div class="tags">
4915
4916
4917         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4918
4919
4920       </div>
4921     </div>
4922     <div class="padding"></div>
4923
4924     <div class="entry">
4925       <div class="title">
4926         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
4927       </div>
4928       <div class="date">
4929         27th May 2013
4930       </div>
4931       <div class="body">
4932         <p>Two days ago, I asked
4933 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
4934 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
4935 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
4936 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
4937 and Windows 8.</p>
4938
4939 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
4940 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
4941 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
4942 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
4943 enough to tell.</p>
4944
4945 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
4946 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
4947 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
4948 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
4949 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
4950 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
4951 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
4952 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
4953 to follow.</p>
4954
4955 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
4956 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
4957 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
4958 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
4959 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
4960 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
4961 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
4962 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
4963
4964 <p>I've updated the
4965 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
4966 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
4967 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
4968 machine.</p>
4969
4970 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
4971 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
4972
4973       </div>
4974       <div class="tags">
4975
4976
4977         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4978
4979
4980       </div>
4981     </div>
4982     <div class="padding"></div>
4983
4984     <div class="entry">
4985       <div class="title">
4986         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
4987       </div>
4988       <div class="date">
4989         25th May 2013
4990       </div>
4991       <div class="body">
4992         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
4993 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
4994 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
4995 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
4996 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
4997 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
4998
4999 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
5000 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
5001 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
5002 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
5003 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
5004 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
5005 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
5006 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
5007 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
5008 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
5009
5010 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
5011 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
5012 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
5013 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
5014 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
5015 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
5016
5017 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
5018 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
5019 on new Laptops?</p>
5020
5021       </div>
5022       <div class="tags">
5023
5024
5025         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5026
5027
5028       </div>
5029     </div>
5030     <div class="padding"></div>
5031
5032     <div class="entry">
5033       <div class="title">
5034         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
5035       </div>
5036       <div class="date">
5037         17th May 2013
5038       </div>
5039       <div class="body">
5040         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
5041 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
5042 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
5043 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
5044 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
5045 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
5046 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
5047 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
5048 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
5049 donate some money</a>.
5050
5051 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
5052 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
5053 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
5054 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
5055 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
5056
5057 <p>The script,
5058 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
5059 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
5060 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
5061 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
5062
5063 <ol>
5064
5065 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
5066 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
5067 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
5068     our configuration.</li>
5069 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
5070     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
5071     according to the profile specified in the config above,
5072     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
5073 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
5074     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
5075 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
5076
5077 </ol>
5078
5079 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
5080 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
5081 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
5082 the needed packages.</p>
5083
5084 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
5085 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
5086 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
5087 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
5088 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
5089 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
5090
5091 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
5092 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
5093 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
5094
5095 <p><pre>
5096 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
5097 DESKTOP="lxde"
5098 </pre></p>
5099
5100 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
5101 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
5102 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
5103 boot.</p>
5104
5105       </div>
5106       <div class="tags">
5107
5108
5109         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5110
5111
5112       </div>
5113     </div>
5114     <div class="padding"></div>
5115
5116     <div class="entry">
5117       <div class="title">
5118         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
5119       </div>
5120       <div class="date">
5121         11th May 2013
5122       </div>
5123       <div class="body">
5124         <P>In January,
5125 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
5126 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
5127 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
5128 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
5129 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
5130 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
5131 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
5132 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
5133 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
5134 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
5135 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
5136 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
5137
5138 <p><table>
5139 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
5140 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
5141 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
5142 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
5143 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
5144 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
5145 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
5146 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
5147 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
5148 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
5149 </table></p>
5150
5151 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
5152 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
5153 available in experimental.</p>
5154
5155 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
5156 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
5157 for LEGO designers.</p>
5158
5159       </div>
5160       <div class="tags">
5161
5162
5163         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
5164
5165
5166       </div>
5167     </div>
5168     <div class="padding"></div>
5169
5170     <div class="entry">
5171       <div class="title">
5172         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
5173       </div>
5174       <div class="date">
5175          5th May 2013
5176       </div>
5177       <div class="body">
5178         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
5179 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
5180 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
5181 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
5182 soon.</p>
5183
5184 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
5185 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
5186 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
5187 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
5188 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
5189 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
5190 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
5191 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
5192 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
5193 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
5194 Edu.</a>
5195
5196 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
5197 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
5198 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
5199 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
5200 follow.<p>
5201
5202       </div>
5203       <div class="tags">
5204
5205
5206         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5207
5208
5209       </div>
5210     </div>
5211     <div class="padding"></div>
5212
5213     <div class="entry">
5214       <div class="title">
5215         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
5216       </div>
5217       <div class="date">
5218          3rd April 2013
5219       </div>
5220       <div class="body">
5221         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
5222 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
5223 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
5224 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
5225
5226 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
5227 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
5228 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
5229 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
5230 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
5231 BTS. :)</p>
5232
5233       </div>
5234       <div class="tags">
5235
5236
5237         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5238
5239
5240       </div>
5241     </div>
5242     <div class="padding"></div>
5243
5244     <div class="entry">
5245       <div class="title">
5246         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
5247       </div>
5248       <div class="date">
5249          2nd February 2013
5250       </div>
5251       <div class="body">
5252         <p>My
5253 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
5254 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
5255 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
5256 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
5257 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
5258 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
5259 version too.</p>
5260
5261 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
5262 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
5263 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
5264 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
5265 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
5266 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
5267 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
5268 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
5269
5270 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
5271 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
5272 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
5273 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
5274 it. :)</p>
5275
5276 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5277 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5278 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5279
5280       </div>
5281       <div class="tags">
5282
5283
5284         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5285
5286
5287       </div>
5288     </div>
5289     <div class="padding"></div>
5290
5291     <div class="entry">
5292       <div class="title">
5293         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
5294       </div>
5295       <div class="date">
5296         22nd January 2013
5297       </div>
5298       <div class="body">
5299         <p>Yesterday, I
5300 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
5301 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
5302 pluggable hardware devices, which I
5303 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
5304 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
5305 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
5306 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
5307 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
5308 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
5309 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
5310 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
5311 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
5312 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
5313
5314 <pre>
5315 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
5316 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
5317 </pre>
5318
5319 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
5320 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
5321 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
5322 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
5323
5324 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
5325 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
5326 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
5327 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
5328 word.</p>
5329
5330 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
5331 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
5332 process.</p>
5333
5334 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
5335 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
5336
5337       </div>
5338       <div class="tags">
5339
5340
5341         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5342
5343
5344       </div>
5345     </div>
5346     <div class="padding"></div>
5347
5348     <div class="entry">
5349       <div class="title">
5350         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
5351       </div>
5352       <div class="date">
5353         21st January 2013
5354       </div>
5355       <div class="body">
5356         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
5357 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
5358 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
5359 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
5360 it, fetch the
5361 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
5362 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
5363 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
5364 autostart script.</p>
5365
5366 <p>The design is simple:</p>
5367
5368 <ul>
5369
5370 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
5371 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
5372
5373 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
5374 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
5375 initially did.</li>
5376
5377 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
5378 the APT database, a database
5379 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
5380 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
5381
5382 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
5383 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
5384 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
5385 package or packages.</li>
5386
5387 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
5388 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
5389
5390 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
5391 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
5392
5393 </ul>
5394
5395 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
5396 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
5397 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
5398 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
5399
5400 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
5401 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
5402 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
5403 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
5404 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
5405
5406 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
5407 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
5408 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
5409 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
5410 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
5411 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
5412 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
5413 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
5414
5415 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
5416 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
5417 '<tt>svn checkout
5418 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
5419 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
5420 devscripts package.</p>
5421
5422 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
5423 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
5424 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
5425 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
5426 instructions</a> for details.</p>
5427
5428       </div>
5429       <div class="tags">
5430
5431
5432         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5433
5434
5435       </div>
5436     </div>
5437     <div class="padding"></div>
5438
5439     <div class="entry">
5440       <div class="title">
5441         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
5442       </div>
5443       <div class="date">
5444         19th January 2013
5445       </div>
5446       <div class="body">
5447         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
5448 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
5449 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
5450 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
5451 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
5452 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
5453 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
5454 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
5455 not a durable solution.
5456
5457 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
5458 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
5459
5460 <ul>
5461
5462 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
5463   than A4).</li>
5464 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
5465 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
5466 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
5467 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
5468 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
5469 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
5470 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
5471 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
5472 size).</li>
5473 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
5474   X.org packages.</li>
5475 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
5476   the time).
5477
5478 </ul>
5479
5480 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
5481 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
5482 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
5483 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
5484 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
5485 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
5486 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
5487 still be useful.</p>
5488
5489 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
5490 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
5491 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
5492 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
5493 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
5494 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
5495
5496       </div>
5497       <div class="tags">
5498
5499
5500         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5501
5502
5503       </div>
5504     </div>
5505     <div class="padding"></div>
5506
5507     <div class="entry">
5508       <div class="title">
5509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
5510       </div>
5511       <div class="date">
5512         18th January 2013
5513       </div>
5514       <div class="body">
5515         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
5516 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
5517 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
5518 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
5519 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
5520 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
5521 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
5522
5523 <pre>
5524 #!/usr/bin/python
5525 import sys
5526 import apt
5527 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
5528     cache = apt.Cache()
5529     cache.open(None)
5530     thepkgs = []
5531     for pkg in cache:
5532         version = pkg.candidate
5533         if version is None:
5534             version = pkg.installed
5535         if version is None:
5536             continue
5537         record = version.record
5538         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
5539             continue
5540         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
5541         for t in mime_types:
5542             t = t.rstrip().strip()
5543             if t == mimetype:
5544                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
5545     return thepkgs
5546 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
5547 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
5548     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
5549 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
5550 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
5551     print "  %s" %pkg
5552 </pre>
5553
5554 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
5555
5556 <pre>
5557 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
5558 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
5559   gecko-mediaplayer
5560 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
5561 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
5562   browser-plugin-gnash
5563 %
5564 </pre>
5565
5566 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
5567 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
5568 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
5569 anyone working on adding it?</p>
5570
5571 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
5572 request for icweasel support for this feature is
5573 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
5574 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
5575 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
5576 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
5577
5578       </div>
5579       <div class="tags">
5580
5581
5582         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5583
5584
5585       </div>
5586     </div>
5587     <div class="padding"></div>
5588
5589     <div class="entry">
5590       <div class="title">
5591         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
5592       </div>
5593       <div class="date">
5594         16th January 2013
5595       </div>
5596       <div class="body">
5597         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
5598 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
5599 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
5600 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
5601 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
5602 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
5603 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
5604 downloaded by the browser.</p>
5605
5606 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
5607 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
5608 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
5609 can be found on the
5610 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
5611 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
5612 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
5613 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
5614 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
5615
5616 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
5617
5618 <pre>
5619   count MIME type
5620   ----- -----------------------
5621      32 text/plain
5622      30 audio/mpeg
5623      29 image/png
5624      28 image/jpeg
5625      27 application/ogg
5626      26 audio/x-mp3
5627      25 image/tiff
5628      25 image/gif
