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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="https://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="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/geteltorito_make_CD_firmware_upgrades_a_breeze.html">geteltorito make CD firmware upgrades a breeze</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         20th April 2022
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Recently I wanted to upgrade the firmware of my thinkpad, and
  32 located the firmware download page from Lenovo (which annoyingly do
  33 not allow access via Tor, forcing me to hand them more personal
  34 information that I would like).  The
  35 <a href="https://support.lenovo.com/no/en/search?query=thinkpad firmware bios upgrade iso&SearchType=Customer search&searchLocation=Masthead">download
  36 from Lenovo</a> is a bootable ISO image, which is a bit of a problem
  37 when all I got available is a USB memory stick.  I tried booting the
  38 ISO as a USB stick, but this did not work.  But genisoimage came to
  39 the rescue.</p>
  40
  41 <P>The geteltorito program in
  42 <a href="http://tracker.debian.org/cdrkit">the genisoimage binary
  43 package</a> is able to convert the bootable ISO image to a bootable
  44 USB stick using a simple command line recipe, which I then can write
  45 to the most recently inserted USB stick:</p>
  46
  47 <blockquote><pre>
  48 geteltorito -o usbstick.img lenovo-firmware.iso
  49 sudo dd bs=10M if=usbstick.img of=$(ls -tr /dev/sd?|tail -1)
  50 </pre></blockquote>
  51
  52 <p>This USB stick booted the firmware upgrader just fine, and in a few
  53 minutes my machine had the latest and greatest BIOS firmware in place.</p>
  54
  55       </div>
  56       <div class="tags">
  57
  58
  59         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  60
  61
  62       </div>
  63     </div>
  64     <div class="padding"></div>
  65
  66     <div class="entry">
  67       <div class="title">
  68         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Run_your_industrial_metal_working_machine_using_Debian_.html">Run your industrial metal working machine using Debian?</a>
  69       </div>
  70       <div class="date">
  71          2nd March 2022
  72       </div>
  73       <div class="body">
  74         <p>After many months of hard work by the good people involved in
  75 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a>, the
  76 system was accepted Sunday
  77 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linuxcnc">into Debian</a>.
  78 Once it was available from Debian, I was surprised to discover from
  79 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=linuxcnc">its
  80 popularity-contest numbers</a> that people have been reporting its use
  81 since 2012.  <a href="http://linuxcnc.org/">Its project site</a> might
  82 be a good place to check out, but sadly is not working when visiting
  83 via Tor.</p>
  84
  85 <p>But what is LinuxCNC, you are probably wondering?  Perhaps a
  86 Wikipedia quote is in place?</p>
  87
  88 <blockquote>
  89 "LinuxCNC is a software system for numerical control of
  90 machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma cutters, routers,
  91 cutting machines, robots and hexapods. It can control up to 9 axes or
  92 joints of a CNC machine using G-code (RS-274NGC) as input. It has
  93 several GUIs suited to specific kinds of usage (touch screen,
  94 interactive development)."
  95 </blockquote>
  96
  97 <p>It can even control 3D printers.  And even though the Wikipedia
  98 page indicate that it can only work with hard real time kernel
  99 features, it can also work with the user space soft real time features
 100 provided by the Debian kernel.
 101 <a href="https://github.com/linuxcnc/linuxcnc">The source code</a> is
 102 available from Github.  The last few months I've been involved in the
 103 translation setup for the program and documentation.  Translators are
 104 most welcome to
 105 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/linuxcnc/">join the
 106 effort</a> using Weblate.</p>
 107
 108 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 109 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 110 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 111
 112       </div>
 113       <div class="tags">
 114
 115
 116         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 117
 118
 119       </div>
 120     </div>
 121     <div class="padding"></div>
 122
 123     <div class="entry">
 124       <div class="title">
 125         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_still_an_excellent_choice_for_Lego_builders.html">Debian still an excellent choice for Lego builders</a>
 126       </div>
 127       <div class="date">
 128         24th October 2021
 129       </div>
 130       <div class="body">
 131         <p>The Debian Lego team saw a lot of activity the last few weeks.  All
 132 the packages under the team umbrella has been updated to fix
 133 packaging, lintian issues and BTS reports.  In addition, a new and
 134 inspiring team member appeared on both the
 135 <a href="https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-lego-team">debian-lego-team
 136 Team mailing list</a> and
 137 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC channel
 138 #debian-lego</a>.  If you are interested in Lego CAD design and LEGO
 139 Mindstorms programming, check out the
 140 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">team wiki page</a> to
 141 see what Debian can offer the Lego enthusiast.</p>
 142
 143 <p>Patches has been sent upstream, causing new upstream releases, one
 144 even the first one in more than ten years, and old upstreams was
 145 released with new ones.  There are still a lot of work left, and the
 146 team welcome more members to help us make sure Debian is the Linux
 147 distribution of choice for Lego builders.  If you want to contribute,
 148 join us in the IRC channel and become part of
 149 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debian-lego-team/">the team on
 150 Salsa</a>.</p>
 151
 152 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 153 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 154 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 155
 156       </div>
 157       <div class="tags">
 158
 159
 160         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 161
 162
 163       </div>
 164     </div>
 165     <div class="padding"></div>
 166
 167     <div class="entry">
 168       <div class="title">
 169         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Six_complete_translations_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_for_Buster.html">Six complete translations of The Debian Administrator's Handbook for Buster</a>
 170       </div>
 171       <div class="date">
 172          5th July 2021
 173       </div>
 174       <div class="body">
 175         <p>I am happy observe that the <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The
 176 Debian Administrator's Handbook</a> is available in six languages now.
 177 I am not sure which one of these are completely proof read, but the
 178 complete book is available in these languages:
 179
 180 <ul>
 181
 182 <li>English</li>
 183 <li>Norwegian Bokmål</li>
 184 <li>German</li>
 185 <li>Indonesian</li>
 186 <li>Brazil Portuguese</li>
 187 <li>Spanish</li>
 188
 189 </ul>
 190
 191 <p>This is the list of languages more than 70% complete, in other
 192 words with not too much left to do:</p>
 193
 194 <ul>
 195
 196 <li>Chinese (Simplified) - 90%</li>
 197 <li>French - 79%</li>
 198 <li>Italian - 79%</li>
 199 <li>Japanese - 77%</li>
 200 <li>Arabic (Morocco) - 75%</li>
 201 <li>Persian - 71%</li>
 202
 203 </ul>
 204
 205 <p>I wonder how long it will take to bring these to 100%.</p>
 206
 207 <p>Then there is the list of languages about halfway done:</p>
 208
 209 <ul>
 210
 211 <li>Russian - 63%</li>
 212 <li>Swedish - 53%</li>
 213 <li>Chinese (Traditional) - 46%</li>
 214 <li>Catalan - 45%</li>
 215
 216 </ul>
 217
 218 <p>Several are on to a good start:</p>
 219
 220 <ul>
 221
 222 <li>Dutch - 26%</li>
 223 <li>Vietnamese - 25%</li>
 224 <li>Polish - 23%</li>
 225 <li>Czech - 22%</li>
 226 <li>Turkish - 18%</li>
 227
 228 </ul>
 229
 230 <p>Finally, there are the ones just getting started:</p>
 231
 232 <ul>
 233
 234 <li>Korean - 4%</li>
 235 <li>Croatian - 2%</li>
 236 <li>Greek - 2%</li>
 237 <li>Danish - 1%</li>
 238 <li>Romanian - 1%</li>
 239
 240 </ul>
 241
 242 <p>If you want to help provide a Debian instruction book in your own
 243 language, visit
 244 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/#languages">Weblate</a>
 245 to contribute to the translations.</p>
 246
 247 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 248 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 249 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 250
 251       </div>
 252       <div class="tags">
 253
 254
 255         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 256
 257
 258       </div>
 259     </div>
 260     <div class="padding"></div>
 261
 262     <div class="entry">
 263       <div class="title">
 264         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Latest_Jami_back_in_Debian_Testing__and_scriptable_using_dbus.html">Latest Jami back in Debian Testing, and scriptable using dbus</a>
 265       </div>
 266       <div class="date">
 267         12th January 2021
 268       </div>
 269       <div class="body">
 270         <p>After a lot of hard work by its maintainer Alexandre Viau and
 271 others, the decentralized communication platform
 272 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>
 273 (earlier known as Ring), managed to get
 274 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">its latest version</a>
 275 into Debian Testing.  Several of its dependencies has caused build and
 276 propagation problems, which all seem to be solved now.</p>
 277
 278 <p>In addition to the fact that Jami is decentralized, similar to how
 279 bittorrent is decentralized, I first of all like how it is not
 280 connected to external IDs like phone numbers.  This allow me to set up
 281 computers to send me notifications using Jami without having to find
 282 get a phone number for each computer.  Automatic notification via Jami
 283 is also made trivial thanks to the provided client side API (as a DBus
 284 service).  Here is my bourne shell script demonstrating how to let any
 285 system send a message to any Jami address.  It will create a new
 286 identity before sending the message, if no Jami identity exist
 287 already:</p>
 288
 289 <p><pre>
 290 #!/bin/sh
 291 #
 292 # Usage: $0 <jami-address> <message>
 293 #
 294 # Send <message> to <jami-address>, create local jami account if
 295 # missing.
 296 #
 297 # License: GPL v2 or later at your choice
 298 # Author: Petter Reinholdtsen
 299
 300
 301 if [ -z "$HOME" ] ; then
 302     echo "error: missing \$HOME, required for dbus to work"
 303     exit 1
 304 fi
 305
 306 # First, get dbus running if not already running
 307 DBUSLAUNCH=/usr/bin/dbus-launch
 308 PIDFILE=/run/asterisk/dbus-session.pid
 309 if [ -e $PIDFILE ] ; then
 310     . $PIDFILE
 311     if ! kill -0 $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID 2>/dev/null ; then
 312         unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
 313     fi
 314 fi
 315 if [ -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ] && [ -x "$DBUSLAUNCH" ]; then
 316     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=$HOME/.dbus"
 317     dbus-daemon --session --address="$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" --nofork --nopidfile --syslog-only < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 3>&1 &
 318     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$!
 319     (
 320         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
 321         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=\""$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"\"
 322         echo export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
 323     ) > $PIDFILE
 324     . $PIDFILE
 325 fi &
 326
 327 dringop() {
 328     part="$1"; shift
 329     op="$1"; shift
 330     dbus-send --session \
 331         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
 332 }
 333
 334 dringopreply() {
 335     part="$1"; shift
 336     op="$1"; shift
 337     dbus-send --session --print-reply \
 338         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
 339 }
 340
 341 firstaccount() {
 342     dringopreply ConfigurationManager getAccountList | \
 343       grep string | awk -F'"' '{print $2}' | head -n 1
 344 }
 345
 346 account=$(firstaccount)
 347
 348 if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
 349     echo "Missing local account, trying to create it"
 350     dringop ConfigurationManager addAccount \
 351       dict:string:string:"Account.type","RING","Account.videoEnabled","false"
 352     account=$(firstaccount)
 353     if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
 354         echo "unable to create local account"
 355         exit 1
 356     fi
 357 fi
 358
 359 # Not using dringopreply to ensure $2 can contain spaces
 360 dbus-send --print-reply --session \
 361   --dest=cx.ring.Ring \
 362   /cx/ring/Ring/ConfigurationManager \
 363   cx.ring.Ring.ConfigurationManager.sendTextMessage \
 364   string:"$account" string:"$1" \
 365   dict:string:string:"text/plain","$2"
 366 </pre></p>
 367
 368 <p>If you want to check it out yourself, visit the
 369 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system project page</a> to learn
 370 more, and install the latest Jami client from Debian Unstable or
 371 Testing.</p>
 372
 373 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 374 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 375 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 376
 377       </div>
 378       <div class="tags">
 379
 380
 381         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 382
 383
 384       </div>
 385     </div>
 386     <div class="padding"></div>
 387
 388     <div class="entry">
 389       <div class="title">
 390         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_based_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Buster based Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 391       </div>
 392       <div class="date">
 393         20th October 2020
 394       </div>
 395       <div class="body">
 396         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-10-20-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.jpeg" width="60%"/></p>
 397
 398 <p>I am happy to report that we finally made it!  Norwegian Bokmål
 399 became the first translation published on paper of the new Buster
 400 based edition of "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
 401 Administrator's Handbook</a>".  The print proof reading copy arrived
 402 some days ago, and it looked good, so now the book is approved for
 403 general distribution.  This updated paperback edition <a
 404 href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available from
 405 lulu.com</a>.  The book is also available for download in electronic
 406 form as PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, and can also be
 407 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online</a>.</p>
 408
 409 <p>I am very happy to wrap up this Creative Common licensed project,
 410 which concludes several months of work by several volunteers. The
 411 number of Linux related books published in Norwegian are few, and I
 412 really hope this one will gain many readers, as it is packed with deep
 413 knowledge on Linux and the Debian ecosystem.  The book will be
 414 available for various Internet book stores like Amazon and Barnes &
 415 Noble soon, but I recommend buying
 416 "<a href="https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/roland-mas-and-rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-9j7qwq.html">Håndbok
 417 for Debian-administratoren</a>" directly from the source at Lulu.