5629      22 image/bmp
5630      22 audio/x-wav
5631      20 audio/x-flac
5632      19 audio/x-mpegurl
5633      18 video/x-ms-asf
5634      18 audio/x-musepack
5635      18 audio/x-mpeg
5636      18 application/x-ogg
5637      17 video/mpeg
5638      17 audio/x-scpls
5639      17 audio/ogg
5640      16 video/x-ms-wmv
5641 </pre>
5642
5643 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
5644
5645 <pre>
5646   count MIME type
5647   ----- -----------------------
5648      33 text/plain
5649      32 image/png
5650      32 image/jpeg
5651      29 audio/mpeg
5652      27 image/gif
5653      26 image/tiff
5654      26 application/ogg
5655      25 audio/x-mp3
5656      22 image/bmp
5657      21 audio/x-wav
5658      19 audio/x-mpegurl
5659      19 audio/x-mpeg
5660      18 video/mpeg
5661      18 audio/x-scpls
5662      18 audio/x-flac
5663      18 application/x-ogg
5664      17 video/x-ms-asf
5665      17 text/html
5666      17 audio/x-musepack
5667      16 image/x-xbitmap
5668 </pre>
5669
5670 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
5671
5672 <pre>
5673   count MIME type
5674   ----- -----------------------
5675      31 text/plain
5676      31 image/png
5677      31 image/jpeg
5678      29 audio/mpeg
5679      28 application/ogg
5680      27 image/gif
5681      26 image/tiff
5682      26 audio/x-mp3
5683      23 audio/x-wav
5684      22 image/bmp
5685      21 audio/x-flac
5686      20 audio/x-mpegurl
5687      19 audio/x-mpeg
5688      18 video/x-ms-asf
5689      18 video/mpeg
5690      18 audio/x-scpls
5691      18 application/x-ogg
5692      17 audio/x-musepack
5693      16 video/x-ms-wmv
5694      16 video/x-msvideo
5695 </pre>
5696
5697 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
5698 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
5699 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
5700 issues.</p>
5701
5702 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
5703 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
5704
5705       </div>
5706       <div class="tags">
5707
5708
5709         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5710
5711
5712       </div>
5713     </div>
5714     <div class="padding"></div>
5715
5716     <div class="entry">
5717       <div class="title">
5718         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
5719       </div>
5720       <div class="date">
5721         15th January 2013
5722       </div>
5723       <div class="body">
5724         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
5725 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
5726 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
5727 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
5728 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
5729 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
5730 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
5731 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
5732 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
5733 packages.</p>
5734
5735 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
5736 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
5737 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
5738 modalias.</p>
5739
5740 <p><blockquote>
5741 Package: package-name
5742 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
5743 </blockquote></p>
5744
5745 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
5746 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
5747
5748 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
5749 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
5750
5751 <p><blockquote>
5752 Package: cheese
5753 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
5754 </blockquote></p>
5755
5756 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
5757 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
5758
5759 <p><blockquote>
5760 Package: pcmciautils
5761 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
5762 </blockquote></p>
5763
5764 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
5765 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
5766
5767 <p><blockquote>
5768 Package: colorhug-client
5769 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
5770 </blockquote></p>
5771
5772 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
5773 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
5774 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
5775
5776 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
5777 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
5778 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
5779 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
5780 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
5781 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
5782 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
5783 Raring.</p>
5784
5785 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
5786 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
5787 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
5788 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
5789 try the
5790 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
5791 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
5792 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
5793 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
5794
5795 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
5796 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
5797
5798 <p><blockquote>
5799 % ./hw-support-lookup
5800 <br>yubikey-personalization
5801 <br>%
5802 </blockquote></p>
5803
5804 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
5805 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
5806
5807 <p><blockquote>
5808 % ./hw-support-lookup
5809 <br>pcmciautils
5810 <br>%
5811 </blockquote></p>
5812
5813 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
5814 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
5815 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
5816
5817 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
5818 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
5819 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
5820 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
5821 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
5822 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
5823 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
5824 see if it work.</p>
5825
5826 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
5827 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
5828 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
5829 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
5830
5831       </div>
5832       <div class="tags">
5833
5834
5835         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5836
5837
5838       </div>
5839     </div>
5840     <div class="padding"></div>
5841
5842     <div class="entry">
5843       <div class="title">
5844         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
5845       </div>
5846       <div class="date">
5847         14th January 2013
5848       </div>
5849       <div class="body">
5850         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
5851 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
5852 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
5853 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
5854 in
5855 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
5856 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
5857
5858 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
5859
5860 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
5861 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
5862 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
5863 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
5864 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
5865 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
5866
5867 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
5868 this shell script:</p>
5869
5870 <pre>
5871 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
5872 </pre>
5873
5874 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
5875 using modinfo:</p>
5876
5877 <pre>
5878 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
5879 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
5880 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
5881 %
5882 </pre>
5883
5884 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
5885
5886 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
5887 Bridge memory controller:</p>
5888
5889 <p><blockquote>
5890 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
5891 </blockquote></p>
5892
5893 <p>This represent these values:</p>
5894
5895 <pre>
5896  v   00008086  (vendor)
5897  d   00002770  (device)
5898  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
5899  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
5900  bc  06        (bus class)
5901  sc  00        (bus subclass)
5902  i   00        (interface)
5903 </pre>
5904
5905 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
5906 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
5907 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
5908 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
5909
5910 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
5911 means.</p>
5912
5913 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
5914
5915 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
5916 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
5917
5918 <p><blockquote>
5919 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
5920 </blockquote></p>
5921
5922 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
5923
5924 <pre>
5925  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
5926  p    0001  (device product)
5927  d    0206  (bcddevice)
5928  dc     09  (device class)
5929  dsc    00  (device subclass)
5930  dp     00  (device protocol)
5931  ic     09  (interface class)
5932  isc    00  (interface subclass)
5933  ip     00  (interface protocol)
5934 </pre>
5935
5936 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
5937 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
5938 these alias entries show up:</p>
5939
5940 <p><blockquote>
5941 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
5942 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
5943 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
5944 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
5945 </blockquote></p>
5946
5947 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
5948 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
5949 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
5950
5951 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
5952
5953 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
5954 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
5955
5956 <p><blockquote>
5957 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
5958 </blockquote></p>
5959
5960 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
5961
5962 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
5963
5964 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
5965 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
5966 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
5967
5968 <p><blockquote>
5969 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
5970 </blockquote></p>
5971
5972 <p>The values present are</p>
5973
5974 <pre>
5975  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
5976  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
5977  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
5978  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
5979  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
5980  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
5981  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
5982  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
5983  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
5984  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
5985  ct   10             (chassis type)
5986  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
5987 </pre>
5988
5989 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
5990 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
5991
5992 <pre>
5993   3 Desktop
5994   4 Low Profile Desktop
5995   5 Pizza Box
5996   6 Mini Tower
5997   7 Tower
5998   8 Portable
5999   9 Laptop
6000  10 Notebook
6001  11 Hand Held
6002  12 Docking Station
6003  13 All In One
6004  14 Sub Notebook
6005  15 Space-saving
6006  16 Lunch Box
6007  17 Main Server Chassis
6008  18 Expansion Chassis
6009  19 Sub Chassis
6010  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
6011  21 Peripheral Chassis
6012  22 RAID Chassis
6013  23 Rack Mount Chassis
6014  24 Sealed-case PC
6015  25 Multi-system
6016  26 CompactPCI
6017  27 AdvancedTCA
6018  28 Blade
6019  29 Blade Enclosing
6020 </pre>
6021
6022 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
6023 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
6024 claim it is a desktop.</p>
6025
6026 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
6027
6028 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
6029 test machine:</p>
6030
6031 <p><blockquote>
6032 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
6033 </blockquote></p>
6034
6035 <p>The values present are</p>
6036
6037 <pre>
6038   ty  01  (type)
6039   pr  00  (prototype)
6040   id  00  (id)
6041   ex  00  (extra)
6042 </pre>
6043
6044 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
6045 the valid values are.</p>
6046
6047 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
6048
6049 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
6050 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
6051 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
6052 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
6053 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
6054 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
6055 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
6056
6057 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
6058
6059 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
6060 one can use the following shell script:</p>
6061
6062 <pre>
6063   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
6064     echo "$id" ; \
6065     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
6066   done
6067 </pre>
6068
6069 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
6070 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
6071
6072 <pre>
6073   acpi:ACPI0003:
6074     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
6075   acpi:device:
6076   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
6077   acpi:IBM0068:
6078     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
6079     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
6080     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
6081     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
6082   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
6083     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
6084     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
6085     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
6086   [...]
6087 </pre>
6088
6089 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
6090 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
6091 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
6092 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
6093
6094 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
6095 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
6096 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
6097
6098       </div>
6099       <div class="tags">
6100
6101
6102         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6103
6104
6105       </div>
6106     </div>
6107     <div class="padding"></div>
6108
6109     <div class="entry">
6110       <div class="title">
6111         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
6112       </div>
6113       <div class="date">
6114         10th January 2013
6115       </div>
6116       <div class="body">
6117         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
6118 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
6119 Launcher and updated the Debian package
6120 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
6121 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
6122 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
6123 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
6124 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
6125 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
6126 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
6127 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
6128 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
6129 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
6130 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
6131 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
6132 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
6133 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
6134 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
6135
6136       </div>
6137       <div class="tags">
6138
6139
6140         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
6141
6142
6143       </div>
6144     </div>
6145     <div class="padding"></div>
6146
6147     <div class="entry">
6148       <div class="title">
6149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
6150       </div>
6151       <div class="date">
6152          9th January 2013
6153       </div>
6154       <div class="body">
6155         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
6156 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
6157 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
6158 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
6159 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
6160 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
6161 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
6162 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
6163 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
6164 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
6165 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
6166
6167 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
6168 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
6169 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
6170 simple:
6171
6172 <ul>
6173
6174 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
6175   starting when a user log in.</li>
6176
6177 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
6178   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
6179
6180 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
6181   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
6182   packages.</li>
6183
6184 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
6185   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
6186
6187 </ul>
6188
6189 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
6190 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
6191 discover database to find packages and
6192 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
6193 packages.</p>
6194
6195 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
6196 draft package is now checked into
6197 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
6198 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
6199 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
6200 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
6201 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
6202 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
6203 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
6204 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
6205 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
6206 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
6207 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
6208 because of the freeze).</p>
6209
6210 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
6211 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
6212 inserted):</p>
6213
6214 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
6215
6216 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
6217 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
6218 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
6219
6220 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
6221 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
6222 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
6223 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
6224 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
6225 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
6226 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
6227
6228 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
6229 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
6230 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
6231 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
6232 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
6233 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
6234 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
6235 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
6236 not be installed?</p>
6237
6238 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
6239 please send me an email. :)</p>
6240
6241       </div>
6242       <div class="tags">
6243
6244
6245         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6246
6247
6248       </div>
6249     </div>
6250     <div class="padding"></div>
6251
6252     <div class="entry">
6253       <div class="title">
6254         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
6255       </div>
6256       <div class="date">
6257          2nd January 2013
6258       </div>
6259       <div class="body">
6260         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
6261 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
6262 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
6263 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
6264 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
6265 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
6266 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
6267 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
6268 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
6269 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
6270
6271 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
6272 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
6273 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
6274
6275       </div>
6276       <div class="tags">
6277
6278
6279         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
6280
6281
6282       </div>
6283     </div>
6284     <div class="padding"></div>
6285
6286     <div class="entry">
6287       <div class="title">
6288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
6289       </div>
6290       <div class="date">
6291         25th December 2012
6292       </div>
6293       <div class="body">
6294         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
6295 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
6296
6297 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
6298 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
6299 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
6300 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
6301 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
6302 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
6303 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
6304 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
6305 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
6306 name.</p>
6307
6308 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
6309 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
6310 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
6311
6312 <blockquote><pre>
6313 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
6314 cd bitcoin
6315 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
6316 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
6317 </pre></blockquote>
6318
6319 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
6320 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
6321 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
6322 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
6323 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
6324 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
6325 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
6326 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
6327 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
6328
6329 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6330 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6331 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6332
6333       </div>
6334       <div class="tags">
6335
6336
6337         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6338
6339
6340       </div>
6341     </div>
6342     <div class="padding"></div>
6343
6344     <div class="entry">
6345       <div class="title">
6346         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
6347       </div>
6348       <div class="date">
6349         21st December 2012
6350       </div>
6351       <div class="body">
6352         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
6353 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
6354 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
6355 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
6356 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
6357 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
6358 is now maintained by a
6359 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
6360 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
6361 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
6362 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
6363 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
6364 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
6365 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
6366 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
6367 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
6368 Corallo in a
6369 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
6370 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
6371 Debian package.</p>
6372
6373 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
6374 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
6375 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
6376 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
6377 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
6378 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
6379 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
6380 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
6381 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
6382 new version to unstable.
6383
6384 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
6385 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
6386 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
6387 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
6388 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
6389 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
6390 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
6391 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
6392 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
6393 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
6394 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
6395 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
6396 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
6397 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
6398 have not tested them.</p>
6399
6400 <p>My
6401 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
6402 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
6403 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
6404 years ago, as can be
6405 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
6406 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
6407 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
6408 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
6409 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
6410 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
6411 the same address as last time,
6412 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6413
6414       </div>
6415       <div class="tags">
6416
6417
6418         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6419
6420
6421       </div>
6422     </div>
6423     <div class="padding"></div>
6424
6425     <div class="entry">
6426       <div class="title">
6427         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
6428       </div>
6429       <div class="date">
6430          7th September 2012
6431       </div>
6432       <div class="body">
6433         <p>As I
6434 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
6435 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
6436 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
6437 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
6438 repository for the project</a>.</p>
6439
6440 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
6441 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
6442 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
6443 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
6444
6445 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
6446 PostScript formats at
6447 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
6448 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
6449
6450       </div>
6451       <div class="tags">
6452
6453
6454         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6455
6456
6457       </div>
6458     </div>
6459     <div class="padding"></div>
6460
6461     <div class="entry">
6462       <div class="title">
6463         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
6464       </div>
6465       <div class="date">
6466         16th August 2012
6467       </div>
6468       <div class="body">
6469         <p>I dag fyller
6470 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
6471 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
6472 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
6473
6474       </div>
6475       <div class="tags">
6476
6477
6478         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
6479
6480
6481       </div>
6482     </div>
6483     <div class="padding"></div>
6484
6485     <div class="entry">
6486       <div class="title">
6487         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
6488       </div>
6489       <div class="date">
6490         24th June 2012
6491       </div>
6492       <div class="body">
6493         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
6494 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
6495 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
6496 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
6497 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
6498 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
6499 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
6500 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
6501 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
6502 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
6503 missing in my book.</p>
6504
6505 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
6506 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
6507 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
6508 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
6509 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
6510 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
6511 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
6512
6513       </div>
6514       <div class="tags">
6515
6516
6517         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6518
6519
6520       </div>
6521     </div>
6522     <div class="padding"></div>
6523
6524     <div class="entry">
6525       <div class="title">
6526         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
6527       </div>
6528       <div class="date">
6529         21st November 2011
6530       </div>
6531       <div class="body">
6532         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
6533 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
6534 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
6535 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
6536 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
6537 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
6538 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
6539 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
6540 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
6541 the tools to do so.</p>
6542
6543 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
6544 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
6545 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
6546 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
6547
6548 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
6549 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
6550 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
6551 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
6552 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
6553 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
6554 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
6555 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
6556
6557 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
6558 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
6559 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
6560
6561 <p><pre>
6562 #!/usr/bin/perl
6563 use strict;
6564 use warnings;
6565 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
6566 BEGIN {
6567     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
6568     my %rhelmodules = (
6569         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
6570         );
6571     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
6572         eval "use $module;";
6573         if ($@) {
6574             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
6575             system("yum install -y $pkg");
6576             eval "use $module;";
6577         }
6578     }
6579 }
6580 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
6581
6582 upgrade_dell();
6583
6584 exit 0;
6585
6586 sub run_firmware_script {
6587     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
6588     unless ($script) {
6589         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
6590         exit 1
6591     }
6592     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
6593
6594     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
6595         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
6596     } else {
6597         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
6598     }
6599 }
6600
6601 sub run_firmware_scripts {
6602     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
6603     # Run firmware packages
6604     for my $dir (@dirs) {
6605         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
6606         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
6607         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
6608             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
6609             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
6610         }
6611         closedir $dh;
6612     }
6613 }
6614
6615 sub download {
6616     my $url = shift;
6617     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
6618     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
6619 }
6620
6621 sub upgrade_dell {
6622     my @dirs;
6623     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6624     chomp $product;
6625
6626     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
6627
6628         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
6629         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
6630
6631         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
6632             CLEANUP => 1
6633             );
6634         chdir($tmpdir);
6635         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
6636         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
6637         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
6638         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
6639         my $fwopts = "-q";
6640         if (@paths) {
6641             for my $url (@paths) {
6642                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
6643             }
6644             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
6645         } else {
6646             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6647             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6648         }
6649         chdir('/');
6650     } else {
6651         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6652         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6653     }
6654 }
6655
6656 sub fetch_dell_fw {
6657     my $path = shift;
6658     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
6659     download($url);
6660 }
6661
6662 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
6663 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
6664 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
6665 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
6666     my $filename = shift;
6667
6668     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6669     chomp $product;
6670     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
6671
6672     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
6673
6674     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
6675     my @paths;
6676     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
6677         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
6678         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
6679         my $oscode;
6680         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
6681             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
6682         } else {
6683             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
6684         }
6685         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
6686         {
6687             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
6688         }
6689     }
6690     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
6691         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
6692
6693         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
6694         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
6695
6696         my $cpath = $component->{path};
6697         for my $path (@paths) {
6698             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
6699                 push(@paths, $cpath);
6700             }
6701         }
6702     }
6703     return @paths;
6704 }
6705 </pre>
6706
6707 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
6708 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
6709 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
6710 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
6711 outdated.</p>
6712
6713       </div>
6714       <div class="tags">
6715
6716
6717         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6718
6719
6720       </div>
6721     </div>
6722     <div class="padding"></div>
6723
6724     <div class="entry">
6725       <div class="title">
6726         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
6727       </div>
6728       <div class="date">
6729          4th August 2011
6730       </div>
6731       <div class="body">
6732         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
6733 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
6734 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
6735 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
6736 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
6737 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
6738 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
6739 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
6740 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
6741
6742 <p><blockquote>
6743 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
6744 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
6745 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
6746 </blockquote></p>
6747
6748 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
6749 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
6750 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
6751 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
6752 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
6753 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
6754 hard to explain.</p>
6755
6756 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
6757 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
6758 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
6759 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
6760 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
6761 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
6762 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
6763 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
6764 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
6765 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
6766 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
6767 mode).</p>
6768
6769 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
6770 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
6771 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
6772 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
6773 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
6774 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
6775 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
6776 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
6777 after visiting single user mode.</p>
6778
6779 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
6780 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
6781 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
6782 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
6783 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
6784 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
6785 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
6786 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
6787
6788 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
6789 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
6790 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
6791
6792       </div>
6793       <div class="tags">
6794
6795
6796         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6797
6798
6799       </div>
6800     </div>
6801     <div class="padding"></div>
6802
6803     <div class="entry">
6804       <div class="title">
6805         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
6806       </div>
6807       <div class="date">
6808         30th July 2011
6809       </div>
6810       <div class="body">
6811         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
6812 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
6813 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
6814 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
6815 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
6816 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
6817 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
6818 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
6819 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
6820 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
6821 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
6822 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
6823 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
6824
6825 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
6826 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
6827 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
6828 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
6829 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
6830 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
6831 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
6832 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
6833 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
6834
6835 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
6836 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
6837 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
6838 is presented.</p>
6839
6840 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
6841 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
6842 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
6843 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
6844 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
6845 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
6846 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
6847 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
6848 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
6849 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
6850 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
6851 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
6852 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
6853 find time to push this forward.</p>
6854
6855       </div>
6856       <div class="tags">
6857
6858
6859         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6860
6861
6862       </div>
6863     </div>
6864     <div class="padding"></div>
6865
6866     <div class="entry">
6867       <div class="title">
6868         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
6869       </div>
6870       <div class="date">
6871         29th July 2011
6872       </div>
6873       <div class="body">
6874         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
6875 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
6876 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
6877 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
6878 issues.</p>
6879
6880 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
6881 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
6882 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
6883
6884 <ol>
6885
6886 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
6887 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
6888 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
6889 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
6890 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
6891 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
6892 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
6893 Debian.</li>
6894
6895 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
6896 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
6897 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
6898 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
6899 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
6900 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
6901 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
6902 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
6903 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
6904 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
6905 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
6906 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
6907 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
6908
6909 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
6910 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
6911 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
6912 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
6913 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
6914 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
6915 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
6916 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
6917 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
6918 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
6919
6920 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
6921 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
6922 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
6923 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
6924 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
6925 latter behaviour.</li>
6926
6927 </ol>
6928
6929 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
6930 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
6931 it do not matter much.</p>
6932
6933 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
6934 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
6935 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
6936
6937       </div>
6938       <div class="tags">
6939
6940
6941         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6942
6943
6944       </div>
6945     </div>
6946     <div class="padding"></div>
6947
6948     <div class="entry">
6949       <div class="title">
6950         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
6951       </div>
6952       <div class="date">
6953         26th July 2011
6954       </div>
6955       <div class="body">
6956         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
6957 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
6958 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
6959 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
6960 security support for a few years.</p>
6961
6962 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
6963 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
6964 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
6965 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
6966 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
6967 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
6968 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
6969 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
6970 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
6971 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
6972 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
6973 easier in the future.</p>
6974
6975 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
6976 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
6977 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
6978 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
6979 do not have time for.</p>
6980
6981       </div>
6982       <div class="tags">
6983
6984
6985         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
6986
6987
6988       </div>
6989     </div>
6990     <div class="padding"></div>
6991
6992     <div class="entry">
6993       <div class="title">
6994         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
6995       </div>
6996       <div class="date">
6997          3rd April 2011
6998       </div>
6999       <div class="body">
7000         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
7001 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
7002 update in English.</p>
7003
7004 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
7005 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
7006 of the British service
7007 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
7008 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
7009 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
7010 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
7011 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
7012 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
7013 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
7014 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
7015 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
7016 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
7017 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
7018 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
7019 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
7020
7021 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
7022 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
7023 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
7024 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
7025 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
7026 public infrastructure.</p>
7027
7028 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
7029 such service?</p>
7030
7031       </div>
7032       <div class="tags">
7033
7034
7035         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
7036
7037
7038       </div>
7039     </div>
7040     <div class="padding"></div>
7041
7042     <div class="entry">
7043       <div class="title">
7044         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
7045       </div>
7046       <div class="date">
7047         28th January 2011
7048       </div>
7049       <div class="body">
7050         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
7051 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
7052 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
7053 available on the Internet, and check our locally
7054 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
7055 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
7056 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
7057 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
7058 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
7059 out which security holes were present in our free software
7060 collection.</p>
7061
7062 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
7063 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
7064 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
7065 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
7066 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
7067 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
7068 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
7069 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
7070 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
7071 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
7072 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
7073 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
7074 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
7075 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
7076 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
7077 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
7078
7079 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
7080 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
7081 check out, one could look up
7082 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?cpe=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Agnu%3Agzip:1.3.3">cpe:/a:gnu:gzip:1.3.3
7083 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