 418
 419 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 420 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 421 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 422
 423       </div>
 424       <div class="tags">
 425
 426
 427         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 428
 429
 430       </div>
 431     </div>
 432     <div class="padding"></div>
 433
 434     <div class="entry">
 435       <div class="title">
 436         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_update_of_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_almost_done.html">Buster update of Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook almost done</a>
 437       </div>
 438       <div class="date">
 439         11th September 2020
 440       </div>
 441       <div class="body">
 442         <p>Thanks to the good work of several volunteers, the updated edition
 443 of the Norwegian translation for
 444 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
 445 Handbook</a>" is now almost completed.  After many months of proof
 446 reading, I consider the proof reading complete enough for us to move
 447 to the next step, and have asked for the print version to be prepared
 448 and sent of to the print on demand service lulu.com.  While it is
 449 still not to late if you find any incorrect translations on
 450 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
 451 hosted Weblate service</a>, but it will be soon. :) You can check out
 452 <a href=" https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">the Buster
 453 edition on the web</a> until the print edition is ready.</p>
 454
 455 <p>The book will be for sale on lulu.com and various web book stores,
 456 with links available from the web site for the book linked to above.
 457 I hope a lot of readers find it useful.</p>
 458
 459 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 460 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 461 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 462
 463       </div>
 464       <div class="tags">
 465
 466
 467         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 468
 469
 470       </div>
 471     </div>
 472     <div class="padding"></div>
 473
 474     <div class="entry">
 475       <div class="title">
 476         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Working_on_updated_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Working on updated Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 477       </div>
 478       <div class="date">
 479          4th July 2020
 480       </div>
 481       <div class="body">
 482         <p>Three years ago, the first Norwegian Bokmål edition of
 483 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
 484 Handbook</a>" was published.  This was based on Debian Jessie.  Now a
 485 new and updated version based on Buster is getting ready.  Work on the
 486 updated Norwegian Bokmål edition has been going on for a few months
 487 now, and yesterday, we reached the first mile stone, with 100% of the
 488 texts being translated.  A lot of proof reading remains, of course,
 489 but a major step towards a new edition has been taken.</p>
 490
 491 <p>The book is translated by volunteers, and we would love to get some
 492 help with the proof reading.  The translation uses
 493 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
 494 hosted Weblate service</a>, and we welcome everyone to have a look and
 495 submit improvements and suggestions.  There is also a proof readers
 496 PDF available on request, get in touch if you want to help out that
 497 way.</p>
 498
 499 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 500 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 501 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 502
 503       </div>
 504       <div class="tags">
 505
 506
 507         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 508
 509
 510       </div>
 511     </div>
 512     <div class="padding"></div>
 513
 514     <div class="entry">
 515       <div class="title">
 516         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Secure_Socket_API___a_simple_and_powerful_approach_for_TLS_support_in_software.html">Secure Socket API - a simple and powerful approach for TLS support in software</a>
 517       </div>
 518       <div class="date">
 519          6th June 2020
 520       </div>
 521       <div class="body">
 522         <p>As a member of the <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix
 523 User Group</a>, I have the pleasure of receiving the
 524 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a> magazine
 525 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/">;login:</a>
 526 several times a year.  I rarely have time to read all the articles,
 527 but try to at least skim through them all as there is a lot of nice
 528 knowledge passed on there.  I even carry the latest issue with me most
 529 of the time to try to get through all the articles when I have a few
 530 spare minutes.</p>
 531
 532 <p>The other day I came across a nice article titled
 533 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/winter2018/oneill">The
 534 Secure Socket API: TLS as an Operating System Service</a>" with a
 535 marvellous idea I hope can make it all the way into the POSIX standard.
 536 The idea is as simple as it is powerful.  By introducing a new
 537 socket() option IPPROTO_TLS to use TLS, and a system wide service to
 538 handle setting up TLS connections, one both make it trivial to add TLS
 539 support to any program currently using the POSIX socket API, and gain
 540 system wide control over certificates, TLS versions and encryption
 541 systems used.  Instead of doing this:</p>
 542
 543 <p><blockquote><pre>
 544 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
 545 </pre></blockquote></p>
 546
 547 <p>the program code would be doing this:<p>
 548
 549 <p><blockquote><pre>
 550 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TLS);
 551 </pre></blockquote></p>
 552
 553 <p>According to the ;login: article, converting a C program to use TLS
 554 would normally modify only 5-10 lines in the code, which is amazing
 555 when compared to using for example the OpenSSL API.</p>
 556
 557 <p>The project has set up the
 558 <a href="https://securesocketapi.org/">https://securesocketapi.org/</a>
 559 web site to spread the idea, and the code for a kernel module and the
 560 associated system daemon is available from two github repositories:
 561 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa">ssa</a> and
 562 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa-daemon">ssa-daemon</a>.
 563 Unfortunately there is no explicit license information with the code,
 564 so its copyright status is unclear.  A
 565 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa/issues/2">request to solve
 566 this</a> about it has been unsolved since 2018-08-17.</p>
 567
 568 <p>I love the idea of extending socket() to gain TLS support, and
 569 understand why it is an advantage to implement this as a kernel module
 570 and system wide service daemon, but can not help to think that it
 571 would be a lot easier to get projects to move to this way of setting
 572 up TLS if it was done with a user space approach where programs
 573 wanting to use this API approach could just link with a wrapper
 574 library.</p>
 575
 576 <p>I recommend you check out this simple and powerful approach to more
 577 secure network connections. :)</p>
 578
 579 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 580 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 581 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 582
 583       </div>
 584       <div class="tags">
 585
 586
 587         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
 588
 589
 590       </div>
 591     </div>
 592     <div class="padding"></div>
 593
 594     <div class="entry">
 595       <div class="title">
 596         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_as_a_Zoom_client__a_trick_for_password_protected_rooms___.html">Jami as a Zoom client, a trick for password protected rooms...</a>
 597       </div>
 598       <div class="date">
 599          8th May 2020
 600       </div>
 601       <div class="body">
 602         <p>Half a year ago,
 603 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">I
 604 wrote</a> about <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami communication
 605 client</a>, capable of peer-to-peer encrypted communication.  It
 606 handle both messages, audio and video.  It uses distributed hash
 607 tables instead of central infrastructure to connect its users to each
 608 other, which in my book is a plus.  I mentioned briefly that it could
 609 also work as a SIP client, which came in handy when the higher
 610 educational sector in Norway started to promote Zoom as its video
 611 conferencing solution.  I am reluctant to use the official Zoom client
 612 software, due to their <a href="https://zoom.us/terms">copyright
 613 license clauses</a> prohibiting users to reverse engineer (for example
 614 to check the security) and benchmark it, and thus prefer to connect to
 615 Zoom meetings with free software clients.</p>
 616
 617 <p>Jami worked OK as a SIP client to Zoom as long as there was no
 618 password set on the room.  The Jami daemon leak memory like crazy
 619 (approximately 1 GiB a minute) when I am connected to the video
 620 conference, so I had to restart the client every 7-10 minutes, which
 621 is not great.  I tried to get other SIP Linux clients to work
 622 without success, so I decided I would have to live with this wart
 623 until someone managed to fix the leak in the dring code base.  But
 624 another problem showed up once the rooms were password protected.  I
 625 could not get my dial tone signaling through from Jami to Zoom, and
 626 dial tone signaling is used to enter the password when connecting to
 627 Zoom.  I tried a lot of different permutations with my Jami and
 628 Asterisk setup to try to figure out why the signaling did not get
 629 through, only to finally discover that the fundamental problem seem to
 630 be that Zoom is simply not able to receive dial tone signaling when
 631 connecting via SIP.  There seem to be nothing wrong with the Jami and
 632 Asterisk end, it is simply broken in the Zoom end.  I got help from a
 633 very skilled VoIP engineer figuring out this last part.  And being a
 634 very skilled engineer, he was also able to locate a solution for me.
 635 Or to be exact, a workaround that solve my initial problem of
 636 connecting to password protected Zoom rooms using Jami.</p>
 637
 638 <p>So, how do you do this, I am sure you are wondering by now.  The
 639 trick is already
 640 <a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202405539-H-323-SIP-Room-Connector-Dial-Strings#sip">documented
 641 from Zoom</a>, and it is to modify the SIP address to include the room
 642 password.  What is most surprising about this is that the
 643 automatically generated email from Zoom with instructions on how to
 644 connect via SIP do not mention this.  The SIP address to use normally
 645 consist of the room ID (a number), an @ character and the IP address
 646 of the Zoom SIP gateway.  But Zoom understand a lot more than just the
 647 room ID in front of the at sign.  The format is "<tt>[Meeting
 648 ID].[Password].[Layout].[Host Key]</tt>", and you can here see how you
 649 can both enter password, control the layout (full screen, active
 650 presence and gallery) and specify the host key to start the meeting.
 651 The full SIP address entered into Jami to provide the password will
 652 then look like this (all using made up numbers):</p>
 653
 654 <p><blockquote>
 655 <tt>sip:657837644.522827@192.168.169.170</tt>
 656 </blockquote></p>
 657
 658 <p>Now if only jami would reduce its memory usage, I could even
 659 recommend this setup to others. :)</p>
 660
 661 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 662 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 663 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 664
 665       </div>
 666       <div class="tags">
 667
 668
 669         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 670
 671
 672       </div>
 673     </div>
 674     <div class="padding"></div>
 675
 676     <div class="entry">
 677       <div class="title">
 678         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html">GnuCOBOL, a free platform to learn and use COBOL - nice free software</a>
 679       </div>
 680       <div class="date">
 681         29th April 2020
 682       </div>
 683       <div class="body">
 684         <p>The curiosity got the better of me when
 685 <a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers">Slashdot
 686 reported</a> that New Jersey was desperately looking for
 687 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a> programmers,
 688 and a few days later it was reported that
 689 <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce">IBM
 690 tried to locate COBOL programmers</a>.</p>
 691
 692 <p>I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to
 693 learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find
 694 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/">GnuCOBOL</a> was
 695 already <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol">in
 696 Debian</a>.  It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a "compiler"
 697 transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual
 698 Studio to build binaries.</p>
 699
 700 <p>I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the
 701 quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer
 702 taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced.  A
 703 new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.</p>
 704
 705 <p>Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL
 706 introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs.  It was fun to
 707 learn a new programming language.  If you want to test for yourself,
 708 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL">the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia
 709 page</a> have a few simple examples to get you startet.</p>
 710
 711 <p>As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how
 712 standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL
 713 test suite, which sound good to me.  It is nice to know it is possible
 714 to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am
 715 very happy such nice free software project as this is available.  If
 716 you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.</p>
 717
 718 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 719 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 720 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 721
 722       </div>
 723       <div class="tags">
 724
 725
 726         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 727
 728
 729       </div>
 730     </div>
 731     <div class="padding"></div>
 732
 733     <div class="entry">
 734       <div class="title">
 735         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">Jami/Ring, finally functioning peer to peer communication client</a>
 736       </div>
 737       <div class="date">
 738         19th June 2019
 739       </div>
 740       <div class="body">
 741         <p>Some years ago, in 2016, I
 742 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">wrote
 743 for the first time about</a> the Ring peer to peer messaging system.
 744 It would provide messaging without any central server coordinating the
 745 system and without requiring all users to register a phone number or
 746 own a mobile phone.  Back then, I could not get it to work, and put it
 747 aside until it had seen more development.  A few days ago I decided to
 748 give it another try, and am happy to report that this time I am able
 749 to not only send and receive messages, but also place audio and video
 750 calls.  But only if UDP is not blocked into your network.</p>
 751
 752 <p>The Ring system changed name earlier this year to
 753 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>.  I
 754 tried doing web search for 'ring' when I discovered it for the first
 755 time, and can only applaud this change as it is impossible to find
 756 something called Ring among the noise of other uses of that word.  Now
 757 you can search for 'jami' and this client and
 758 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system</a> is the first hit at
 759 least on duckduckgo.</p>
 760
 761 <p>Jami will by default encrypt messages as well as audio and video
 762 calls, and try to send them directly between the communicating parties
 763 if possible.  If this proves impossible (for example if both ends are
 764 behind NAT), it will use a central SIP TURN server maintained by the
 765 Jami project.  Jami can also be a normal SIP client.  If the SIP
 766 server is unencrypted, the audio and video calls will also be
 767 unencrypted.  This is as far as I know the only case where Jami will
 768 do anything without encryption.</p>
 769
 770 <p>Jami is available for several platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOSX,
 771 Android, iOS, and Android TV.  It is included in Debian already.  Jami
 772 also work for those using F-Droid without any Google connections,
 773 while Signal do not.