7084 The most recent one is
7085 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
7086 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
7087 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
7088
7089 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
7090 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
7091 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
7092 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
7093 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
7094 security issues out.</p>
7095
7096 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
7097 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
7098 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
7099 RHEL is providing
7100 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
7101 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
7102 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
7103
7104 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
7105 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
7106 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
7107 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
7108 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
7109 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
7110 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
7111 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
7112 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
7113 established soon.</p>
7114
7115 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
7116 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
7117 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
7118 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
7119 for their packages.</p>
7120
7121       </div>
7122       <div class="tags">
7123
7124
7125         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7126
7127
7128       </div>
7129     </div>
7130     <div class="padding"></div>
7131
7132     <div class="entry">
7133       <div class="title">
7134         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
7135       </div>
7136       <div class="date">
7137         23rd January 2011
7138       </div>
7139       <div class="body">
7140         <p>In the
7141 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
7142 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
7143 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
7144 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
7145 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
7146 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
7147 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
7148 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
7149 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
7150 one of my machines like this:</p>
7151
7152 <pre>
7153 loaded modules:
7154 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
7155 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
7156 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
7157 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
7158 10de:03ec pata_amd
7159 10de:03f6 sata_nv
7160 1022:1103 k8temp
7161 109e:036e bttv
7162 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
7163 11ab:4364 sky2
7164 </pre>
7165
7166 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
7167 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
7168
7169 <pre>
7170 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
7171     echo loaded pci modules:
7172     (
7173         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
7174         for address in * ; do
7175             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7176                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7177                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7178                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
7179                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
7180                     echo "$id $module"
7181                 fi
7182             fi
7183         done
7184     )
7185     echo
7186 fi
7187 </pre>
7188
7189 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
7190 mappings:</p>
7191
7192 <pre>
7193 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
7194     echo loaded usb modules:
7195     (
7196         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
7197         for address in * ; do
7198             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7199                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7200                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7201                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
7202                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
7203                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
7204                         echo "$id $module"
7205                     fi
7206                 fi
7207             fi
7208         done
7209     )
7210     echo
7211 fi
7212 </pre>
7213
7214 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
7215 well.</p>
7216
7217       </div>
7218       <div class="tags">
7219
7220
7221         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7222
7223
7224       </div>
7225     </div>
7226     <div class="padding"></div>
7227
7228     <div class="entry">
7229       <div class="title">
7230         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
7231       </div>
7232       <div class="date">
7233         22nd December 2010
7234       </div>
7235       <div class="body">
7236         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
7237 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
7238 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
7239 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
7240 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
7241 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
7242 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
7243 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
7244 university.</p>
7245
7246 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
7247 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
7248 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
7249 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
7250 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
7251 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
7252 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
7253 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
7254
7255 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
7256 I perform on a new model.</p>
7257
7258 <ul>
7259
7260 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
7261 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
7262 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
7263
7264 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
7265 installation, X.org is working.</li>
7266
7267 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
7268 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
7269 reported by the program.</li>
7270
7271 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
7272 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
7273 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
7274 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
7275 normally test this by playing
7276 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
7277 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
7278
7279 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
7280 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
7281
7282 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
7283 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
7284
7285 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
7286 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
7287
7288 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
7289 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
7290 few.</li>
7291
7292 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
7293 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
7294 notice this.</li>
7295
7296 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
7297 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
7298 resume.</li>
7299
7300 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
7301 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
7302 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
7303 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
7304 not.</li>
7305
7306 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
7307 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
7308 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
7309 existence.</li>
7310
7311 </ul>
7312
7313 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
7314 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
7315 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
7316 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
7317 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
7318 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
7319 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
7320 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
7321
7322       </div>
7323       <div class="tags">
7324
7325
7326         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7327
7328
7329       </div>
7330     </div>
7331     <div class="padding"></div>
7332
7333     <div class="entry">
7334       <div class="title">
7335         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
7336       </div>
7337       <div class="date">
7338         11th December 2010
7339       </div>
7340       <div class="body">
7341         <p>As I continue to explore
7342 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
7343 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
7344 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
7345
7346 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
7347 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
7348 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
7349 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
7350 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
7351 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
7352 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
7353 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
7354 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
7355 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
7356 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
7357 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
7358 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
7359 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
7360 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
7361 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
7362 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
7363 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
7364 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
7365 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
7366
7367 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
7368 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
7369 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
7370 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
7371 If the Skolelinux foundation
7372 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
7373 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
7374 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
7375 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
7376 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
7377 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
7378 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
7379 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
7380
7381 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
7382 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
7383 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
7384 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
7385 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
7386 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
7387 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
7388 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
7389 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
7390 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
7391 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
7392 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
7393 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
7394 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
7395 currencies.</p>
7396
7397 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
7398 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
7399 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
7400 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
7401 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
7402 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
7403 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
7404 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
7405 BitCoins.  Check out
7406 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
7407 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
7408 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
7409 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
7410 yet.</p>
7411
7412 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
7413 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
7414 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
7415 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
7416 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
7417
7418       </div>
7419       <div class="tags">
7420
7421
7422         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7423
7424
7425       </div>
7426     </div>
7427     <div class="padding"></div>
7428
7429     <div class="entry">
7430       <div class="title">
7431         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
7432       </div>
7433       <div class="date">
7434         10th December 2010
7435       </div>
7436       <div class="body">
7437         <p>With this weeks lawless
7438 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
7439 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
7440 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
7441 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
7442 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
7443 A blog post from
7444 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
7445 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
7446 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
7447 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
7448 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
7449 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
7450 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
7451
7452 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
7453 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
7454 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
7455 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
7456 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
7457 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
7458 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
7459 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
7460 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
7461 Debian</a> soon.</p>
7462
7463 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
7464 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
7465 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
7466 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
7467 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
7468 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
7469 you can even get
7470 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
7471 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
7472 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
7473 on the current exchange rates.</p>
7474
7475 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
7476 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
7477 donations to the address
7478 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
7479
7480       </div>
7481       <div class="tags">
7482
7483
7484         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7485
7486
7487       </div>
7488     </div>
7489     <div class="padding"></div>
7490
7491     <div class="entry">
7492       <div class="title">
7493         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
7494       </div>
7495       <div class="date">
7496         27th November 2010
7497       </div>
7498       <div class="body">
7499         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
7500 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
7501 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
7502 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
7503 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
7504 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
7505 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
7506 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
7507
7508 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
7509 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7510 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
7511 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
7512 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
7513 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
7514 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
7515 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
7516 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
7517 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
7518 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
7519
7520 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
7521 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
7522 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
7523 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
7524 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
7525 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
7526 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
7527 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
7528 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
7529 what is going on.</p>
7530
7531       </div>
7532       <div class="tags">
7533
7534
7535         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7536
7537
7538       </div>
7539     </div>
7540     <div class="padding"></div>
7541
7542     <div class="entry">
7543       <div class="title">
7544         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
7545       </div>
7546       <div class="date">
7547         22nd November 2010
7548       </div>
7549       <div class="body">
7550         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
7551 upgrade testing of the
7552 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7553 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
7554 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
7555 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
7556
7557 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
7558
7559 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7560
7561 <blockquote><p>
7562   apache2.2-bin
7563   aptdaemon
7564   baobab
7565   binfmt-support
7566   browser-plugin-gnash
7567   cheese-common
7568   cli-common
7569   cups-pk-helper
7570   dmz-cursor-theme
7571   empathy
7572   empathy-common
7573   freedesktop-sound-theme
7574   freeglut3
7575   gconf-defaults-service
7576   gdm-themes
7577   gedit-plugins
7578   geoclue
7579   geoclue-hostip
7580   geoclue-localnet
7581   geoclue-manual
7582   geoclue-yahoo
7583   gnash
7584   gnash-common
7585   gnome
7586   gnome-backgrounds
7587   gnome-cards-data
7588   gnome-codec-install
7589   gnome-core
7590   gnome-desktop-environment
7591   gnome-disk-utility
7592   gnome-screenshot
7593   gnome-search-tool
7594   gnome-session-canberra
7595   gnome-system-log
7596   gnome-themes-extras
7597   gnome-themes-more
7598   gnome-user-share
7599   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7600   gstreamer0.10-tools
7601   gtk2-engines
7602   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7603   gtk2-engines-smooth
7604   hamster-applet
7605   libapache2-mod-dnssd
7606   libapr1
7607   libaprutil1
7608   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
7609   libaprutil1-ldap
7610   libart2.0-cil
7611   libboost-date-time1.42.0
7612   libboost-python1.42.0
7613   libboost-thread1.42.0
7614   libchamplain-0.4-0
7615   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
7616   libcheese-gtk18
7617   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7618   libcryptui0
7619   libdiscid0
7620   libelf1
7621   libepc-1.0-2
7622   libepc-common
7623   libepc-ui-1.0-2
7624   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7625   libfreerdp0
7626   libgconf2.0-cil
7627   libgdata-common
7628   libgdata7
7629   libgdu-gtk0
7630   libgee2
7631   libgeoclue0
7632   libgexiv2-0
7633   libgif4
7634   libglade2.0-cil
7635   libglib2.0-cil
7636   libgmime2.4-cil
7637   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7638   libgnome2.24-cil
7639   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
7640   libgpod-common
7641   libgpod4
7642   libgtk2.0-cil
7643   libgtkglext1
7644   libgtksourceview2.0-common
7645   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7646   libmono-addins0.2-cil
7647   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
7648   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7649   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
7650   libmono-posix2.0-cil
7651   libmono-security2.0-cil
7652   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7653   libmono-system2.0-cil
7654   libmtp8
7655   libmusicbrainz3-6
7656   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
7657   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
7658   libopal3.6.8
7659   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
7660   libpt2.6.7
7661   libpython2.6
7662   librpm1
7663   librpmio1
7664   libsdl1.2debian
7665   libsrtp0
7666   libssh-4
7667   libtelepathy-farsight0
7668   libtelepathy-glib0
7669   libtidy-0.99-0
7670   media-player-info
7671   mesa-utils
7672   mono-2.0-gac
7673   mono-gac
7674   mono-runtime
7675   nautilus-sendto
7676   nautilus-sendto-empathy
7677   p7zip-full
7678   pkg-config
7679   python-aptdaemon
7680   python-aptdaemon-gtk
7681   python-axiom
7682   python-beautifulsoup
7683   python-bugbuddy
7684   python-clientform
7685   python-coherence
7686   python-configobj
7687   python-crypto
7688   python-cupshelpers
7689   python-elementtree
7690   python-epsilon
7691   python-evolution
7692   python-feedparser
7693   python-gdata
7694   python-gdbm
7695   python-gst0.10
7696   python-gtkglext1
7697   python-gtksourceview2
7698   python-httplib2
7699   python-louie
7700   python-mako
7701   python-markupsafe
7702   python-mechanize
7703   python-nevow
7704   python-notify
7705   python-opengl
7706   python-openssl
7707   python-pam
7708   python-pkg-resources
7709   python-pyasn1
7710   python-pysqlite2
7711   python-rdflib
7712   python-serial
7713   python-tagpy
7714   python-twisted-bin
7715   python-twisted-conch
7716   python-twisted-core
7717   python-twisted-web
7718   python-utidylib
7719   python-webkit
7720   python-xdg
7721   python-zope.interface
7722   remmina
7723   remmina-plugin-data
7724   remmina-plugin-rdp
7725   remmina-plugin-vnc
7726   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7727   rhythmbox-plugins
7728   rpm-common
7729   rpm2cpio
7730   seahorse-plugins
7731   shotwell
7732   software-center
7733   system-config-printer-udev
7734   telepathy-gabble
7735   telepathy-mission-control-5
7736   telepathy-salut
7737   tomboy
7738   totem
7739   totem-coherence
7740   totem-mozilla
7741   totem-plugins
7742   transmission-common
7743   xdg-user-dirs
7744   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
7745   xserver-xephyr
7746 </p></blockquote>
7747
7748 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7749
7750 <blockquote><p>
7751   cheese
7752   ekiga
7753   eog
7754   epiphany-extensions
7755   evolution-exchange
7756   fast-user-switch-applet
7757   file-roller
7758   gcalctool
7759   gconf-editor
7760   gdm
7761   gedit
7762   gedit-common
7763   gnome-games
7764   gnome-games-data
7765   gnome-nettool
7766   gnome-system-tools
7767   gnome-themes
7768   gnuchess
7769   gucharmap
7770   guile-1.8-libs
7771   libavahi-ui0
7772   libdmx1
7773   libgalago3
7774   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7775   libgtksourceview2.0-0
7776   liblircclient0
7777   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
7778   libspeexdsp1
7779   libsvga1
7780   rhythmbox
7781   seahorse
7782   sound-juicer
7783   system-config-printer
7784   totem-common
7785   transmission-gtk
7786   vinagre
7787   vino
7788 </p></blockquote>
7789
7790 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7791
7792 <blockquote><p>
7793   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7794 </p></blockquote>
7795
7796 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7797
7798 <blockquote><p>
7799 [nothing]
7800 </p></blockquote>
7801
7802 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7803
7804 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7805
7806 <blockquote><p>
7807   ksmserver
7808 </p></blockquote>
7809
7810 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7811
7812 <blockquote><p>
7813   kwin
7814   network-manager-kde
7815 </p></blockquote>
7816
7817 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7818
7819 <blockquote><p>
7820   arts
7821   dolphin
7822   freespacenotifier
7823   google-gadgets-gst
7824   google-gadgets-xul
7825   kappfinder
7826   kcalc
7827   kcharselect
7828   kde-core
7829   kde-plasma-desktop
7830   kde-standard
7831   kde-window-manager
7832   kdeartwork
7833   kdeartwork-emoticons
7834   kdeartwork-style
7835   kdeartwork-theme-icon
7836   kdebase
7837   kdebase-apps
7838   kdebase-workspace
7839   kdebase-workspace-bin
7840   kdebase-workspace-data
7841   kdeeject
7842   kdelibs
7843   kdeplasma-addons
7844   kdeutils
7845   kdewallpapers
7846   kdf
7847   kfloppy
7848   kgpg
7849   khelpcenter4
7850   kinfocenter
7851   konq-plugins-l10n
7852   konqueror-nsplugins
7853   kscreensaver
7854   kscreensaver-xsavers
7855   ktimer
7856   kwrite
7857   libgle3
7858   libkde4-ruby1.8
7859   libkonq5
7860   libkonq5-templates
7861   libnetpbm10
7862   libplasma-ruby
7863   libplasma-ruby1.8
7864   libqt4-ruby1.8
7865   marble-data
7866   marble-plugins
7867   netpbm
7868   nuvola-icon-theme
7869   plasma-dataengines-workspace
7870   plasma-desktop
7871   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
7872   plasma-runners-addons
7873   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
7874   plasma-scriptengine-python
7875   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
7876   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
7877   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
7878   plasma-scriptengines
7879   plasma-wallpapers-addons
7880   plasma-widget-folderview
7881   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7882   ruby
7883   sweeper
7884   update-notifier-kde
7885   xscreensaver-data-extra
7886   xscreensaver-gl
7887   xscreensaver-gl-extra
7888   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7889 </p></blockquote>
7890
7891 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7892
7893 <blockquote><p>
7894   ark
7895   google-gadgets-common
7896   google-gadgets-qt
7897   htdig
7898   kate
7899   kdebase-bin
7900   kdebase-data
7901   kdepasswd
7902   kfind
7903   klipper
7904   konq-plugins
7905   konqueror
7906   ksysguard
7907   ksysguardd
7908   libarchive1
7909   libcln6