 774 <a href="https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/ring-project/wikis/technical/Protocol">The
 775 protocol</a> is described in the Ring project wiki.  The system uses a
 776 distributed hash table (DHT) system (similar to BitTorrent) running
 777 over UDP.  On one of the networks I use, I discovered Jami failed to
 778 work.  I tracked this down to the fact that incoming UDP packages
 779 going to ports 1-49999 were blocked, and the DHT would pick a random
 780 port and end up in the low range most of the time.  After talking to
 781 the developers, I solved this by enabling the dhtproxy in the
 782 settings, thus using TCP to talk to a central DHT proxy instead of
 783
 784 peering directly with others.  I've been told the developers are
 785 working on allowing DHT to use TCP to avoid this problem.  I also ran
 786 into a problem when trying to talk to the version of Ring included in
 787 Debian Stable (Stretch).  Apparently the protocol changed between
 788 beta2 and the current version, making these clients incompatible.
 789 Hopefully the protocol will not be made incompatible in the
 790 future.</p>
 791
 792 <p>It is worth noting that while looking at Jami and its features, I
 793 came across another communication platform I have not tested yet.  The
 794 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)">Tox protocol</a>
 795 and <a href="https://tox.chat/">family of Tox clients</a>.  It might
 796 become the topic of a future blog post.</p>
 797
 798 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 799 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 800 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 801
 802       </div>
 803       <div class="tags">
 804
 805
 806         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 807
 808
 809       </div>
 810     </div>
 811     <div class="padding"></div>
 812
 813     <div class="entry">
 814       <div class="title">
 815         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Strategispillet_Unknown_Horizons_n__tilgjengelig_p__bokm_l.html">Strategispillet Unknown Horizons nå tilgjengelig på bokmål</a>
 816       </div>
 817       <div class="date">
 818         23rd January 2019
 819       </div>
 820       <div class="body">
 821         <p>I høst ble jeg inspirert til å bidra til oversettelsen av
 822 <a href="http://unknown-horizons.org/">strategispillet Unknown
 823 Horizons</a>, og oversatte de nesten 200 strengene i prosjektet til
 824 bokmål.  Deretter har jeg gått å ventet på at det kom en ny utgave som
 825 inneholdt disse oversettelsene.  Nå er endelig ventetiden over.  Den
 826 nye versjonen kom på nyåret, og ble
 827 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/unknown-horizons">lastet opp i
 828 Debian</a> for noen få dager siden.  I går kveld fikk jeg testet det ut, og
 829 må innrømme at oversettelsene fungerer fint.  Fant noen få tekster som
 830 måtte justeres, men ikke noe alvorlig.  Har oppdatert
 831 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/uh/">oversettelsen på
 832 Weblate</a>, slik at neste utgave vil være enda bedre. :)</p>
 833
 834 <p>Spillet er et ressursstyringsspill ala Civilization, og er morsomt
 835 å spille for oss som liker slikt. :)</p>
 836
 837 <p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til
 838 det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner
 839 til min adresse
 840 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.
 841 Merk, betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)</p>
 842
 843       </div>
 844       <div class="tags">
 845
 846
 847         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
 848
 849
 850       </div>
 851     </div>
 852     <div class="padding"></div>
 853
 854     <div class="entry">
 855       <div class="title">
 856         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_got_everything_you_need_to_program_Micro_bit.html">Debian now got everything you need to program Micro:bit</a>
 857       </div>
 858       <div class="date">
 859         22nd January 2019
 860       </div>
 861       <div class="body">
 862         <p>I am amazed and very pleased to discover that since a few days ago,
 863 everything you need to program the <a href="https://microbit.org/">BBC
 864 micro:bit</a> is available from the Debian archive.  All this is
 865 thanks to the hard work of Nick Morrott and the Debian python
 866 packaging team.  The micro:bit project recommend the mu-editor to
 867 program the microcomputer, as this editor will take care of all the
 868 machinery required to injekt/flash micropython alongside the program
 869 into the micro:bit, as long as the pieces are available.</p>
 870
 871 <p>There are three main pieces involved.  The first to enter Debian
 872 was
 873 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-uflash">python-uflash</a>,
 874 which was accepted into the archive 2019-01-12.  The next one was
 875 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mu-editor">mu-editor</a>, which
 876 showed up 2019-01-13.  The final and hardest part to to into the
 877 archive was
 878 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firmware-microbit-micropython">firmware-microbit-micropython</a>,
 879 which needed to get its build system and dependencies into Debian
 880 before it was accepted 2019-01-20.  The last one is already in Debian
 881 Unstable and should enter Debian Testing / Buster in three days.  This
 882 all allow any user of the micro:bit to get going by simply running
 883 'apt install mu-editor' when using Testing or Unstable, and once
 884 Buster is released as stable, all the users of Debian stable will be
 885 catered for.</p>
 886
 887 <p>As a minor final touch, I added rules to
 888 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">the isenkram
 889 package</a> for recognizing micro:bit and recommend the mu-editor
 890 package.  This make sure any user of the isenkram desktop daemon will
 891 get a popup suggesting to install mu-editor then the USB cable from
 892 the micro:bit is inserted for the first time.</p>
 893
 894 <p>This should make it easier to have fun.</p>
 895
 896 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 897 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 898 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 899
 900       </div>
 901       <div class="tags">
 902
 903
 904         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 905
 906
 907       </div>
 908     </div>
 909     <div class="padding"></div>
 910
 911     <div class="entry">
 912       <div class="title">
 913         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Learn_to_program_with_Minetest_on_Debian.html">Learn to program with Minetest on Debian</a>
 914       </div>
 915       <div class="date">
 916         15th December 2018
 917       </div>
 918       <div class="body">
 919         <p>A fun way to learn how to program
 920 <a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> is to follow the
 921 instructions in the book
 922 "<a href="https://nostarch.com/programwithminecraft">Learn to program
 923 with Minecraft</a>", which introduces programming in Python to people
 924 who like to play with Minecraft.  The book uses a Python library to
 925 talk to a TCP/IP socket with an API accepting build instructions and
 926 providing information about the current players in a Minecraft world.
 927 The TCP/IP API was first created for the Minecraft implementation for
 928 Raspberry Pi, and has since been ported to some server versions of
 929 Minecraft.  The book contain recipes for those using Windows, MacOSX
 930 and Raspian.  But a little known fact is that you can follow the same
 931 recipes using the free software construction game
 932 <a href="https://minetest.net/">Minetest</a>.</p>
 933
 934 <p>There is <a href="https://github.com/sprintingkiwi/pycraft_mod">a
 935 Minetest module implementing the same API</a>, making it possible to
 936 use the Python programs coded to talk to Minecraft with Minetest too.
 937 I
 938 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/minetest-mod-pycraft_0.20%2Bgit20180331.0376a0a%2Bdfsg-1.html">uploaded
 939 this module</a> to Debian two weeks ago, and as soon as it clears the
 940 FTP masters NEW queue, learning to program Python with Minetest on
 941 Debian will be a simple 'apt install' away.  The Debian package is
 942 maintained as part of the Debian Games team, and
 943 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/games-team/unfinished/minetest-mod-pycraft">the
 944 packaging rules</a> are currently located under 'unfinished' on
 945 Salsa.</p>
 946
 947 <p>You will most likely need to install several of the Minetest
 948 modules in Debian for the examples included with the library to work
 949 well, as there are several blocks used by the example scripts that are
 950 provided via modules in Minetest.  Without the required blocks, a
 951 simple stone block is used instead.  My initial testing with a analog
 952 clock did not get gold arms as instructed in the python library, but
 953 instead used stone arms.</p>
 954
 955 <p>I tried to find a way to add the API to the desktop version of
 956 Minecraft, but were unable to find any working recipes.  The
 957 <a href="https://www.epiphanydigest.com/tag/minecraft-python-api/">recipes</a>
 958 I <a href="https://github.com/kbsriram/mcpiapi">found</a> are only
 959 working with a standalone Minecraft server setup.  Are there any
 960 options to use with the normal desktop version?</p>
 961
 962 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 963 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 964 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 965
 966       </div>
 967       <div class="tags">
 968
 969
 970         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 971
 972
 973       </div>
 974     </div>
 975     <div class="padding"></div>
 976
 977     <div class="entry">
 978       <div class="title">
 979         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html">Time for an official MIME type for patches?</a>
 980       </div>
 981       <div class="date">
 982          1st November 2018
 983       </div>
 984       <div class="body">
 985         <p>As part of my involvement in
 986 <a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core">the Nikita
 987 archive API project</a>, I've been importing a fairly large lump of
 988 emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would
 989 go.  I picked a subset of <a href="https://notmuchmail.org/">my
 990 notmuch email database</a>, all public emails sent to me via
 991 @lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import.
 992 In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in
 993 these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed
 994 that one of the most common attachment formats do not have
 995 <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">an
 996 official MIME type</a> registered with IANA/IETF.  The output from
 997 diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats
 998 included in these emails.  At the moment people seem to use either
 999 text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered.  It
1000 would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used
1001 everywhere.</p>
1002
1003 <p>To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought
1004 up the topic on
1005 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types">the
1006 media-types mailing list</a>.  If you are interested in discussion
1007 which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in
1008 making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like
1009 to join the discussion?</p>
1010
1011 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1012 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1013 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1014
1015       </div>
1016       <div class="tags">
1017
1018
1019         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1020
1021
1022       </div>
1023     </div>
1024     <div class="padding"></div>
1025
1026     <div class="entry">
1027       <div class="title">
1028         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html">Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian</a>
1029       </div>
1030       <div class="date">
1031          4th October 2018
1032       </div>
1033       <div class="body">
1034         <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian.  To try to
1035 rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive.
1036 I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this
1037 automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from
1038 <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/">the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA</a> to do the
1039 task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to
1040 run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync.
1041 Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.</p>
1042
1043 <p>I first created <tt>~/googledrive</tt>, entered the directory and
1044 ran '<tt>grive -a</tt>' to authenticate the machine/user.  Next, I
1045 created a autostart hook in <tt>~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop</tt>
1046 to start the sync when the user log in:</p>
1047
1048 <p><blockquote><pre>
1049 [Desktop Entry]
1050 Name=Google drive autosync
1051 Type=Application
1052 Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync
1053 </pre></blockquote></p>
1054
1055 <p>Finally, I wrote the <tt>~/bin/grive-sync</tt> script to sync
1056 ~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.</p>
1057
1058 <p><blockquote><pre>
1059 #!/bin/sh
1060 set -e
1061 cd ~/
1062 cleanup() {
1063     if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then
1064         kill $syncpid
1065     fi
1066 }
1067 trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT
1068 /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" &
1069 syncpdi=$!