7910   libeet1
7911   libeina-svn-06
7912   libggadget-1.0-0b
7913   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
7914   libgps19
7915   libkdecorations4
7916   libkephal4
7917   libkonq4
7918   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
7919   libkscreensaver5
7920   libksgrd4
7921   libksignalplotter4
7922   libkunitconversion4
7923   libkwineffects1a
7924   libmarblewidget4
7925   libntrack-qt4-1
7926   libntrack0
7927   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
7928   libplasmaclock4a
7929   libplasmagenericshell4
7930   libprocesscore4a
7931   libprocessui4a
7932   libqalculate5
7933   libqedje0a
7934   libqtruby4shared2
7935   libqzion0a
7936   libruby1.8
7937   libscim8c2a
7938   libsmokekdecore4-3
7939   libsmokekdeui4-3
7940   libsmokekfile3
7941   libsmokekhtml3
7942   libsmokekio3
7943   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
7944   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
7945   libsmokekparts3
7946   libsmokektexteditor3
7947   libsmokekutils3
7948   libsmokenepomuk3
7949   libsmokephonon3
7950   libsmokeplasma3
7951   libsmokeqtcore4-3
7952   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
7953   libsmokeqtgui4-3
7954   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
7955   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
7956   libsmokeqtscript4-3
7957   libsmokeqtsql4-3
7958   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
7959   libsmokeqttest4-3
7960   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
7961   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
7962   libsmokeqtxml4-3
7963   libsmokesolid3
7964   libsmokesoprano3
7965   libtaskmanager4a
7966   libtidy-0.99-0
7967   libweather-ion4a
7968   libxklavier16
7969   libxxf86misc1
7970   okteta
7971   oxygencursors
7972   plasma-dataengines-addons
7973   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
7974   plasma-widget-lancelot
7975   plasma-widgets-addons
7976   plasma-widgets-workspace
7977   polkit-kde-1
7978   ruby1.8
7979   systemsettings
7980   update-notifier-common
7981 </p></blockquote>
7982
7983 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
7984 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
7985 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
7986 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
7987
7988       </div>
7989       <div class="tags">
7990
7991
7992         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7993
7994
7995       </div>
7996     </div>
7997     <div class="padding"></div>
7998
7999     <div class="entry">
8000       <div class="title">
8001         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
8002       </div>
8003       <div class="date">
8004         22nd November 2010
8005       </div>
8006       <div class="body">
8007         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
8008 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
8009 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
8010 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
8011 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
8012 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
8013 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
8014 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
8015 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
8016
8017 <p>I found
8018 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
8019 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
8020 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
8021 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
8022 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
8023 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
8024
8025 <pre>
8026 #!/bin/sh
8027
8028 # Based on
8029 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
8030
8031 set -e
8032 set -x
8033
8034 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
8035     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
8036     exit 1
8037 else
8038     host="$1"
8039 fi
8040
8041 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
8042     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
8043     exit 1
8044 fi
8045
8046 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
8047 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
8048 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
8049 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
8050
8051 img=$host.img
8052 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
8053 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
8054
8055 parted $img mklabel msdos
8056 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
8057 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
8058 parted $img set 1 boot on
8059
8060 modprobe dm-mod
8061 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
8062 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
8063
8064 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
8065 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
8066 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
8067
8068 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
8069 losetup -d /dev/loop0
8070 </pre>
8071
8072 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
8073 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
8074
8075 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
8076 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
8077 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
8078 seem to work just fine.</p>
8079
8080       </div>
8081       <div class="tags">
8082
8083
8084         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8085
8086
8087       </div>
8088     </div>
8089     <div class="padding"></div>
8090
8091     <div class="entry">
8092       <div class="title">
8093         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
8094       </div>
8095       <div class="date">
8096         20th November 2010
8097       </div>
8098       <div class="body">
8099         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
8100 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8101 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
8102 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
8103
8104 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
8105 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
8106 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
8107
8108 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8109
8110 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8111
8112 <blockquote><p>
8113   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
8114   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
8115   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
8116   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
8117   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
8118   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
8119   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
8120   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
8121   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
8122   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
8123   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8124   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8125   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
8126   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
8127   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
8128   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
8129   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
8130   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
8131   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8132   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
8133   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
8134   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8135   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
8136   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
8137   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
8138   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8139   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8140   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
8141   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8142   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
8143   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
8144   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8145   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
8146   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
8147   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
8148   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
8149   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
8150   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
8151   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
8152   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
8153   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
8154   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
8155   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
8156   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
8157   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
8158   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
8159   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
8160   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
8161   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
8162   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
8163   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
8164   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
8165   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8166   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
8167   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
8168   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
8169   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
8170   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
8171   zip
8172 </p></blockquote>
8173
8174 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
8175
8176 <blockquote><p>
8177   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
8178   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
8179   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
8180   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
8181   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
8182   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
8183   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
8184   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
8185   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
8186   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
8187   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
8188   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8189   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
8190   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8191   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
8192   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
8193   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8194   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
8195   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
8196   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
8197   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
8198   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
8199   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
8200   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
8201   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
8202   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
8203   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
8204   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
8205   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
8206 </p></blockquote>
8207
8208 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8209
8210 <blockquote><p>
8211   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8212 </p></blockquote>
8213
8214 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8215
8216 <blockquote><p>
8217 [nothing]
8218 </p></blockquote>
8219
8220 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
8221
8222 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8223
8224 <blockquote><p>
8225   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
8226   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8227   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
8228   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
8229   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
8230   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
8231   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8232   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
8233   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
8234   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8235   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
8236   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
8237   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
8238   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
8239   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
8240   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
8241   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
8242   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
8243   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
8244   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
8245   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
8246   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
8247   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
8248   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
8249   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
8250   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
8251   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
8252   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
8253   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
8254   ttf-sazanami-gothic
8255 </p></blockquote>
8256
8257 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8258
8259 <blockquote><p>
8260   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
8261   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
8262   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
8263   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
8264   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
8265   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
8266   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
8267   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
8268   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
8269   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
8270   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
8271   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
8272   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
8273   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
8274   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8275   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8276   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
8277   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
8278   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8279   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
8280   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8281   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
8282   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8283   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8284   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
8285   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
8286   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
8287   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
8288   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
8289   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
8290   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
8291   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
8292   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
8293 </p></blockquote>
8294
8295 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8296
8297 <blockquote><p>
8298   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
8299   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
8300   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
8301   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
8302   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8303   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
8304   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8305 </p></blockquote>
8306
8307 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8308
8309 <blockquote><p>
8310   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
8311 </p></blockquote>
8312
8313       </div>
8314       <div class="tags">
8315
8316
8317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8318
8319
8320       </div>
8321     </div>
8322     <div class="padding"></div>
8323
8324     <div class="entry">
8325       <div class="title">
8326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
8327       </div>
8328       <div class="date">
8329         20th November 2010
8330       </div>
8331       <div class="body">
8332         <p>Answering
8333 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
8334 call from the Gnash project</a> for
8335 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
8336 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
8337 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
8338 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
8339 releases out more often.</p>
8340
8341 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
8342 I have considered setting up a <a
8343 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
8344 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
8345 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
8346 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
8347 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
8348 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
8349 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
8350 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
8351 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
8352 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
8353 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
8354 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
8355
8356       </div>
8357       <div class="tags">
8358
8359
8360         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8361
8362
8363       </div>
8364     </div>
8365     <div class="padding"></div>
8366
8367     <div class="entry">
8368       <div class="title">
8369         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
8370       </div>
8371       <div class="date">
8372          9th November 2010
8373       </div>
8374       <div class="body">
8375         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
8376
8377 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
8378 3D linked in from
8379 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
8380 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
8381
8382       </div>
8383       <div class="tags">
8384
8385
8386         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8387
8388
8389       </div>
8390     </div>
8391     <div class="padding"></div>
8392
8393     <div class="entry">
8394       <div class="title">
8395         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
8396       </div>
8397       <div class="date">
8398         24th October 2010
8399       </div>
8400       <div class="body">
8401         <p>Some updates.</p>
8402
8403 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
8404 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
8405 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
8406 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
8407 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
8408 :)</p>
8409
8410 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
8411 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
8412 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
8413 It is called
8414 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
8415 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
8416 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
8417 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
8418 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
8419 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
8420
8421 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
8422 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
8423 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
8424 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
8425 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
8426 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
8427 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
8428 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
8429 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
8430 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
8431
8432       </div>
8433       <div class="tags">
8434
8435
8436         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
8437
8438
8439       </div>
8440     </div>
8441     <div class="padding"></div>
8442
8443     <div class="entry">
8444       <div class="title">
8445         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
8446       </div>
8447       <div class="date">
8448          4th September 2010
8449       </div>
8450       <div class="body">
8451         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
8452 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
8453 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
8454 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
8455 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
8456 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
8457 installed.</p>
8458
8459 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
8460 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
8461 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
8462 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
8463 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8464 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
8465 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
8466 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
8467 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
8468
8469 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
8470 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
8471 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
8472 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
8473 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
8474 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
8475 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
8476 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
8477 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
8478 pages they want to visit.</p>
8479
8480 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
8481 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
8482 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
8483 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
8484 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
8485 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
8486 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
8487 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
8488 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
8489 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
8490 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
8491
8492       </div>
8493       <div class="tags">
8494
8495
8496         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8497
8498
8499       </div>
8500     </div>
8501     <div class="padding"></div>
8502
8503     <div class="entry">
8504       <div class="title">
8505         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
8506       </div>
8507       <div class="date">
8508         27th July 2010
8509       </div>
8510       <div class="body">
8511         <p>I discovered this while doing
8512 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
8513 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
8514 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
8515 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
8516 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
8517
8518 <p>An example is from todays
8519 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
8520 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
8521 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
8522 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
8523 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
8524 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
8525 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
8526
8527 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
8528
8529 <blockquote><pre>
8530 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
8531  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
8532   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
8533 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
8534  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
8535 </pre></blockquote>
8536
8537 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
8538 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
8539 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
8540 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
8541 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
8542 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
8543 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
8544 of dependency loops.</p>
8545
8546 <p>Thanks to
8547 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
8548 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
8549 dependencies
8550 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
8551 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
8552
8553 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
8554 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
8555 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
8556 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
8557 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
8558 it.</p>
8559
8560       </div>
8561       <div class="tags">
8562
8563
8564         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8565
8566
8567       </div>
8568     </div>
8569     <div class="padding"></div>
8570
8571     <div class="entry">
8572       <div class="title">
8573         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
8574       </div>
8575       <div class="date">
8576         17th July 2010
8577       </div>
8578       <div class="body">
8579         <p>This is a
8580 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
8581 on my
8582 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
8583 work</a> on
8584 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
8585 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
8586
8587 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
8588 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
8589 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
8590 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
8591
8592 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
8593 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
8594 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
8595
8596 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
8597
8598 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
8599 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
8600 the web.
8601
8602 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
8603 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
8604 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
8605 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
8606 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
8607 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
8608
8609 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
8610 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
8611 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
8612 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
8613 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
8614 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
8615 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
8616 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
8617 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
8618 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
8619 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
8620 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
8621 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
8622 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
8623 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
8624 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
8625
8626 <blockquote><pre>
8627 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8628   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8629   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8630   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8631   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8632   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8633   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8634
8635 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8636   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8637   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
8638   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
8639   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
8640   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
8641 </pre></blockquote>
8642
8643 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
8644 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
8645 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
8646 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8647 also exist.</p>
8648
8649 <blockquote><pre>
8650 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8651 objectclass: top
8652 objectclass: dnsdomain
8653 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8654 dc: tjener
8655 arecord: 10.0.2.2
8656 associateddomain: tjener.intern
8657
8658 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8659 objectclass: top
8660 objectclass: dnsdomain2
8661 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8662 dc: 2
8663 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
8664 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
8665 </pre></blockquote>
8666
8667 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
8668 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
8669 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
8670 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
8671 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
8672 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
8673 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
8674 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
8675 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
8676 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
8677 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
8678 instead.</p>
8679
8680 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
8681 like this:</p>
8682
8683 <blockquote><pre>
8684 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8685   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8686   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8687   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8688   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8689   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8690
8691 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8692   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
8693 </pre></blockquote>
8694
8695 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
8696 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
8697 reverse lookups.</p>
8698
8699 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
8700 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
8701 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
8702 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
8703
8704 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
8705 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
8706 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
8707
8708 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
8709 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
8710 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
8711 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
8712 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
8713
8714 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
8715 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
8716 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
8717 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
8718 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
8719
8720 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
8721 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
8722 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
8723 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
8724 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
8725 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
8726
8727 <blockquote><pre>
8728 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
8729     SUP top
8730     AUXILIARY
8731     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
8732           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
8733           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
8734           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
8735           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
8736     ))
8737 </pre></blockquote>
8738
8739 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
8740 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
8741 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
8742 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
8743 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
8744 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
8745
8746 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
8747
8748 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
8749 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
8750 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
8751 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
8752 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
8753
8754 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
8755 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
8756 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
8757 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
8758
8759 <blockquote><pre>
8760 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
8761 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
8762 </pre></blockquote>
8763
8764 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
8765 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
8766 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
8767 search result is this entry:</p>
8768
8769 <blockquote><pre>
8770 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8771 cn: dhcp
8772 objectClass: top
8773 objectClass: dhcpServer
8774 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8775 </pre></blockquote>
8776
8777 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
8778 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
8779 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
8780 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
8781 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
8782 The search result is this entry:</p>
8783
8784 <blockquote><pre>
8785 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8786 cn: DHCP Config
8787 objectClass: top
8788 objectClass: dhcpService
8789 objectClass: dhcpOptions
8790 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8791 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
8792 dhcpStatements: authoritative
8793 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
8794 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
8795 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
8796 </pre></blockquote>
8797
8798 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
8799 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
8800 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
8801 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
8802 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
8803 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
8804 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
8805 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
8806 related computer objects.</p>
8807
8808 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
8809 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
8810 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
8811 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
8812 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
8813 like:</p>
8814
8815 <blockquote><pre>
8816 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8817 cn: hostname
8818 objectClass: top
8819 objectClass: dhcpHost
8820 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8821 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
8822 </pre></blockquote>
8823
8824 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
8825 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
8826 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
8827 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
8828 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
8829 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
8830 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
8831 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
8832 structural object class.
8833
8834 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
8835
8836 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
8837 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
8838 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
8839 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
8840 in the configuration.</p>
8841
8842 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
8843 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
8844 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
8845 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
8846 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
8847 structure.</p>
8848
8849 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
8850 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
8851
8852 <blockquote><pre>
8853 ou=services
8854   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
8855     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
8856     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8857       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8858         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8859     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8860       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8861         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8862     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
8863       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
8864 </pre></blockquote>
8865
8866 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
8867 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
8868 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
8869 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
8870
8871 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
8872 like this:</p>
8873
8874 <blockquote><pre>
8875 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8876 dc: hostname
8877 objectClass: top
8878 objectClass: dhcpHost
8879 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8880 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
8881 associateddomain: hostname.intern
8882 arecord: 10.11.12.13
8883 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8884 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
8885 </pre></blockquote>
8886
8887 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
8888 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
8889 auxiliary object class.</p>
8890
8891       </div>
8892       <div class="tags">
8893
8894
8895         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8896
8897
8898       </div>
8899     </div>
8900     <div class="padding"></div>
8901
8902     <div class="entry">
8903       <div class="title">
8904         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
8905       </div>
8906       <div class="date">
8907         14th July 2010
8908       </div>
8909       <div class="body">
8910         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
8911 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
8912 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
8913 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
8914 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
8915
8916 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
8917 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
8918
8919 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
8920 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
8921 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
8922 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
8923 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
8924 to a slave DNS server.</p>
8925
8926 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
8927 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
8928 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
8929 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
8930 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
8931 seem to work.</p>
8932
8933 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
8934 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
8935 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
8936 this:</p>
8937
8938 <blockquote><pre>
8939   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8940   cn: hostname
8941   objectClass: dhcphost
8942   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8943   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
8944   associateddomain: hostname.intern
8945   arecord: 10.11.12.13
8946   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8947   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
8948   ldapconfigsound: Y
8949 </pre></blockquote>
8950
8951 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
8952 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
8953 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
8954 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
8955
8956 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
8957 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
8958 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
8959 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
8960 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
8961 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
8962 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
8963 might be a good place to put it.</p>
8964
8965 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8966 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8967
8968       </div>
8969       <div class="tags">
8970
8971
8972         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8973
8974
8975       </div>
8976     </div>
8977     <div class="padding"></div>
8978
8979     <div class="entry">
8980       <div class="title">
8981         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
8982       </div>
8983       <div class="date">
8984         11th July 2010
8985       </div>
8986       <div class="body">
8987         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
8988 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
8989 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
8990 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
8991
8992 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
8993 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
8994 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
8995 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
8996 LTSP clients.</p>
8997
8998 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
8999 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
9000 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
9001
9002 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
9003 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
9004 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
9005
9006 <blockquote><pre>
9007 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
9008 #
9009 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
9010 #
9011 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
9012 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
9013 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
9014 #
9015 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
9016 # existence of attribute names.
9017 #
9018 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
9019 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
9020 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
9021 #
9022 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
9023 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
9024 #
9025 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
9026 #     SUP top
9027 #     AUXILIARY
9028 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
9029
9030 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
9031 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
9032     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
9033     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
9034         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
9035         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
9036             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
9037             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
9038             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
9039             # bass value on to clients
9040             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
9041         done
9042     done
9043 fi
9044 </pre></blockquote>
9045
9046 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
9047 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
9048 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
9049 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
9050 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
9051
9052 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9053 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9054
9055 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
9056 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
9057 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
9058 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
9059 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
9060 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
9061
9062       </div>
9063       <div class="tags">
9064
9065
9066         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9067
9068
9069       </div>
9070     </div>
9071     <div class="padding"></div>
9072
9073     <div class="entry">
9074       <div class="title">
9075         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9076       </div>
9077       <div class="date">
9078          9th July 2010
9079       </div>
9080       <div class="body">
9081         <p>Since
9082 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
9083 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
9084 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
9085 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
9086 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
9087 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
9088 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
9089 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
9090 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
9091 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
9092 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
9093 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
9094 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
9095
9096       </div>
9097       <div class="tags">
9098
9099
9100         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9101
9102
9103       </div>
9104     </div>
9105     <div class="padding"></div>
9106
9107     <div class="entry">
9108       <div class="title">
9109         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
9110       </div>
9111       <div class="date">
9112          3rd July 2010
9113       </div>
9114       <div class="body">
9115         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
9116 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
9117 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
9118 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
9119 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
9120 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
9121 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
9122 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
9123
9124 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
9125 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
9126 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
9127 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
9128 publish the difference.</p>
9129
9130 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9131
9132 <blockquote><p>
9133   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9134   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
9135   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
9136   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9137   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
9138   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9139   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
9140   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
9141 </p></blockquote>
9142
9143 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9144
9145 <blockquote><p>
9146   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
9147   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
9148   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
9149   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
9150   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
9151   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
9152   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9153   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9154   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9155   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9156   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
9157   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
9158   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
9159   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
9160   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
9161   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9162   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
9163   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
9164   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
9165   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
9166 </p></blockquote>
9167
9168 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9169
9170 <blockquote><p>
9171   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
9172   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
9173   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9174   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9175   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
9176   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
9177   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
9178   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9179   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9180   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9181   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9182   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
9183   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
9184   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
9185   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
9186   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
9187   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
9188   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
9189   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
9190   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
9191   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
9192 </p></blockquote>
9193
9194 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9195
9196 <blockquote><p>
9197   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
9198   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
9199   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
9200 </p></blockquote>
9201
9202 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
9203 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
9204 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
9205 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
9206 the difference somewhat.
9207
9208       </div>
9209       <div class="tags">
9210
9211
9212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9213
9214
9215       </div>
9216     </div>
9217     <div class="padding"></div>
9218
9219     <div class="entry">
9220       <div class="title">
9221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9222       </div>
9223       <div class="date">
9224         28th June 2010
9225       </div>
9226       <div class="body">
9227         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
9228 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
9229 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
9230 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
9231 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
9232 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
9233 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
9234 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
9235 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
9236 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
9237
9238 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
9239 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
9240 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
9241 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
9242 released.</p>
9243
9244 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
9245 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
9246 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
9247 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
9248
9249 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
9250 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9251
9252 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
9253 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
9254 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
9255 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
9256 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
9257
9258       </div>
9259       <div class="tags">
9260
9261
9262         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9263
9264
9265       </div>
9266     </div>
9267     <div class="padding"></div>
9268
9269     <div class="entry">
9270       <div class="title">
9271         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
9272       </div>
9273       <div class="date">
9274         24th June 2010
9275       </div>
9276       <div class="body">
9277         <p>A while back, I
9278 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
9279 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
9280 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
9281 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
9282
9283 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
9284 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
9285 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
9286 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
9287
9288 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
9289 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
9290 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
9291 Debian Edu.</p>
9292
9293 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
9294 the
9295 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
9296 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
9297 available today from IETF.</p>
9298
9299 <pre>
9300 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
9301 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
9302 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
9303  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
9304         NAME 'dhcpHost'
9305         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
9306 -       SUP top
9307 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
9308         MUST cn
9309         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
9310         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
9311 </pre>
9312
9313 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
9314 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
9315 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
9316
9317 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9318 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9319
9320       </div>
9321       <div class="tags">
9322
9323
9324         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9325
9326
9327       </div>
9328     </div>
9329     <div class="padding"></div>
9330
9331     <div class="entry">
9332       <div class="title">
9333         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
9334       </div>
9335       <div class="date">
9336         16th June 2010
9337       </div>
9338       <div class="body">
9339         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
9340 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
9341 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
9342 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
9343 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
9344 this:
9345
9346 <blockquote><pre>
9347 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9348 tasksel --new-install
9349 </pre></blockquote>
9350
9351 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
9352 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
9353 any output what so ever.