1070 while true; do
1071     if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
1072         echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out"
1073         exit 1
1074     fi
1075     if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then
1076         /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive
1077     fi
1078     sleep 300
1079 done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%"
1080 </pre></blockquote></p>
1081
1082 <p>Feel free to use the setup if you want.  It can be assumed to be
1083 GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I
1084 doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.</p>
1085
1086 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1087 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1088 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1089
1090       </div>
1091       <div class="tags">
1092
1093
1094         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1095
1096
1097       </div>
1098     </div>
1099     <div class="padding"></div>
1100
1101     <div class="entry">
1102       <div class="title">
1103         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html">Using the Kodi API to play Youtube videos</a>
1104       </div>
1105       <div class="date">
1106          2nd September 2018
1107       </div>
1108       <div class="body">
1109         <p>I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to
1110 tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to
1111 insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard.  After searching the
1112 web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed
1113 to find a recipe that worked.  If you got a kodi instance with its API
1114 available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to
1115 have check out a nice cover band.</p>
1116
1117 <p><blockquote><pre>curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
1118   --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open",
1119   "params": {"item": { "file":
1120   "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \
1121   http://projector.local/jsonrpc</pre></blockquote></p>
1122
1123 <p>I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its
1124 first argument.  It can now handle direct video links, youtube links
1125 and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi.  It is almost like a
1126 Chromecast. :)</p>
1127
1128 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1129 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1130 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1131
1132       </div>
1133       <div class="tags">
1134
1135
1136         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1137
1138
1139       </div>
1140     </div>
1141     <div class="padding"></div>
1142
1143     <div class="entry">
1144       <div class="title">
1145         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sharing_images_with_friends_and_family_using_RSS_and_EXIF_XMP_metadata.html">Sharing images with friends and family using RSS and EXIF/XMP metadata</a>
1146       </div>
1147       <div class="date">
1148         31st July 2018
1149       </div>
1150       <div class="body">
1151         <p>For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images
1152 with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to
1153 place images from my personal life under the control of strangers
1154 working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox.  The last few days I
1155 have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to
1156 share it with you.  I would like to publish images on a server under
1157 my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some
1158 free and open standard to the images I published.  As my primary
1159 language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using
1160 UTF-8.  Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable
1161 of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the
1162 &lt;enclosure&gt; RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier
1163 of such frames.  In the end I gave up that approach.</p>
1164
1165 <p>Some months ago, I discovered that
1166 <a href="https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/">XScreensaver</a> is able to
1167 read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on
1168 my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from
1169 NASA.  This proved to work well.  More recently I discovered that
1170 <a href="https://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> (both using
1171 <a href="https://www.openelec.tv/">OpenELEC</a> and
1172 <a href="https://libreelec.tv">LibreELEC</a>) provide the
1173 <a href="https://github.com/grinsted/script.screensaver.feedreader">Feedreader</a>
1174 screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news.  For
1175 fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up
1176 a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a
1177 screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.</p>
1178
1179 <p>Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate
1180 a RSS feed for the Kodi instance.  I adjusted my <a
1181 href="https://freedombox.org/">Freedombox</a> instance, created
1182 /var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract
1183 title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the
1184 RSS file.  I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the
1185 libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP
1186 tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not.  The relevant EXIF
1187 tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives.  XMP
1188 seem to have the support I need.</p>
1189
1190 <p>I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to
1191 use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software
1192 photo managing software.  I ended up using the tags set using this
1193 exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:</p>
1194
1195 <blockquote><pre>
1196 exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
1197   -description='The RSS image description.' \
1198   -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
1199 </pre></blockquote>
1200
1201 <p>I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were
1202 invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject".  I
1203 use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be
1204 shared with my family.  Images with this keyword set are located and
1205 copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.</p>
1206
1207 <p>Are there better ways to do this?  Get in touch if you have better
1208 suggestions.</p>
1209
1210 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1211 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1212 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1213
1214       </div>
1215       <div class="tags">
1216
1217
1218         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1219
1220
1221       </div>
1222     </div>
1223     <div class="padding"></div>
1224
1225     <div class="entry">
1226       <div class="title">
1227         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP</a>
1228       </div>
1229       <div class="date">
1230         12th July 2018
1231       </div>
1232       <div class="body">
1233         <p>Last night, I wrote
1234 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
1235 recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
1236 During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
1237 suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
1238 approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
1239 care of it all.</p>
1240
1241 <p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
1242 desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
1243 saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
1244 Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
1245 <a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
1246 Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
1247 GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
1248 the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
1249 server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
1250 up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
1251 network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
1252 script must be modified.  Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as
1253 I only care about the picture part.</p>
1254
1255 <blockquote><pre>
1256 #!/bin/sh
1257 #
1258 # Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
1259 # http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
1260 # for backgorund information.
1261
1262 # Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
1263 # killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
1264 # kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
1265 kodicmd() {
1266     host="$1"
1267     cmd="$2"
1268     params="$3"
1269     curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
1270          --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
1271          "http://$host/jsonrpc"
1272 }
1273 cleanup() {
1274     if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
1275         # Stop the playing when we end
1276         playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
1277                             jq .result[].playerid)
1278         kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
1279     fi
1280     if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
1281         kill "$gstpid"
1282     fi
1283 }
1284 trap cleanup EXIT INT
1285
1286 if [ -n "$1" ]; then
1287     kodihost=$1
1288     shift
1289 else
1290     kodihost=kodi.local
1291 fi
1292
1293 mcast=239.255.0.1
1294 mcastport=1234
1295 mcastttl=1
1296
1297 pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
1298   cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
1299 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
1300   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
1301   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
1302   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
1303   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
1304   udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
1305   pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
1306   > /dev/null 2>&1 &
1307 gstpid=$!
1308
1309 # Give stream a second to get going
1310 sleep 1
1311
1312 # Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
1313 kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
1314         "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
1315
1316 # wait for gst to end
1317 wait "$gstpid"
1318 </pre></blockquote>
1319
1320 <p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
1321
1322 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1323 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1324 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1325
1326       </div>
1327       <div class="tags">
1328
1329
1330         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1331
1332
1333       </div>
1334     </div>
1335     <div class="padding"></div>
1336
1337     <div class="entry">
1338       <div class="title">
1339         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">Streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using VLC and RTSP</a>
1340       </div>
1341       <div class="date">
1342         12th July 2018
1343       </div>
1344       <div class="body">
1345         <p>PS: See
1346 <ahref="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">the
1347 followup post</a> for a even better approach.</p>
1348
1349 <p>A while back, I was asked by a friend how to stream the desktop to
1350 my projector connected to Kodi.  I sadly had to admit that I had no
1351 idea, as it was a task I never had tried.  Since then, I have been
1352 looking for a way to do so, preferable without much extra software to
1353 install on either side.  Today I found a way that seem to kind of
1354 work.  Not great, but it is a start.</p>
1355
1356 <p>I had a look at several approaches, for example
1357 <a href="https://github.com/mfoetsch/dlna_live_streaming">using uPnP
1358 DLNA as described in 2011</a>, but it required a uPnP server, fuse and
1359 local storage enough to store the stream locally.  This is not going
1360 to work well for me, lacking enough free space, and it would
1361 impossible for my friend to get working.</p>
1362
1363 <p>Next, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use VLC to create a
1364 video stream that Kodi could play.  Preferably using
1365 broadcast/multicast, to avoid having to change any setup on the Kodi
1366 side when starting such stream.  Unfortunately, the only recipe I
1367 could find using multicast used the rtp protocol, and this protocol
1368 seem to not be supported by Kodi.</p>
1369
1370 <p>On the other hand, the rtsp protocol is working!  Unfortunately I
1371 have to specify the IP address of the streaming machine in both the
1372 sending command and the file on the Kodi server.  But it is showing my
1373 desktop, and thus allow us to have a shared look on the big screen at
1374 the programs I work on.</p>
1375
1376 <p>I did not spend much time investigating codeces.  I combined the
1377 rtp and rtsp recipes from
1378 <a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Command_Line_Examples/">the
1379 VLC Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples</a>, and was able to get
1380 this working on the desktop/streaming end.</p>
1381
1382 <blockquote><pre>
1383 vlc screen:// --sout \
1384   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{dst=projector.local,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp}'
1385 </pre></blockquote>
1386
1387 <p>I ssh-ed into my Kodi box and created a file like this with the
1388 same IP address:</p>
1389
1390 <blockquote><pre>
1391 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp \
1392   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
1393 </pre></blockquote>
1394
1395 <p>Note the 192.168.11.4 IP address is my desktops IP address.  As far
1396 as I can tell the IP must be hardcoded for this to work.  In other
1397 words, if someone elses machine is going to do the steaming, you have
1398 to update screenstream.m3u on the Kodi machine and adjust the vlc
1399 recipe.  To get started, locate the file in Kodi and select the m3u
1400 file while the VLC stream is running.  The desktop then show up in my
1401 big screen. :)</p>
1402
1403 <p>When using the same technique to stream a video file with audio,
1404 the audio quality is really bad.  No idea if the problem is package
1405 loss or bad parameters for the transcode.  I do not know VLC nor Kodi
1406 enough to tell.</p>
1407
1408 <p><strong>Update 2018-07-12</strong>: Johannes Schauer send me a few
1409 succestions and reminded me about an important step.  The "screen:"
1410 input source is only available once the vlc-plugin-access-extra
1411 package is installed on Debian.  Without it, you will see this error
1412 message: "VLC is unable to open the MRL 'screen://'.  Check the log
1413 for details."  He further found that it is possible to drop some parts
1414 of the VLC command line to reduce the amount of hardcoded information.
1415 It is also useful to consider using cvlc to avoid having the VLC
1416 window in the desktop view.  In sum, this give us this command line on
1417 the source end
1418
1419 <blockquote><pre>
1420 cvlc screen:// --sout \
1421   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8080/}'
1422 </pre></blockquote>
1423
1424 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
1425
1426 <blockquote><pre>
1427 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/ \
1428   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
1429 </pre></blockquote>
1430
1431 <p>Still bad image quality, though.  But I did discover that streaming
1432 a DVD using dvdsimple:///dev/dvd as the source had excellent video and
1433 audio quality, so I guess the issue is in the input or transcoding
1434 parts, not the rtsp part.  I've tried to change the vb and ab
1435 parameters to use more bandwidth, but it did not make a
1436 difference.</p>
1437
1438 <p>I further received a suggestion from Einar Haraldseid to try using
1439 gstreamer instead of VLC, and this proved to work great!  He also
1440 provided me with the trick to get Kodi to use a multicast stream as
1441 its source.  By using this monstrous oneliner, I can stream my desktop
1442 with good video quality in reasonable framerate to the 239.255.0.1
1443 multicast address on port 1234:
1444
1445 <blockquote><pre>
1446 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
1447   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
1448   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
1449   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
1450   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
1451   udpsink host=239.255.0.1 port=1234 ttl-mc=1 auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
1452   pulsesrc device=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | \
1453     grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' |  cut -d" " -f2|head -1) ! \
1454   audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux.
1455 </pre></blockquote>
1456
1457 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
1458
1459 <blockquote><pre>
1460 echo udp://@239.255.0.1:1234 \
1461   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
1462 </pre></blockquote>
1463
1464 <p>Note the trick to pick a valid pulseaudio source.  It might not
1465 pick the one you need.  This approach will of course lead to trouble
1466 if more than one source uses the same multicast port and address.
1467 Note the ttl-mc=1 setting, which limit the multicast packages to the
1468 local network.  If the value is increased, your screen will be
1469 broadcasted further, one network "hop" for each increase (read up on
1470 multicast to learn more. :)!</p>
1471
1472 <p>Having cracked how to get Kodi to receive multicast streams, I
1473 could use this VLC command to stream to the same multicast address.
1474 The image quality is way better than the rtsp approach, but gstreamer
1475 seem to be doing a better job.</p>
1476
1477 <blockquote><pre>
1478 cvlc screen:// --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.0.1,port=1234,sdp=sap}'
1479 </pre></blockquote>
1480
1481 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1482 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1483 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1484
1485       </div>
1486       <div class="tags">
1487
1488
1489         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1490
1491
1492       </div>
1493     </div>
1494     <div class="padding"></div>
1495
1496     <div class="entry">
1497       <div class="title">
1498         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2018_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian in 2018?</a>
1499       </div>
1500       <div class="date">
1501          9th July 2018
1502       </div>
1503       <div class="body">
1504         <p>Five years ago,
1505 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">I
1506 measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian was</a>, by
1507 analysing the desktop files in all packages in the archive.  Since
1508 then, the DEP-11 AppStream system has been put into production, making
1509 the task a lot easier.  This made me want to repeat the measurement,
1510 to see how much things changed.  Here are the new numbers, for
1511 unstable only this time:
1512
1513 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
1514
1515 <pre>
1516   count MIME type
1517   ----- -----------------------
1518      56 image/jpeg
1519      55 image/png
1520      49 image/tiff
1521      48 image/gif
1522      39 image/bmp
1523      38 text/plain
1524      37 audio/mpeg
1525      34 application/ogg
1526      33 audio/x-flac
1527      32 audio/x-mp3
1528      30 audio/x-wav
1529      30 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
1530      29 image/x-portable-pixmap
1531      27 inode/directory
1532      27 image/x-portable-bitmap
1533      27 audio/x-mpeg
1534      26 application/x-ogg
1535      25 audio/x-mpegurl
1536      25 audio/ogg
1537      24 text/html
1538 </pre>
1539
1540 <p>The list was created like this using a sid chroot: "cat
1541 /var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz| zcat | awk '/^
1542 - \S+\/\S+$/ {print $2 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20"</p>
1543
1544 <p>It is interesting to see how image formats have passed text/plain
1545 as the most announced supported MIME type.  These days, thanks to the
1546 AppStream system, if you run into a file format you do not know, and
1547 want to figure out which packages support the format, you can find the
1548 MIME type of the file using "file --mime &lt;filename&gt;", and then
1549 look up all packages announcing support for this format in their
1550 AppStream metadata (XML or .desktop file) using "appstreamcli
1551 what-provides mimetype &lt;mime-type&gt;.  For example if you, like
1552 me, want to know which packages support inode/directory, you can get a
1553 list like this:</p>
1554
1555 <p><blockquote><pre>
1556 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype inode/directory | grep Package: | sort
1557 Package: anjuta
1558 Package: audacious
1559 Package: baobab
1560 Package: cervisia
1561 Package: chirp
1562 Package: dolphin
1563 Package: doublecmd-common
1564 Package: easytag
1565 Package: enlightenment
1566 Package: ephoto
1567 Package: filelight
1568 Package: gwenview
1569 Package: k4dirstat
1570 Package: kaffeine
1571 Package: kdesvn
1572 Package: kid3
1573 Package: kid3-qt
1574 Package: nautilus
1575 Package: nemo
1576 Package: pcmanfm
1577 Package: pcmanfm-qt
1578 Package: qweborf
1579 Package: ranger
1580 Package: sirikali
1581 Package: spacefm
1582 Package: spacefm
1583 Package: vifm
1584 %
1585 </pre></blockquote></p>
1586
1587 <p>Using the same method, I can quickly discover that the Sketchup file
1588 format is not yet supported by any package in Debian:</p>
1589
1590 <p><blockquote><pre>
1591 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/vnd.sketchup.skp
1592 Could not find component providing 'mimetype::application/vnd.sketchup.skp'.
1593 %
1594 </pre></blockquote></p>
1595
1596 <p>Yesterday I used it to figure out which packages support the STL 3D
1597 format:</p>
1598
1599 <p><blockquote><pre>
1600 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/sla|grep Package
1601 Package: cura
1602 Package: meshlab
1603 Package: printrun
1604 %
1605 </pre></blockquote></p>
1606
1607 <p>PS: A new version of Cura was uploaded to Debian yesterday.</p>
1608
1609 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1610 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1611 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1612
1613       </div>
1614       <div class="tags">
1615
1616
1617         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1618
1619
1620       </div>
1621     </div>
1622     <div class="padding"></div>
1623
1624     <div class="entry">
1625       <div class="title">
1626         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_APT_upgrade_without_enough_free_space_on_the_disk___.html">Debian APT upgrade without enough free space on the disk...</a>
1627       </div>
1628       <div class="date">
1629          8th July 2018
1630       </div>
1631       <div class="body">
1632         <p>Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch
1633 for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free
1634 space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'.  I normally
1635 would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install &lt;somepackages&gt;' to
1636 upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of
1637 packages to download fall below the amount of free space available.
1638 Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got
1639 tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually.  I concluded
1640 that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and
1641 decided to see if I could automate it.  I came up with this small
1642 script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':</p>
1643
1644 <p><blockquote><pre>
1645 #!/bin/sh
1646 #
1647 # Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
1648 # upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
1649 # apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
1650 # flag for manual/automatic.
1651
1652 set -e
1653
1654 ignore() {
1655     if [ "$1" ]; then
1656         grep -v "$1"
1657     else
1658         cat
1659     fi
1660 }
1661
1662 for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
1663     echo "Upgrading $p"
1664     apt clean
1665     apt install --download-only -y $p
1666     for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
1667         if [ -e "$f" ]; then
1668             dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
1669             break
1670         fi
1671     done
1672 done
1673 </pre></blockquote></p>
1674
1675 <p>The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to
1676 download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the
1677 downloaded packages using dpkg.  The idea is to upgrade packages
1678 without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of
1679 the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency).  To
1680 use it, simply run it as root from the command line.  If it fail, try
1681 'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again.  This
1682 might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old
1683 packages.  dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.</p>
1684
1685 <p>It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to
1686 upgrade.  The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip
1687 the packages that are simply too large to unpack.  Today this was
1688 'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar
1689 problems earlier (like TeX).</p>
1690
1691 <p>Update 2018-07-08: Thanks to Paul Wise, I am aware of two
1692 alternative ways to handle this.  The "unattended-upgrades
1693 --minimal-upgrade-steps" option will try to calculate upgrade sets for
1694 each package to upgrade, and then upgrade them in order, smallest set
1695 first.  It might be a better option than my above mentioned script.
1696 Also, "aptutude upgrade" can upgrade single packages, thus avoiding
1697 the need for using "dpkg -i" in the script above.</p>
1698
1699 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1700 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1701 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1702
1703       </div>
1704       <div class="tags">
1705
1706
1707         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1708
1709
1710       </div>
1711     </div>
1712     <div class="padding"></div>
1713
1714     <div class="entry">
1715       <div class="title">
1716         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Version_3_1_of_Cura__the_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian.html">Version 3.1 of Cura, the 3D print slicer, is now in Debian</a>
1717       </div>
1718       <div class="date">
1719         13th February 2018
1720       </div>
1721       <div class="body">
1722         <p>A new version of the
1723 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">3D printer slicer
1724 software Cura</a>, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing
1725 (aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid).  I hope you find it
1726 useful.  It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will
1727 enter testing tomorrow.  See the
1728 <a href="https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes">release
1729 notes</a> for the list of bug fixes and new features.  Version 3.2
1730 was announced 6 days ago.  We will try to get it into Debian as
1731 well.</p>
1732
1733 <p>More information related to 3D printing is available on the
1734 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3DPrinting">3D printing</a> and
1735 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3D-printer">3D printer</a> wiki pages
1736 in Debian.</p>
1737
1738 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1739 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1740 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1741
1742       </div>
1743       <div class="tags">
1744
1745
1746         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1747
1748
1749       </div>
1750     </div>
1751     <div class="padding"></div>
1752
1753     <div class="entry">
1754       <div class="title">
1755         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cura__the_nice_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian_Unstable.html">Cura, the nice 3D print slicer, is now in Debian Unstable</a>
1756       </div>
1757       <div class="date">
1758         17th December 2017
1759       </div>
1760       <div class="body">
1761         <p>After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report
1762 that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just
1763 entered Debian Unstable.  It consist of five packages,
1764 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">cura</a>,
1765 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura-engine">cura-engine</a>,
1766 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libarcus">libarcus</a>,
1767 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fdm-materials">fdm-materials</a>,
1768 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libsavitar">libsavitar</a> and
1769 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/uranium">uranium</a>.  The last
1770 two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday.  This should make
1771 it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of
1772 3D printers.  My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will
1773 make life easier for at least me. :)</p>
1774
1775 <p>The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was
1776 happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages.  With the introduction
1777 of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service,
1778 Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa.  If you own or have access to a 3D
1779 printer, give it a go. :)</p>
1780
1781 <p>The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian
1782 team, flocking together on the
1783 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/3dprinter-general">3dprinter-general</a>
1784 mailing list and the
1785 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-3dprinting">#debian-3dprinting</a>
1786 IRC channel.</p>
1787
1788 <p>The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to
1789 version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
1790 3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.</p>
1791
1792       </div>
1793       <div class="tags">
1794
1795
1796         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1797
1798
1799       </div>
1800     </div>
1801     <div class="padding"></div>
1802
1803     <div class="entry">
1804       <div class="title">
1805         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Generating_3D_prints_in_Debian_using_Cura_and_Slic3r__prusa_.html">Generating 3D prints in Debian using Cura and Slic3r(-prusa)</a>
1806       </div>
1807       <div class="date">
1808          9th October 2017
1809       </div>
1810       <div class="body">
1811         <p>At my nearby maker space,
1812 <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Sonen</a>, I heard the story that it
1813 was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+)
1814 on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had
1815 to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages
1816 worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X.  I found this annoying,
1817 as the software involved,
1818 <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura">Cura</a>, is free software
1819 and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took
1820 the time to package it for the relevant distributions.  I even found
1821 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/706656">a request for adding into
1822 Debian</a> from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but
1823 never resulted in the software showing up in Debian.  So a few days
1824 ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.</p>
1825
1826 <p>Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a
1827 working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW
1828 queue for the ftpmasters to have a look.  You can track the progress
1829 on
1830 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=3dprinter-general%40lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1831 status page for the 3D printer team</a>.</p>
1832
1833 <p>The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded
1834 now to get slots in <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW
1835 queue</a> while we work up updating the packages to the latest
1836 upstream version.</p>
1837
1838 <p>On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder
1839 to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the
1840 short time I spent on it, are already in Debian.  If you are looking
1841 for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in
1842 Debian, check out
1843 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r">slic3r</a> and
1844 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa">slic3r-prusa</a>.
1845 The latter is a fork of the former.</p>
1846
1847 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1848 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1849 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1850
1851       </div>
1852       <div class="tags">
1853
1854
1855         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1856
1857
1858       </div>
1859     </div>
1860     <div class="padding"></div>
1861
1862     <div class="entry">
1863       <div class="title">
1864         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html">Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass</a>
1865       </div>
1866       <div class="date">
1867         29th September 2017
1868       </div>
1869       <div class="body">
1870         <p>Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
1871 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
1872 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
1873 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
1874 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
1875 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
1876 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
1877 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
1878 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
1879 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
1880 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
1881 listen.</p>
1882
1883 <p>I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
1884 visualizing this information up and running for
1885 <a href="http://norwaymakers.org/osf17">Oslo Skaperfestival 2017</a>
1886 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
1887 library.  The solution is based on the
1888 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">simple
1889 recipe for listening to GSM chatter</a> I posted a few days ago, and
1890 will show up at the stand of <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Åpen
1891 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
1892 Oslo</a>.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
1893 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
1894 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
1895 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.</p>
1896
1897 <p>We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
1898 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
1899 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
1900 <a href="https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass">English version of
1901 Hopglass</a>.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
1902 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
1903 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a> converting
1904 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.</p>
1905
1906 <p>The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
1907 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
1908 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
1909 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output">patches
1910 in my meshviewer-output branch</a>.  For some reason we could not get
1911 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
1912 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
1913 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
1914 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
1915 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
1916 mentioned in
1917 <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14">the github
1918 issue for the topic</a>.