9354
9355 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
9356 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
9357 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
9358 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
9359 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
9360 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
9361 code like this:
9362
9363 <blockquote><pre>
9364 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9365 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
9366 $cmd
9367 </pre></blockquote>
9368
9369 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
9370 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
9371 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
9372 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
9373 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
9374 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
9375 installation.</p>
9376
9377 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
9378 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
9379 like this.</p>
9380
9381       </div>
9382       <div class="tags">
9383
9384
9385         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9386
9387
9388       </div>
9389     </div>
9390     <div class="padding"></div>
9391
9392     <div class="entry">
9393       <div class="title">
9394         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
9395       </div>
9396       <div class="date">
9397         13th June 2010
9398       </div>
9399       <div class="body">
9400         <p>My
9401 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
9402 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
9403 finally made the upgrade logs available from
9404 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
9405 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
9406 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
9407 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
9408
9409 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
9410 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
9411 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
9412 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
9413 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
9414 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
9415 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
9416 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
9417
9418 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
9419 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
9420 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
9421 too surprising.</p>
9422
9423 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
9424 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
9425 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
9426 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
9427 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
9428 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
9429 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
9430 continue.</p>
9431
9432 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
9433 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
9434   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
9435   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
9436   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
9437   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
9438   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
9439   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9440   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9441   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9442   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9443   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9444   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9445   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9446   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9447   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9448   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9449   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9450   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9451   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9452   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9453   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9454   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9455   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9456   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9457   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9458   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9459   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9460   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
9461   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
9462
9463 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
9464
9465 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
9466   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
9467   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
9468   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
9469   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9470   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
9471   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
9472   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
9473   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
9474   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
9475   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9476   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
9477   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9478   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
9479   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
9480   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
9481   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
9482   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
9483   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
9484   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
9485   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
9486   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
9487   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
9488   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
9489   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9490   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
9491   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
9492   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
9493   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
9494   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9495   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9496   zip</p>
9497
9498 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
9499
9500 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
9501   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
9502   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
9503   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
9504   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
9505   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
9506   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9507   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9508   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9509   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9510   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9511   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9512   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9513   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9514   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9515   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9516   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9517   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9518   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9519   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9520   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9521   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9522   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9523   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9524   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9525   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9526   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9527   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
9528
9529 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
9530 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
9531   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9532   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
9533   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
9534   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9535   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
9536   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
9537   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9538   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
9539   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
9540   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
9541   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
9542   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
9543   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
9544   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
9545   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
9546   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9547   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9548   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9549   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
9550   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9551   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
9552   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
9553   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9554   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9555   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
9556   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
9557   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
9558   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
9559   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
9560   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
9561   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
9562   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
9563   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
9564   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9565   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9566   xulrunner-1.9</p>
9567
9568
9569       </div>
9570       <div class="tags">
9571
9572
9573         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9574
9575
9576       </div>
9577     </div>
9578     <div class="padding"></div>
9579
9580     <div class="entry">
9581       <div class="title">
9582         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
9583       </div>
9584       <div class="date">
9585         11th June 2010
9586       </div>
9587       <div class="body">
9588         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
9589 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
9590 have been discovered and reported in the process
9591 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
9592 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
9593 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
9594 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
9595 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
9596
9597 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
9598 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
9599 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
9600 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
9601 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
9602 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
9603
9604 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
9605 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
9606 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9607 is created.  The bug report
9608 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
9609 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
9610 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
9611 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
9612 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
9613 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
9614 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
9615 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
9616 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
9617 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
9618 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
9619 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
9620 Debian Squeeze.</p>
9621
9622 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
9623 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
9624 trick:</p>
9625
9626 <blockquote><pre>
9627 #!/bin/sh
9628 set -ex
9629
9630 if [ "$1" ] ; then
9631     desktop=$1
9632 else
9633     desktop=gnome
9634 fi
9635
9636 from=lenny
9637 to=squeeze
9638
9639 exec &lt; /dev/null
9640 unset LANG
9641 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
9642 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
9643 fuser -mv .
9644 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
9645 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9646 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
9647 #!/bin/sh
9648 exit 101
9649 EOF
9650 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
9651 exit_cleanup() {
9652     umount $tmpdir/proc
9653 }
9654 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
9655 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
9656 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
9657
9658 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
9659
9660 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
9661 # to return the correct answers.
9662 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
9663     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
9664
9665 # Include the desktop and laptop task
9666 for test in desktop laptop ; do
9667     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
9668 #!/bin/sh
9669 exit 2
9670 EOF
9671     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
9672 done
9673
9674 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9675 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
9676 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
9677 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
9678
9679 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
9680 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9681 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9682 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
9683 fuser -mv
9684 </pre></blockquote>
9685
9686 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
9687 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
9688 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
9689 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
9690 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
9691 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
9692
9693 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
9694 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
9695 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
9696 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
9697 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
9698 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
9699 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
9700
9701 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
9702 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
9703 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
9704 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
9705 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
9706 packages.</p>
9707
9708       </div>
9709       <div class="tags">
9710
9711
9712         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9713
9714
9715       </div>
9716     </div>
9717     <div class="padding"></div>
9718
9719     <div class="entry">
9720       <div class="title">
9721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
9722       </div>
9723       <div class="date">
9724          6th June 2010
9725       </div>
9726       <div class="body">
9727         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
9728 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
9729 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
9730 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
9731 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
9732 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
9733 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
9734
9735 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
9736 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
9737 COLUMNS):</p>
9738
9739 <blockquote><pre>
9740 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
9741 previous=N
9742 PREVLEVEL=
9743 RUNLEVEL=
9744 runlevel=S
9745 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
9746 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
9747 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
9748 </pre></blockquote>
9749
9750 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
9751 script.</p>
9752
9753 <blockquote><pre>
9754 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
9755 previous=N
9756 PREVLEVEL=N
9757 RUNLEVEL=S
9758 runlevel=S
9759 </pre></blockquote>
9760
9761 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
9762 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
9763 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
9764
9765 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
9766 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
9767 choice.</p>
9768
9769       </div>
9770       <div class="tags">
9771
9772
9773         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9774
9775
9776       </div>
9777     </div>
9778     <div class="padding"></div>
9779
9780     <div class="entry">
9781       <div class="title">
9782         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
9783       </div>
9784       <div class="date">
9785          6th June 2010
9786       </div>
9787       <div class="body">
9788         <p>Via the
9789 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
9790 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
9791 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
9792 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
9793 following the standards wars of today.</p>
9794
9795       </div>
9796       <div class="tags">
9797
9798
9799         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
9800
9801
9802       </div>
9803     </div>
9804     <div class="padding"></div>
9805
9806     <div class="entry">
9807       <div class="title">
9808         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
9809       </div>
9810       <div class="date">
9811          3rd June 2010
9812       </div>
9813       <div class="body">
9814         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
9815 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
9816 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
9817 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
9818 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
9819
9820 <blockquote><pre>
9821 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
9822   vendor                    count
9823   Dell Computer Corporation     1
9824     PowerEdge 1750              1
9825   IBM                           1
9826     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
9827   Intel                         2
9828   [no-dmi-info]                 3
9829 maintainer:~#
9830 </pre></blockquote>
9831
9832 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
9833 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
9834 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
9835 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
9836 option to list the individual machines.</p>
9837
9838 <p>A larger list is
9839 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
9840 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
9841 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
9842 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
9843 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
9844 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
9845 collector.</p>
9846
9847       </div>
9848       <div class="tags">
9849
9850
9851         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
9852
9853
9854       </div>
9855     </div>
9856     <div class="padding"></div>
9857
9858     <div class="entry">
9859       <div class="title">
9860         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
9861       </div>
9862       <div class="date">
9863          1st June 2010
9864       </div>
9865       <div class="body">
9866         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
9867 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
9868 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
9869 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
9870 wait.</p>
9871
9872 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
9873 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
9874 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
9875 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
9876 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
9877 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
9878
9879 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
9880 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
9881 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
9882 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
9883 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
9884 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
9885 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
9886 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
9887
9888 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
9889
9890       </div>
9891       <div class="tags">
9892
9893
9894         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9895
9896
9897       </div>
9898     </div>
9899     <div class="padding"></div>
9900
9901     <div class="entry">
9902       <div class="title">
9903         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
9904       </div>
9905       <div class="date">
9906         27th May 2010
9907       </div>
9908       <div class="body">
9909         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
9910 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
9911 issues are known and should be solved:
9912
9913 <p><ul>
9914
9915 <li>The wicd package seen to
9916 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
9917 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
9918 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
9919 seem to be on the case.</li>
9920
9921 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
9922 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
9923 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
9924 maintainer is on the case.</li>
9925
9926 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
9927 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
9928 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
9929 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
9930 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
9931 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
9932 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
9933 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
9934
9935 </ul></p>
9936
9937 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
9938 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
9939 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
9940 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
9941
9942 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9943 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9944 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9945 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9946
9947 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
9948
9949       </div>
9950       <div class="tags">
9951
9952
9953         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9954
9955
9956       </div>
9957     </div>
9958     <div class="padding"></div>
9959
9960     <div class="entry">
9961       <div class="title">
9962         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
9963       </div>
9964       <div class="date">
9965         22nd May 2010
9966       </div>
9967       <div class="body">
9968         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
9969 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
9970 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
9971 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
9972
9973 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
9974 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
9975 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
9976 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
9977 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
9978 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
9979 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
9980 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
9981 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
9982 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
9983 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
9984 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
9985 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
9986 going to work.</p>
9987
9988 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
9989 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
9990 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
9991 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
9992 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
9993 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
9994 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
9995 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
9996 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
9997 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
9998 Edu.</p>
9999
10000 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10001 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10002 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10003 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10004 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10005 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
10006
10007 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10008 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
10009
10010       </div>
10011       <div class="tags">
10012
10013
10014         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10015
10016
10017       </div>
10018     </div>
10019     <div class="padding"></div>
10020
10021     <div class="entry">
10022       <div class="title">
10023         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
10024       </div>
10025       <div class="date">
10026         14th May 2010
10027       </div>
10028       <div class="body">
10029         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
10030 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
10031 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
10032 expected, if I am to believe the
10033 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10034 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
10035 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
10036 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
10037 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
10038 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
10039 version.</p>
10040
10041 More information about
10042 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10043 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
10044 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
10045 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10046
10047 <blockquote><pre>
10048 CONCURRENCY=none
10049 </pre></blockquote>
10050
10051 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10052 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10053 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10054 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10055
10056       </div>
10057       <div class="tags">
10058
10059
10060         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10061
10062
10063       </div>
10064     </div>
10065     <div class="padding"></div>
10066
10067     <div class="entry">
10068       <div class="title">
10069         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
10070       </div>
10071       <div class="date">
10072         14th May 2010
10073       </div>
10074       <div class="body">
10075         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
10076 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
10077 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
10078 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
10079 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
10080 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
10081 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
10082 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
10083
10084 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
10085 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
10086 this on the collector host:</p>
10087
10088 <blockquote><pre>
10089 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
10090 </pre></blockquote>
10091
10092 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
10093 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
10094
10095 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
10096 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
10097 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
10098 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
10099 written yet.</p>
10100
10101       </div>
10102       <div class="tags">
10103
10104
10105         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
10106
10107
10108       </div>
10109     </div>
10110     <div class="padding"></div>
10111
10112     <div class="entry">
10113       <div class="title">
10114         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
10115       </div>
10116       <div class="date">
10117         13th May 2010
10118       </div>
10119       <div class="body">
10120         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
10121 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
10122 has been
10123 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
10124
10125 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
10126 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
10127 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
10128 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
10129 based boot system.  Tollef is
10130 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
10131 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
10132 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
10133 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
10134 at the moment do not.</p>
10135
10136 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
10137 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
10138 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
10139 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
10140 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
10141 way forward.</p>
10142
10143 <p>In the mean time, based on the
10144 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10145 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
10146 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
10147 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
10148 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
10149 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
10150 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
10151 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
10152
10153       </div>
10154       <div class="tags">
10155
10156
10157         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10158
10159
10160       </div>
10161     </div>
10162     <div class="padding"></div>
10163
10164     <div class="entry">
10165       <div class="title">
10166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
10167       </div>
10168       <div class="date">
10169          6th May 2010
10170       </div>
10171       <div class="body">
10172         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
10173 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
10174 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
10175 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
10176 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10177 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
10178 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10179
10180 <blockquote><pre>
10181 CONCURRENCY=makefile
10182 </pre></blockquote>
10183
10184 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
10185 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
10186 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
10187 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
10188 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
10189 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
10190 make this happen.</p>
10191
10192 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
10193 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
10194 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
10195 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
10196 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
10197
10198 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
10199 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
10200 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
10201 fix the remaining issues.</p>
10202
10203 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10204 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10205 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10206 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10207
10208       </div>
10209       <div class="tags">
10210
10211
10212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10213
10214
10215       </div>
10216     </div>
10217     <div class="padding"></div>
10218
10219     <div class="entry">
10220       <div class="title">
10221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
10222       </div>
10223       <div class="date">
10224         27th July 2009
10225       </div>
10226       <div class="body">
10227         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
10228 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
10229 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
10230 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
10231 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
10232 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
10233 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
10234
10235 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
10236 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
10237 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
10238
10239       </div>
10240       <div class="tags">
10241
10242
10243         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10244
10245
10246       </div>
10247     </div>
10248     <div class="padding"></div>
10249
10250     <div class="entry">
10251       <div class="title">
10252         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
10253       </div>
10254       <div class="date">
10255         22nd July 2009
10256       </div>
10257       <div class="body">
10258         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
10259 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
10260 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
10261 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
10262 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
10263 the package up to date.</p>
10264
10265 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
10266 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
10267 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
10268 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
10269 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
10270 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
10271 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
10272 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
10273 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
10274 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
10275 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
10276 working on the future release.</p>
10277
10278 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
10279 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
10280
10281       </div>
10282       <div class="tags">
10283
10284
10285         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10286
10287
10288       </div>
10289     </div>
10290     <div class="padding"></div>
10291
10292     <div class="entry">
10293       <div class="title">
10294         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
10295       </div>
10296       <div class="date">
10297         24th June 2009
10298       </div>
10299       <div class="body">
10300         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
10301 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
10302 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
10303 funded
10304 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
10305 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
10306 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
10307 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
10308 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
10309 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
10310
10311 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
10312 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
10313 boot:</p>
10314
10315 <ul>
10316
10317 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
10318
10319 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
10320    clock is in UTC.</li>
10321
10322 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
10323    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10324    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
10325
10326 </ul>
10327
10328 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
10329 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
10330 Villegas</a>.
10331
10332 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
10333 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
10334 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
10335 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
10336 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
10337 using this.</p>
10338
10339 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
10340 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
10341 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
10342 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
10343 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
10344 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
10345 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
10346
10347       </div>
10348       <div class="tags">
10349
10350
10351         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10352
10353
10354       </div>
10355     </div>
10356     <div class="padding"></div>
10357
10358     <div class="entry">
10359       <div class="title">
10360         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
10361       </div>
10362       <div class="date">
10363         17th May 2009
10364       </div>
10365       <div class="body">
10366         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
10367 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
10368 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
10369 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
10370 dager siden kom
10371 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
10372 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
10373 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
10374 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
10375 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
10376
10377 <blockquote>
10378 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
10379 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
10380 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
10381 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
10382 </blockquote>
10383
10384 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
10385 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
10386 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
10387 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
10388 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
10389
10390 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
10391 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
10392 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
10393
10394       </div>
10395       <div class="tags">
10396
10397
10398         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
10399
10400
10401       </div>
10402     </div>
10403     <div class="padding"></div>
10404
10405     <div class="entry">
10406       <div class="title">
10407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
10408       </div>
10409       <div class="date">
10410          7th May 2009
10411       </div>
10412       <div class="body">
10413         <p>Kom over
10414 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
10415 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
10416 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
10417 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
10418 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
10419 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
10420 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
10421
10422       </div>
10423       <div class="tags">
10424
10425
10426         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10427
10428
10429       </div>
10430     </div>
10431     <div class="padding"></div>
10432
10433     <div class="entry">
10434       <div class="title">
10435         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
10436       </div>
10437       <div class="date">
10438          2nd May 2009
10439       </div>
10440       <div class="body">
10441         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
10442 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
10443 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
10444 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
10445 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
10446 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
10447 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
10448 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
10449 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
10450 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
10451 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
10452 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
10453 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
10454 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
10455 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
10456 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
10457 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
10458 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
10459 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
10460 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
10461
10462 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
10463 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
10464 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
10465 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
10466 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
10467 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
10468 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
10469 betydelige.</p>
10470
10471       </div>
10472       <div class="tags">
10473
10474
10475         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
10476
10477
10478       </div>
10479     </div>
10480     <div class="padding"></div>
10481
10482     <div class="entry">
10483       <div class="title">
10484         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
10485       </div>
10486       <div class="date">
10487          2nd May 2009
10488       </div>
10489       <div class="body">
10490         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
10491 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
10492 do not yet know them.</p>
10493
10494 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
10495 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
10496 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
10497 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
10498 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
10499 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
10500 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
10501 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
10502 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
10503 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
10504 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
10505
10506 <p>The second one is
10507 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
10508 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
10509 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
10510 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
10511 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
10512 and the company behind it is running
10513 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
10514 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
10515 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
10516 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
10517 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
10518 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
10519 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
10520 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
10521
10522 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
10523 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
10524 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
10525 surrounded by today.</p>
10526
10527       </div>
10528       <div class="tags">
10529
10530
10531         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10532
10533
10534       </div>
10535     </div>
10536     <div class="padding"></div>
10537
10538     <div class="entry">
10539       <div class="title">
10540         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
10541       </div>
10542       <div class="date">
10543         28th April 2009
10544       </div>
10545       <div class="body">
10546         <p>Julien Blache
10547 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
10548 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
10549 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
10550 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
10551 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
10552 properties.</p>
10553
10554       </div>
10555       <div class="tags">
10556
10557
10558         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10559
10560
10561       </div>
10562     </div>
10563     <div class="padding"></div>
10564
10565     <div class="entry">
10566       <div class="title">
10567         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
10568       </div>
10569       <div class="date">
10570         30th March 2009
10571       </div>
10572       <div class="body">
10573         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
10574 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
10575 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
10576 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
10577 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
10578 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
10579 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
10580 application.</p>
10581
10582 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
10583 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
10584 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
10585 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
10586 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
10587 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
10588 blocked from doing so.</p>
10589
10590 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
10591 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
10592 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
10593 requirements change.</p>
10594
10595 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
10596 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
10597 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
10598
10599       </div>
10600       <div class="tags">
10601
10602
10603         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
10604
10605
10606       </div>
10607     </div>
10608     <div class="padding"></div>
10609
10610     <div class="entry">
10611       <div class="title">
10612         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
10613       </div>
10614       <div class="date">
10615         29th March 2009
10616       </div>
10617       <div class="body">
10618         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
10619 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
10620 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
10621 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
10622 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
10623 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
10624 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
10625 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
10626 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
10627 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
10628 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
10629 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
10630 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
10631 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
10632 now. :)</p>
10633
10634       </div>
10635       <div class="tags">
10636
10637
10638         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10639
10640
10641       </div>
10642     </div>
10643     <div class="padding"></div>
10644
10645     <div class="entry">
10646       <div class="title">
10647         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
10648       </div>
10649       <div class="date">
10650         29th March 2009
10651       </div>
10652       <div class="body">
10653         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
10654 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
10655 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
10656 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
10657 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
10658 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
10659
10660 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
10661 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
10662 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
10663 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
10664 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
10665 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
10666 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
10667 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
10668 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
10669 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
10670 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
10671 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
10672 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
10673
10674 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
10675 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
10676 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
10677 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
10678
10679 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
10680 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
10681
10682 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
10683 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
10684 new IETF work group?</p>
10685
10686       </div>
10687       <div class="tags">
10688
10689
10690         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10691
10692
10693       </div>
10694     </div>
10695     <div class="padding"></div>
10696
10697     <div class="entry">
10698       <div class="title">
10699         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
10700       </div>
10701       <div class="date">
10702         15th February 2009
10703       </div>
10704       <div class="body">
10705         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
10706 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
10707 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
10708 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
10709 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
10710 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
10711 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
10712 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
10713 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
10714 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
10715 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
10716 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
10717
10718       </div>
10719       <div class="tags">
10720
10721
10722         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
10723
10724
10725       </div>
10726     </div>
10727     <div class="padding"></div>
10728
10729     <div class="entry">
10730       <div class="title">
10731         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
10732       </div>
10733       <div class="date">
10734          7th December 2008
10735       </div>
10736       <div class="body">
10737         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
10738 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
10739 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
10740 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
10741 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
10742 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
10743 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
10744 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
10745
10746 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
10747 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
10748 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
10749 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
10750 of these cards.</p>
10751
10752       </div>
10753       <div class="tags">
10754
10755
10756         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
10757
10758
10759       </div>
10760     </div>
10761     <div class="padding"></div>
10762
10763     <div class="entry">
10764       <div class="title">
10765         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
10766       </div>
10767       <div class="date">
10768         25th November 2008
10769       </div>
10770       <div class="body">
10771         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
10772 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
10773 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
10774 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
10775 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
10776 notes are available on
10777 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
10778 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
10779 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
10780 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
10781 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
10782 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
10783 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
10784 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
10785 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
10786
10787 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
10788 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
10789
10790       </div>
10791       <div class="tags">
10792
10793
10794         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
10795
10796
10797       </div>
10798     </div>
10799     <div class="padding"></div>
10800
10801     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
10802     <div id="sidebar">
10803
10804
10805
10806 <h2>Archive</h2>
10807 <ul>
10808
10809 <li>2016
10810 <ul>
10811
10812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
10813
10814 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
10815
10816 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
10817
10818 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
10819
10820 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
10821
10822 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
10823
10824 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (1)</a></li>
10825
10826 </ul></li>
10827
10828 <li>2015
10829 <ul>
10830
10831 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
10832
10833 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
10834
10835 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
10836
10837 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
10838
10839 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
10840
10841 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
10842
10843 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
10844
10845 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
10846
10847 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
10848
10849 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
10850
10851 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
10852
10853 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10854
10855 </ul></li>
10856
10857 <li>2014
10858 <ul>
10859
10860 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
10861
10862 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
10863
10864 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
10865
10866 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
10867
10868 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
10869
10870 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
10871
10872 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
10873
10874 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
10875
10876 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
10877
10878 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
10879
10880 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10881
10882 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
10883
10884 </ul></li>
10885
10886 <li>2013
10887 <ul>
10888
10889 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
10890
10891 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
10892
10893 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
10894
10895 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
10896
10897 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10898
10899 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
10900
10901 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
10902
10903 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
10904
10905 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
10906
10907 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
10908
10909 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
10910
10911 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10912
10913 </ul></li>
10914
10915 <li>2012
10916 <ul>
10917
10918 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
10919
10920 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
10921
10922 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
10923
10924 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
10925
10926 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
10927
10928 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
10929
10930 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
10931
10932 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
10933
10934 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
10935
10936 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
10937
10938 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
10939
10940 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
10941
10942 </ul></li>
10943
10944 <li>2011
10945 <ul>
10946
10947 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
10948
10949 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
10950
10951 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
10952
10953 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
10954
10955 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
10956
10957 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
10958
10959 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
10960
10961 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
10962
10963 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
10964
10965 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
10966
10967 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10968
10969 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
10970
10971 </ul></li>
10972
10973 <li>2010
10974 <ul>
10975
10976 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
10977
10978 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
10979
10980 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
10981
10982 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
10983
10984 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10985
10986 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
10987
10988 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
10989
10990 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
10991
10992 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
10993
10994 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
10995
10996 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
10997
10998 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
10999
11000 </ul></li>
11001
11002 <li>2009
11003 <ul>
11004
11005 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
11006
11007 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
11008
11009 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
11010
11011 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
11012
11013 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11014
11015 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
11016
11017 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
11018
11019 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
11020
11021 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
11022
11023 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11024
11025 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11026
11027 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11028
11029 </ul></li>
11030
11031 <li>2008
11032 <ul>
11033
11034 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
11035
11036 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
11037
11038 </ul></li>
11039
11040 </ul>
11041
11042
11043
11044 <h2>Tags</h2>
11045 <ul>
11046
11047  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
11048
11049  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
11050
11051  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
11052
11053  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
11054
11055  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
11056
11057  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
11058
11059  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
11060
11061  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
11062
11063  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (132)</a></li>
11064
11065  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (157)</a></li>
11066
11067  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
11068
11069  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
11070
11071  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (22)</a></li>
11072
11073  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
11074
11075  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (322)</a></li>
11076
11077  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
11078
11079  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
11080
11081  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (27)</a></li>
11082
11083  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
11084
11085  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (17)</a></li>
11086
11087  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
11088
11089  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
11090
11091  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (12)</a></li>
11092
11093  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
11094
11095  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
11096
11097  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
11098
11099  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
11100
11101  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
11102
11103  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
11104
11105  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
11106
11107  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (7)</a></li>
11108
11109  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (275)</a></li>
11110
11111  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (181)</a></li>
11112
11113  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
11114
11115  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
11116
11117  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (60)</a></li>
11118
11119  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
11120
11121  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
11122
11123  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
11124
11125  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
11126
11127  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
11128
11129  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
11130
11131  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
11132
11133  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
11134
11135  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
11136
11137  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (47)</a></li>
11138
11139  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
11140
11141  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
11142
11143  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
11144
11145  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (4)</a></li>
11146
11147  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
11148
11149  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (37)</a></li>
11150
11151  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
11152
11153  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
11154
11155  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
11156
11157  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (58)</a></li>
11158
11159  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
11160
11161  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
11162
11163 </ul>
11164
11165
11166     </div>
11167     <p style="text-align: right">
11168  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
11169 </p>
11170
11171   </body>
11172 </html>