1919
1920 <p>If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!</p>
1921
1922       </div>
1923       <div class="tags">
1924
1925
1926         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1927
1928
1929       </div>
1930     </div>
1931     <div class="padding"></div>
1932
1933     <div class="entry">
1934       <div class="title">
1935         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you</a>
1936       </div>
1937       <div class="date">
1938         24th September 2017
1939       </div>
1940       <div class="body">
1941         <p>A little more than a month ago I wrote
1942 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">how
1943 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
1944 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
1945 cheap USB software defined radio</a>, and thus being able to pinpoint
1946 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
1947 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
1948 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
1949 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.</p>
1950
1951 <p>The <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a>
1952 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
1953 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
1954 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.</p>
1955
1956 <p>Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
1957 clone of two python scripts:</p>
1958
1959 <ol>
1960
1961 <li>Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
1962   testing).</li>
1963
1964 <li>Run '<tt>apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
1965   python-scapy</tt>' as root to install required packages.</li>
1966
1967 <li>Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using '<tt>git clone
1968   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git</tt>'.</li>
1969
1970 <li>Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.</li>
1971
1972 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
1973   scan-and-livemon</tt>' to locate the frequency of nearby base
1974   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.</li>
1975
1976 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
1977   simple_IMSI-catcher.py</tt>' to display the collected information.</li>
1978
1979 </ol>
1980
1981 <p>Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
1982 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336">its underlying
1983 program grgsm_scanner</a>) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
1984 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
1985 very cheaply
1986 (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832">for example
1987 from ebay</a>), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
1988 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.</p>
1989
1990 <p>As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
1991 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
1992 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
1993 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
1994 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
1995 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
1996 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
1997 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.</p>
1998
1999 <p>I've tried to run the scanner on a
2000 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
2001 running Debian Buster</a>, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
2002 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print 'O' to
2003 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
2004 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
2005 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal
2006 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
2007 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
2008 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
2009 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
2010 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().</p>
2011
2012       </div>
2013       <div class="tags">
2014
2015
2016         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2017
2018
2019       </div>
2020     </div>
2021     <div class="padding"></div>
2022
2023     <div class="entry">
2024       <div class="title">
2025         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian</a>
2026       </div>
2027       <div class="date">
2028          9th August 2017
2029       </div>
2030       <div class="body">
2031         <p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
2032 web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
2033 <a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
2034 to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
2035 DVB-T software defined radios.  The article refered to instructions
2036 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
2037 Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
2038
2039 <p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
2040 bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
2041 and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
2042 scratch.  I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
2043 Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
2044 stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
2045 some other version skew problem.  While trying to get this recipe
2046 working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
2047 and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
2048 gr-gsm package.  I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
2049 gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
2050 Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository.  All I needed to
2051 do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
2052
2053 <p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
2054 loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
2055 packages with IMSI numbers in them.  The code is fairly short and easy
2056 to understand.  The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
2057 to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
2058 and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
2059 network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
2060 default).  This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
2061 collector for a few days now.</p>
2062
2063 <p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
2064
2065 <ol>
2066
2067 <li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
2068
2069 <li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
2070 <a href="http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/">http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/</a>,</li>
2071
2072 <li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
2073
2074 <li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
2075 where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
2076 found a GSM station).</li>
2077
2078 <li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
2079
2080 </ol>
2081
2082 <p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
2083 running, I decided to package
2084 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
2085 for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
2086 #871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
2087 Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
2088 know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
2089
2090 <p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
2091 commercial tools like
2092 <a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
2093 Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
2094 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
2095 Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
2096 more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
2097 is easily tracked.  Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
2098 I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
2099 wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
2100 track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
2101 police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
2102 of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
2103 of government officials...</p>
2104
2105 <p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
2106 script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
2107 the GSM network.  It will only collect one frequency at the time,
2108 while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
2109 phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
2110 program.  Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
2111 simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
2112 parser code.  I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
2113 one frequency?</p>
2114
2115       </div>
2116       <div class="tags">
2117
2118
2119         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2120
2121
2122       </div>
2123     </div>
2124     <div class="padding"></div>
2125
2126     <div class="entry">
2127       <div class="title">
2128         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_is_now_available.html">Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available</a>
2129       </div>
2130       <div class="date">
2131         25th July 2017
2132       </div>
2133       <div class="body">
2134         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-07-25-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.png"/></p>
2135
2136 <p>I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of
2137 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
2138 Handbook</a>".  This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and
2139 I am very happy to hold the result in my hand.   We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition
2140 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available
2141 from lulu.com</a>.  If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list
2142 price.  The book is also available for download in electronic form as
2143 PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be
2144 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online
2145 as a web page</a>.</p>
2146
2147 <p>This is the second book I publish (the first was the book
2148 "<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>" by Lawrence Lessig
2149 in
2150 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">English</a>,
2151 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">French</a>
2152 and
2153 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Norwegian
2154 Bokmål</a>), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this
2155 project.  I hope
2156 "<a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog-and-roland-mas/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-23262290.html">Håndbok
2157 for Debian-administratoren</a>" will be well received.</p>
2158
2159       </div>
2160       <div class="tags">
2161
2162
2163         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2164
2165
2166       </div>
2167     </div>
2168     <div class="padding"></div>
2169
2170     <div class="entry">
2171       <div class="title">
2172         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/N_r_nynorskoversettelsen_svikter_til_eksamen___.html">Når nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...</a>
2173       </div>
2174       <div class="date">
2175          3rd June 2017
2176       </div>
2177       <div class="body">
2178         <p><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/Krever-at-elever-ma-fa-annullert-eksamen-etter-rot-med-oppgavetekster-622459b.html">Aftenposten
2179 melder i dag</a> om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og
2180 menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmåls og nynorskutgaven ikke var
2181 like.  Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring
2182 på om den fri oversetterløsningen
2183 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium</a> ville gjort en bedre
2184 jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet.  Det kan se slik ut.</p>
2185
2186 <p>Her er bokmålsoppgaven fra eksamenen:</p>
2187
2188 <blockquote>
2189 <p>Drøft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktørers
2190 rolle og muligheter til å håndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som
2191 for eksempel flykningekrisen.</p>
2192
2193 <p>Vedlegge er eksempler på tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver
2194 på temaet:</p>
2195 <ol>
2196 <li>Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC
2197 <li>«Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
2198 </ol>
2199
2200 </blockquote>
2201
2202 <p>Dette oversetter Apertium slik:</p>
2203
2204 <blockquote>
2205 <p>Drøft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til
2206 andre aktørar og høve til å handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som
2207 til dømes *flykningekrisen.</p>
2208
2209 <p>Vedleggja er døme på tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv på
2210 temaet:</p>
2211
2212 <ol>
2213 <li>*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC</li>
2214 <li>«*Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015</li>
2215 </ol>
2216
2217 </blockquote>
2218
2219 <p>Ord som ikke ble forstått er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger
2220 ekstra språksjekk.  Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i
2221 oppgaven elevene fikk presentert på eksamen.  Jeg mistenker dog at
2222 "andre aktørers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vært oversatt til
2223 "rolla til andre aktørar og deira høve til ..." eller noe slikt, men
2224 det er kanskje flisespikking.  Det understreker vel bare at det alltid
2225 trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.</p>
2226
2227       </div>
2228       <div class="tags">
2229
2230
2231         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
2232
2233
2234       </div>
2235     </div>
2236     <div class="padding"></div>
2237
2238     <div class="entry">
2239       <div class="title">
2240         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html">Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself...</a>
2241       </div>
2242       <div class="date">
2243          9th March 2017
2244       </div>
2245       <div class="body">
2246         <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux
2247 computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine
2248 was experiencing NFS hang.  If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a
2249 file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the
2250 shell) will hang too.  So you want to be able to detect this without
2251 risking the detection process getting stuck too.  It has not been
2252 obvious how to do this.  When the hang has lasted a while, it is
2253 possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p>
2254
2255 <p><blockquote>
2256 nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying
2257 <br>nfs: server nfsserver OK
2258 </blockquote></p>
2259
2260 <p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to
2261 be sure looking in dmesg is going to work.  If there are lots of other
2262 messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they
2263 are noticed.</p>
2264
2265 <p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel
2266 code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect
2267 it.  The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every
2268 time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg.  And after digging a
2269 bit further, I discovered that this value show up in
2270 /proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p>
2271
2272 <p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the
2273 same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the
2274 mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine.
2275 I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount
2276 points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem
2277 view), but that does not worry me.</p>
2278
2279 <p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p>
2280
2281 <p><blockquote><pre>
2282 [...]
2283 device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3
2284 device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1
2285         opts:   rw,vers=3,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,namlen=255,acregmin=3,acregmax=60,acdirmin=30,acdirmax=60,soft,nolock,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=129.240.3.145,mountvers=3,mountport=4048,mountproto=udp,local_lock=all
2286         age:    7863311
2287         caps:   caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255
2288         sec:    flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1
2289         events: 61063112 732346265 1028140 35486205 16220064 8162542 761447191 71714012 37189 3891185 45561809 110486139 4850138 420353 15449177 296502 52736725 13523379 0 52182 9016896 1231 0 0 0 0 0
2290         bytes:  166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809
2291         RPC iostats version: 1.0  p/v: 100003/3 (nfs)
2292         xprt:   tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820
2293         per-op statistics
2294                 NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2295              GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132
2296              SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943
2297               LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511
2298               ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140
2299             READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118
2300                 READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693
2301                WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771
2302               CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398
2303                MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245
2304              SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917
2305                MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304
2306               REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636
2307                RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002
2308               RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288
2309                 LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579
2310              READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917
2311          READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937
2312               FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022
2313               FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1
2314             PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0
2315               COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2316
2317 device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc
2318 [...]
2319 </pre></blockquote></p>
2320
2321 <p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list.
2322 It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system
2323 operation.  Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts.  If these
2324 numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS
2325 hang.  Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right
2326 away.  The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a
2327 while.  The exact timeout value depend on the setup.  For example the
2328 defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the
2329 timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS
2330 mount options.</p>
2331
2332 <p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat
2333 Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/.
2334 But according to
2335 <ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris
2336 10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c'
2337 command can be used to get these timeout values.  But this do not work
2338 on Linux, as far as I can tell.  I
2339 <ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>,
2340 but have not seen any replies yet.</p>
2341
2342 <p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is
2343 experiencing NFS hangs?  Is there a way to detect which processes are
2344 affected?  Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the
2345 network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared?  I would very
2346 much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p>
2347
2348       </div>
2349       <div class="tags">
2350
2351
2352         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
2353
2354
2355       </div>
2356     </div>
2357     <div class="padding"></div>
2358
2359     <div class="entry">
2360       <div class="title">
2361         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html">Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress</a>
2362       </div>
2363       <div class="date">
2364          3rd March 2017
2365       </div>
2366       <div class="body">
2367         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
2368 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
2369 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
2370 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
2371 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
2372 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
2373 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
2374 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
2375 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
2376
2377 <p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
2378
2379 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
2380 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
2381 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
2382 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
2383 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
2384 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
2385 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
2386 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
2387
2388       </div>
2389       <div class="tags">
2390
2391
2392         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2393
2394
2395       </div>
2396     </div>
2397     <div class="padding"></div>
2398
2399     <div class="entry">
2400       <div class="title">
2401         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
2402       </div>
2403       <div class="date">
2404          1st March 2017
2405       </div>
2406       <div class="body">
2407         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
2408 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
2409 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
2410 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
2411 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
2412 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
2413 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
2414 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
2415 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
2416 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
2417 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
2418
2419 <blockquote><pre>
2420 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2421   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
2422   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
2423      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2424      sleep 1; \
2425   done
2426 300
2427 0+1 oppføringer inn
2428 0+1 oppføringer ut
2429 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
2430 4
2431 8
2432 12
2433 17
2434 21
2435 %
2436 </pre></blockquote>
2437
2438 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
2439 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
2440 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
2441 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
2442
2443 <blockquote><pre>
2444 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2445   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
2446   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
2447      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
2448      sleep 1; \
2449   done
2450 1079
2451 0+1 oppføringer inn
2452 0+1 oppføringer ut
2453 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
2454 433
2455 1028
2456 1031
2457 1035
2458 1038
2459 %
2460 </pre></blockquote>
2461
2462 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
2463 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
2464
2465 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
2466 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
2467 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
2468 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
2469 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
2470 post.</p>
2471
2472       </div>
2473       <div class="tags">
2474
2475
2476         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2477
2478
2479       </div>
2480     </div>
2481     <div class="padding"></div>
2482
2483     <div class="entry">
2484       <div class="title">
2485         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
2486       </div>
2487       <div class="date">
2488          9th January 2017
2489       </div>
2490       <div class="body">
2491         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
2492 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
2493 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
2494 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
2495 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
2496 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
2497 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
2498 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
2499 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
2500 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
2501 this:
2502
2503 <p><pre>
2504 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
2505  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
2506  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
2507  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
2508  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
2509  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
2510  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
2511  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
2512  8  * * *
2513  9  * * *
2514 [...]
2515 </pre></p>
2516
2517 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
2518 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
2519 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
2520 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
2521 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
2522 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
2523 traceroute request.</p>
2524
2525 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
2526 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
2527 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
2528 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
2529 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
2530
2531 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
2532 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
2533 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
2534 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
2535 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
2536 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
2537 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
2538 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
2539 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
2540
2541 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
2542 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
2543 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
2544 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
2545 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
2546 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
2547 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
2548 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
2549 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
2550 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
2551 render the page (in HAR format using
2552 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
2553 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
2554 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
2555 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
2556 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
2557
2558 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
2559 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
2560
2561 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
2562 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
2563 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
2564 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
2565 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
2566 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
2567 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
2568 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
2569 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
2570 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
2571 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
2572 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
2573 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
2574 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
2575
2576 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
2577 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
2578
2579 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
2580 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
2581 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
2582 question.
2583 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
2584 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
2585 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
2586 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
2587 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
2588 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
2589 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
2590
2591 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
2592 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
2593
2594 <p>In the process, I came across the
2595 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
2596 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
2597 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
2598 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
2599 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
2600 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
2601 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
2602 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
2603 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
2604 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
2605 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
2606 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
2607 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
2608 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
2609
2610 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
2611 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
2612
2613 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
2614 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
2615 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
2616 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
2617
2618 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
2619 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
2620 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
2621 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
2622 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
2623 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
2624 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
2625
2626 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
2627 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
2628 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
2629 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
2630 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
2631 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
2632 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
2633
2634 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
2635 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
2636 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
2637 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
2638
2639 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2640 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2641 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2642
2643       </div>
2644       <div class="tags">
2645
2646
2647         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2648
2649
2650       </div>
2651     </div>
2652     <div class="padding"></div>
2653
2654     <div class="entry">
2655       <div class="title">
2656         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
2657       </div>
2658       <div class="date">
2659         23rd December 2016
2660       </div>
2661       <div class="body">
2662         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
2663 readers probably know, I have been working on the
2664 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
2665 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
2666 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
2667 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
2668 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
2669 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
2670 metadata format.  And today,
2671 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
2672 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
2673 ie using fnmatch():</p>
2674
2675 <p><pre>
2676 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
2677   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
2678 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
2679 Name: pymissile
2680 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
2681 Package: pymissile
2682 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
2683 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
2684 Name: libnxt
2685 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
2686 Package: libnxt
2687 ---
2688 Identifier: t2n [generic]
2689 Name: t2n
2690 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
2691 Package: t2n
2692 ---
2693 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
2694 Name: python-nxt
2695 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
2696 Package: python-nxt
2697 ---
2698 Identifier: nbc [generic]
2699 Name: nbc
2700 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
2701 Package: nbc
2702 %
2703 </pre></p>
2704
2705 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
2706 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
2707
2708 <p><pre>
2709 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
2710 pymissile
2711 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
2712 libnxt
2713 nbc
2714 python-nxt
2715 t2n
2716 %
2717 </pre></p>
2718
2719 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
2720 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
2721
2722 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
2723 make the most of the hardware they have, please
2724 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
2725 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
2726 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
2727 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
2728 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
2729 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
2730 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
2731 part of my involvement in
2732 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
2733 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
2734 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
2735 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
2736 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
2737 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
2738 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
2739 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
2740 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
2741
2742 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2743 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2744 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2745
2746       </div>
2747       <div class="tags">
2748
2749
2750         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2751
2752
2753       </div>
2754     </div>
2755     <div class="padding"></div>
2756
2757     <div class="entry">
2758       <div class="title">
2759         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
2760       </div>
2761       <div class="date">
2762         20th December 2016
2763       </div>
2764       <div class="body">
2765         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
2766 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
2767 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
2768 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
2769 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
2770 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
2771 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
2772 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
2773 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
2774 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
2775
2776 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
2777
2778 <p><pre>
2779 % isenkram-lookup
2780 bluez
2781 cheese
2782 ethtool
2783 fprintd
2784 fprintd-demo
2785 gkrellm-thinkbat
2786 hdapsd
2787 libpam-fprintd
2788 pidgin-blinklight
2789 thinkfan
2790 tlp
2791 tp-smapi-dkms
2792 tp-smapi-source
2793 tpb
2794 %
2795 </pre></p>
2796
2797 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
2798 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
2799 I have all the firmware my machine need:
2800
2801 <p><pre>
2802 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2803 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
2804 %
2805 </pre></p>
2806
2807 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
2808 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
2809 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
2810 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
2811 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
2812 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
2813 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
2814 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
2815
2816 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
2817 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
2818 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
2819
2820 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
2821 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
2822 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
2823 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
2824 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
2825 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
2826 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
2827 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
2828 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
2829 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
2830 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
2831 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
2832 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
2833 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
2834 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
2835 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
2836 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
2837 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
2838 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
2839 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
2840 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
2841 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
2842 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
2843 zd1211-firmware</p>
2844
2845 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
2846 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
2847 maintainer to
2848 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
2849 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
2850 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
2851 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
2852
2853 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
2854 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
2855 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
2856 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
2857 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
2858
2859       </div>
2860       <div class="tags">
2861
2862
2863         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2864
2865
2866       </div>
2867     </div>
2868     <div class="padding"></div>
2869
2870     <div class="entry">
2871       <div class="title">
2872         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
2873       </div>
2874       <div class="date">
2875         11th December 2016
2876       </div>
2877       <div class="body">
2878         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
2879
2880 <p>In my early years, I played
2881 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
2882 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
2883 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
2884 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
2885 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
2886 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
2887 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
2888 small.</p>
2889
2890 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
2891 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
2892 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
2893 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
2894 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
2895 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
2896 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
2897 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
2898 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
2899
2900 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
2901 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
2902 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
2903 advantages of the
2904 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
2905 where information about each planet is easily available with common
2906 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
2907 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
2908 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
2909 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
2910 after less then a week.</p>
2911
2912 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
2913 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
2914 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
2915
2916 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2917 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2918 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2919
2920       </div>
2921       <div class="tags">
2922
2923
2924         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2925
2926
2927       </div>
2928     </div>
2929     <div class="padding"></div>
2930
2931     <div class="entry">
2932       <div class="title">
2933         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
2934       </div>
2935       <div class="date">
2936         25th November 2016
2937       </div>
2938       <div class="body">
2939         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
2940 installation system, observing how using
2941 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
2942 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
2943 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
2944 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
2945 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
2946 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
2947 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
2948 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
2949 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
2950 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
2951 up the process make perfect sense.
2952
2953 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
2954 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
2955 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
2956 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
2957 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
2958 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
2959 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
2960 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
2961 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
2962 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
2963
2964 <blockquote><pre>
2965 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
2966 </pre></blockquote>
2967
2968 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
2969 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
2970 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
2971 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
2972 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
2973 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
2974 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
2975 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
2976 tested its impact.</p>
2977
2978
2979       </div>
2980       <div class="tags">
2981
2982
2983         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2984
2985
2986       </div>
2987     </div>
2988     <div class="padding"></div>
2989
2990     <div class="entry">
2991       <div class="title">
2992         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
2993       </div>
2994       <div class="date">
2995         24th November 2016
2996       </div>
2997       <div class="body">
2998         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
2999 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
3000 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
3001 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
3002 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
3003 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
3004 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
3005 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
3006 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
3007 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
3008 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
3009 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
3010 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
3011 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
3012 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
3013 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
3014 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
3015 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
3016 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
3017
3018 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
3019 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
3020 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
3021 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
3022 api.apertium.org.  Se
3023 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
3024 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
3025 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
3026 nynorsk.</p>
3027
3028 <hr/>
3029
3030 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
3031 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
3032 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
3033 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
3034 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
3035 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
3036 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
3037 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
3038 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
3039 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
3040 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
3041 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
3042 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
3043 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
3044 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
3045 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
3046 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
3047 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
3048 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
3049
3050 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
3051 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
3052 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
3053 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
3054 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
3055 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
3056 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
3057 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
3058 nynorsk.</p>
3059
3060       </div>
3061       <div class="tags">
3062
3063
3064         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
3065
3066
3067       </div>
3068     </div>
3069     <div class="padding"></div>
3070
3071     <div class="entry">
3072       <div class="title">
3073         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
3074       </div>
3075       <div class="date">
3076         13th November 2016
3077       </div>
3078       <div class="body">
3079         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
3080 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
3081 multi-threaded program, finally
3082 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
3083 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
3084 months since
3085 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
3086 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
3087 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
3088 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
3089 JavaScript libraries.</p>
3090
3091 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
3092
3093 <p><blockquote>
3094 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
3095 </blockquote></p>
3096
3097 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
3098 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
3099 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
3100 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
3101 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
3102
3103 <p><blockquote>
3104 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
3105 </blockquote></p>
3106
3107 <p>See the project home page and the
3108 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
3109 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
3110 working.</p>
3111
3112       </div>
3113       <div class="tags">
3114
3115
3116         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3117
3118
3119       </div>
3120     </div>
3121     <div class="padding"></div>
3122
3123     <div class="entry">
3124       <div class="title">
3125         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
3126       </div>
3127       <div class="date">
3128          4th November 2016
3129       </div>
3130       <div class="body">
3131         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
3132 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
3133 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
3134 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
3135 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
3136 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
3137 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
3138 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
3139 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
3140 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
3141 and had
3142 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
3143 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
3144 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
3145 loved ones. :)</p>
3146
3147 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
3148 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
3149 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
3150 building
3151 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
3152 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
3153 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
3154 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
3155 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
3156 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
3157 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
3158 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
3159
3160 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
3161
3162 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
3163 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
3164 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
3165 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
3166 the battery status run low:</p>
3167
3168 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
3169    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
3170 </video></p>
3171
3172 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
3173 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
3174
3175 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
3176 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
3177 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
3178 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
3179 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
3180 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
3181 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
3182 should.</p>
3183
3184       </div>
3185       <div class="tags">
3186
3187
3188         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3189
3190
3191       </div>
3192     </div>
3193     <div class="padding"></div>
3194
3195     <div class="entry">
3196       <div class="title">
3197         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
3198       </div>
3199       <div class="date">
3200         10th October 2016
3201       </div>
3202       <div class="body">
3203         <p>In July
3204 <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">I
3205 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
3206 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
3207 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
3208
3209 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
3210 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
3211 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
3212 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
3213 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
3214 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
3215 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
3216 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
3217 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
3218 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
3219 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
3220 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
3221 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
3222 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
3223 time.</p>
3224
3225 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
3226 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
3227 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
3228 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
3229 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
3230 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
3231 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
3232
3233 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
3234 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
3235 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
3236 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
3237 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
3238 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
3239 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
3240 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
3241 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
3242 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
3243
3244 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
3245
3246 <ol>
3247
3248 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
3249 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
3250 know, so you need to install it.
3251
3252 <pre>
3253 apt install git tor chromium
3254 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
3255 </pre></li>
3256
3257 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
3258 block below.</li>
3259
3260 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
3261 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
3262
3263 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
3264 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
3265 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
3266 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
3267 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
3268
3269 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
3270 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
3271 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
3272 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
3273 a associated contact database.</li>
3274
3275 </ol>
3276
3277 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
3278 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
3279 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
3280 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
3281 example
3282 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
3283 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
3284 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
3285 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
3286 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
3287 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
3288 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
3289 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
3290 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
3291 working on Debian Stable.</p>
3292
3293 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
3294 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
3295 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
3296
3297 <pre>
3298 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
3299 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
3300 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
3301 --- a/js/background.js
3302 +++ b/js/background.js
3303 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
3304          });
3305      });
3306
3307 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
3308 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
3309      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
3310 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
3311 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
3312      var messageReceiver;
3313      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
3314          if (messageReceiver) {
3315 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
3316 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
3317 --- a/js/expire.js
3318 +++ b/js/expire.js
3319 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
3320  ;(function() {
3321      'use strict';
3322 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
3323 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
3324
3325      window.extension = window.extension || {};
3326
3327 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
3328 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
3329 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
3330 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
3331 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
3332              return {
3333                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
3334                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
3335 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
3336 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
3337 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
3338              };
3339          },
3340          clearQR: function() {
3341 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
3342 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
3343 --- a/options.html
3344 +++ b/options.html
3345 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
3346          &lt;div class='nav'>
3347            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
3348            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
3349 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
3350 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
3351 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
3352 +
3353 +         &lt;/div>
3354            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
3355            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
3356            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
3357 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
3358 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
3359 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
3360 +#!/bin/sh
3361 +set -e
3362 +cd $(dirname $0)
3363 +mkdir -p userdata
3364 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
3365 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
3366 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
3367 +fi
3368 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
3369 +exec chromium \
3370 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
3371 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
3372 EOF
3373 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
3374 </pre>
3375
3376 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3377 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3378 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3379
3380       </div>
3381       <div class="tags">
3382
3383
3384         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3385
3386
3387       </div>
3388     </div>
3389     <div class="padding"></div>
3390
3391     <div class="entry">
3392       <div class="title">
3393         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
3394       </div>
3395       <div class="date">
3396          7th October 2016
3397       </div>
3398       <div class="body">
3399         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
3400 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
3401 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
3402 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
3403 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
3404 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
3405 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
3406 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
3407 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
3408 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
3409 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
3410 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
3411 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
3412
3413 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
3414 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
3415 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
3416 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
3417 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
3418 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
3419
3420 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
3421 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
3422 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
3423 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
3424 identifiers.</p>
3425
3426 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
3427 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
3428 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
3429 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
3430 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
3431 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
3432 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
3433 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
3434 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
3435 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
3436 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
3437 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
3438 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
3439 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
3440
3441 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
3442 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
3443 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
3444 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
3445 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
3446 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
3447 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
3448
3449 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
3450 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
3451 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
3452 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
3453 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
3454 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
3455 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
3456 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
3457 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
3458 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
3459 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
3460 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
3461 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
3462 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
3463 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
3464 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
3465 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
3466
3467 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
3468 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
3469 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
3470 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
3471 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
3472 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
3473 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
3474
3475 <p><pre>
3476 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
3477     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
3478 </pre></p>
3479
3480 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
3481 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
3482 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
3483 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
3484 to detect this?</p>
3485
3486 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
3487 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
3488 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
3489 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
3490 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
3491 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
3492 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
3493 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
3494 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
3495 directly if no such class exist.</p>
3496
3497 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
3498 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
3499 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
3500
3501 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
3502 please join us on our IRC channel
3503 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
3504 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
3505 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
3506 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
3507
3508 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3509 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3510 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3511
3512       </div>
3513       <div class="tags">
3514
3515
3516         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>.
3517
3518
3519       </div>
3520     </div>
3521     <div class="padding"></div>
3522
3523     <div class="entry">
3524       <div class="title">
3525         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
3526       </div>
3527       <div class="date">
3528         30th August 2016
3529       </div>
3530       <div class="body">
3531         <p>In April we
3532 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
3533 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
3534 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
3535 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
3536 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
3537 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
3538 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
3539 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
3540 contributing using
3541 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
3542 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
3543 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
3544 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
3545 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
3546 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
3547 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
3548
3549 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
3550 electronic form.</p>
3551
3552       </div>
3553       <div class="tags">
3554
3555
3556         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3557
3558
3559       </div>
3560     </div>
3561     <div class="padding"></div>
3562
3563     <div class="entry">
3564       <div class="title">
3565         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
3566       </div>
3567       <div class="date">
3568         11th August 2016
3569       </div>
3570       <div class="body">
3571         <p>This summer, I read a great article
3572 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
3573 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
3574 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
3575 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
3576 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
3577 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
3578 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
3579 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
3580 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
3581 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
3582 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
3583 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
3584
3585 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
3586 get the system into Debian.  I
3587 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
3588 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
3589 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
3590 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
3591 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
3592 profiling information included in the source package.
3593 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
3594
3595 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
3596 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
3597
3598 <p><blockquote><pre>
3599 coz run --- program-to-run
3600 </pre></blockquote></p>
3601
3602 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
3603 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
3604 most, use a web browser and either point it to
3605 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
3606 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
3607 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
3608 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
3609 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
3610 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
3611 targeted experiments.</p>
3612
3613 <p>A video published by ACM
3614 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
3615 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
3616 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
3617 titled
3618 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
3619 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
3620
3621 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
3622 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
3623 because it uses a
3624 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
3625 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
3626 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
3627 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
3628
3629 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
3630 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
3631 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
3632 C++ libraries.</p>
3633
3634       </div>
3635       <div class="tags">
3636
3637
3638         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3639
3640
3641       </div>
3642     </div>
3643     <div class="padding"></div>
3644
3645     <div class="entry">
3646       <div class="title">
3647         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
3648       </div>
3649       <div class="date">
3650          7th July 2016
3651       </div>
3652       <div class="body">
3653         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
3654 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
3655 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
3656 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
3657 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
3658 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
3659 microphone The initial idea had been to just
3660 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
3661 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
3662 until a few days ago.</p>
3663
3664 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
3665 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
3666 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
3667 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
3668 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
3669 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
3670 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
3671
3672 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
3673 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
3674 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
3675 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
3676 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
3677 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
3678 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
3679 him.</p>
3680
3681 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
3682 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
3683 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
3684 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
3685 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
3686 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
3687 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
3688 devices it would work for.</p>
3689
3690 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
3691 followed some instructions
3692 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
3693 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
3694 machine with Debian testing:</p>
3695
3696 <p><pre>
3697 adb reboot-bootloader
3698 fastboot oem rebootRUU
3699 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
3700 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
3701 fastboot reboot
3702 </pre></p>
3703
3704 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
3705 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
3706 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
3707 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
3708 too.</p>
3709
3710 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
3711 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
3712 like this:</p>
3713
3714 <p><pre>
3715 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
3716 </pre>
3717
3718 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
3719 this:</p>
3720
3721 <p><pre>
3722 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
3723 </pre></p>
3724
3725 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
3726 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
3727 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
3728 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
3729 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
3730
3731       </div>
3732       <div class="tags">
3733
3734
3735         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3736
3737
3738       </div>
3739     </div>
3740     <div class="padding"></div>
3741
3742     <div class="entry">
3743       <div class="title">
3744         <a href="https://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>
3745       </div>
3746       <div class="date">
3747          3rd July 2016
3748       </div>
3749       <div class="body">
3750         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
3751 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
3752 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
3753 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
3754 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
3755 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
3756 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
3757 Github source, compared it to the source in
3758 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
3759 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
3760 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
3761 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
3762 the recipe how I did it.</p>
3763
3764 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
3765
3766 <pre>
3767 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
3768 </pre>
3769
3770 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
3771 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
3772
3773 <pre>
3774 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
3775 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
3776 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
3777 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
3778 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
3779          });
3780      });
3781
3782 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
3783 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
3784 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
3785 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
3786      var messageReceiver;
3787      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
3788          if (messageReceiver) {
3789 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
3790 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
3791 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
3792 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
3793  ;(function() {
3794      'use strict';
3795 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
3796 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
3797
3798      window.extension = window.extension || {};
3799
3800 EOF
3801 </pre>
3802
3803 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
3804 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
3805 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
3806 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
3807
3808 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
3809 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
3810
3811 <pre>
3812 #!/bin/sh
3813 cd $(dirname $0)
3814 mkdir -p userdata
3815 exec chromium \
3816   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
3817   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
3818 </pre>
3819
3820 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
3821 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
3822 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
3823 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
3824 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
3825
3826 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
3827 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
3828 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
3829 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
3830 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
3831 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
3832 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
3833 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
3834 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
3835 Signal from my laptop.
3836
3837 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
3838 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
3839 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
3840 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
3841 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
3842 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
3843 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
3844 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
3845 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
3846 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
3847 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
3848 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
3849
3850 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
3851 on this topic in
3852 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
3853 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
3854 phone</a>.</p>
3855
3856       </div>
3857       <div class="tags">
3858
3859
3860         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3861
3862
3863       </div>
3864     </div>
3865     <div class="padding"></div>
3866
3867     <div class="entry">
3868       <div class="title">
3869         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
3870       </div>
3871       <div class="date">
3872          6th June 2016
3873       </div>
3874       <div class="body">
3875         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
3876 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
3877 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
3878 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
3879 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
3880 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
3881 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
3882 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
3883 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
3884
3885 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
3886 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
3887 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
3888 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
3889 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
3890 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
3891 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
3892
3893 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
3894 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
3895 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
3896 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
3897 toten and parole.</p>
3898
3899 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
3900 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
3901 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
3902 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
3903 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
3904 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
3905 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
3906 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
3907 formats.</p>
3908
3909       </div>
3910       <div class="tags">
3911
3912
3913         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3914
3915
3916       </div>
3917     </div>
3918     <div class="padding"></div>
3919
3920     <div class="entry">
3921       <div class="title">
3922         <a href="https://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>
3923       </div>
3924       <div class="date">
3925          5th June 2016
3926       </div>
3927       <div class="body">
3928         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
3929 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
3930 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
3931 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
3932 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
3933 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
3934 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
3935 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
3936 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
3937 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
3938 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
3939 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
3940 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
3941 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
3942 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
3943 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
3944 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
3945 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
3946 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
3947 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
3948
3949 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
3950 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
3951 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
3952 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
3953 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
3954 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
3955 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
3956 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
3957 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
3958 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
3959 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
3960 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
3961 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
3962 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
3963
3964 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
3965 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
3966 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
3967 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
3968 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
3969 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
3970 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
3971 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
3972
3973 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
3974 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
3975 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
3976 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
3977 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
3978 information is collected from
3979 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
3980 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
3981 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
3982 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
3983 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
3984 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
3985 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
3986 type (preferably
3987 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
3988 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
3989 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
3990 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
3991
3992 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
3993 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
3994 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
3995
3996 <p><blockquote><pre>
3997 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
3998 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
3999   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
4000     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
4001     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
4002     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
4003   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
4004 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
4005 </pre></blockquote></p>
4006
4007 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
4008 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
4009 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
4010 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
4011
4012 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
4013 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
4014 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
4015
4016 <p><blockquote><pre>
4017 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
4018 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
4019 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
4020 %
4021 </pre></blockquote></p>
4022
4023 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
4024 MimeType= line.</p>
4025
4026 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
4027 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
4028 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
4029 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
4030 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
4031 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
4032 fixed. :)</p>
4033
4034       </div>
4035       <div class="tags">
4036
4037
4038         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4039
4040
4041       </div>
4042     </div>
4043     <div class="padding"></div>
4044
4045     <div class="entry">
4046       <div class="title">
4047         <a href="https://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>
4048       </div>
4049       <div class="date">
4050         25th May 2016
4051       </div>
4052       <div class="body">
4053         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
4054 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
4055 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
4056 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
4057 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
4058 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
4059 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
4060 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
4061 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
4062 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
4063 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
4064 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
4065
4066 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
4067 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
4068 is going away and is generally being replaced by
4069 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
4070 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
4071 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
4072 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
4073 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
4074 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
4075 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
4076 and see if it is recognised.</p>
4077
4078 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
4079 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
4080 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
4081
4082 <p><blockquote><pre>
4083 % isenkram-lookup
4084 bluez
4085 cheese
4086 fprintd
4087 fprintd-demo
4088 gkrellm-thinkbat
4089 hdapsd
4090 libpam-fprintd
4091 pidgin-blinklight
4092 thinkfan
4093 tleds
4094 tp-smapi-dkms
4095 tp-smapi-source
4096 tpb
4097 %p
4098 </pre></blockquote></p>
4099
4100 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
4101 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
4102 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
4103 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
4104 See
4105 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
4106 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
4107
4108       </div>
4109       <div class="tags">
4110
4111
4112         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4113
4114
4115       </div>
4116     </div>
4117     <div class="padding"></div>
4118
4119     <div class="entry">
4120       <div class="title">
4121         <a href="https://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>
4122       </div>
4123       <div class="date">
4124         23rd May 2016
4125       </div>
4126       <div class="body">
4127         <p>Yesterday I updated the
4128 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
4129 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
4130 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
4131 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
4132 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
4133 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
4134 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
4135 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
4136 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
4137 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
4138
4139 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
4140 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
4141 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
4142 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
4143 capacity.</p>
4144
4145 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
4146
4147 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
4148 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
4149 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
4150 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
4151
4152 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
4153
4154 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
4155 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
4156 shrinking. :(</p>
4157
4158 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
4159 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
4160 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
4161 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
4162 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
4163 machine.</p>
4164
4165 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
4166 check out the
4167 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
4168 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
4169 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
4170 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
4171 Patches are very welcome.</p>
4172
4173 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4174 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4175 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4176
4177       </div>
4178       <div class="tags">
4179
4180
4181         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4182
4183
4184       </div>
4185     </div>
4186     <div class="padding"></div>
4187
4188     <div class="entry">
4189       <div class="title">
4190         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
4191       </div>
4192       <div class="date">
4193         12th May 2016
4194       </div>
4195       <div class="body">
4196         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
4197 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
4198 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
4199 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
4200 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
4201 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4202 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
4203 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
4204 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
4205 great if you could help out with
4206 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
4207 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
4208
4209       </div>
4210       <div class="tags">
4211
4212
4213         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4214
4215
4216       </div>
4217     </div>
4218     <div class="padding"></div>
4219
4220     <div class="entry">
4221       <div class="title">
4222         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
4223       </div>
4224       <div class="date">
4225          8th May 2016
4226       </div>
4227       <div class="body">
4228         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
4229 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
4230
4231 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
4232 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
4233 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
4234 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
4235 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
4236 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
4237 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
4238 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
4239 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
4240 players.</p>
4241
4242 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
4243 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
4244 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
4245 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
4246 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
4247 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
4248 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
4249 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
4250 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
4251 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
4252 support most file formats.</p>
4253
4254 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
4255 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
4256 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
4257 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
4258 listed first in the table.</p>
4259
4260 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
4261 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
4262 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
4263 support?</p>
4264
4265       </div>
4266       <div class="tags">
4267
4268
4269         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
4270
4271
4272       </div>
4273     </div>
4274     <div class="padding"></div>
4275
4276     <div class="entry">
4277       <div class="title">
4278         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
4279       </div>
4280       <div class="date">
4281          4th May 2016
4282       </div>
4283       <div class="body">
4284         A friend of mine made me aware of
4285 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
4286 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
4287 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
4288
4289 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
4290 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
4291 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
4292 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
4293 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
4294 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
4295 production started.</p>
4296
4297 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
4298 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
4299 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
4300
4301       </div>
4302       <div class="tags">
4303
4304
4305         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4306
4307
4308       </div>
4309     </div>
4310     <div class="padding"></div>
4311
4312     <div class="entry">
4313       <div class="title">
4314         <a href="https://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>
4315       </div>
4316       <div class="date">
4317         10th April 2016
4318       </div>
4319       <div class="body">
4320         <p>During this weekends
4321 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
4322 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
4323 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
4324 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
4325 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
4326 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
4327 contributing using
4328 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
4329 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
4330 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
4331 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
4332 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
4333 contributors</a>.</p>
4334
4335 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
4336 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
4337 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
4338 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
4339 available for many more languages.</p>
4340
4341       </div>
4342       <div class="tags">
4343
4344
4345         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4346
4347
4348       </div>
4349     </div>
4350     <div class="padding"></div>
4351
4352     <div class="entry">
4353       <div class="title">
4354         <a href="https://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>
4355       </div>
4356       <div class="date">
4357          7th April 2016
4358       </div>
4359       <div class="body">
4360         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
4361 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
4362 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
4363 But I might be wrong.</p>
4364
4365 <p>According to
4366 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
4367 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
4368 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
4369 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
4370 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
4371 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
4372 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
4373 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
4374 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
4375 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
4376
4377 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
4378 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
4379 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
4380 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
4381 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
4382 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
4383 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
4384 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
4385 team status page</a>, and
4386 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
4387 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
4388
4389 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
4390 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
4391 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
4392 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
4393 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
4394 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
4395 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
4396 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
4397 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
4398 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
4399 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
4400 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
4401
4402       </div>
4403       <div class="tags">
4404
4405
4406         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4407
4408
4409       </div>
4410     </div>
4411     <div class="padding"></div>
4412
4413     <div class="entry">
4414       <div class="title">
4415         <a href="https://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>
4416       </div>
4417       <div class="date">
4418         23rd March 2016
4419       </div>
4420       <div class="body">
4421         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
4422 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
4423 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
4424 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
4425 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
4426 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
4427 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
4428 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
4429
4430 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
4431 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
4432 and lifetime prediction by running:
4433
4434 <p><pre>
4435 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
4436 </pre></p>
4437
4438 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
4439
4440 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
4441 entry yet):</p>
4442
4443 <p><pre>
4444 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
4445 </pre></p>
4446
4447 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
4448 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
4449 few years of data.</p>
4450
4451 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
4452 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
4453 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
4454 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
4455 know.  The issue is reported as
4456 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
4457 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
4458 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
4459 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
4460 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
4461
4462 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
4463 check out the
4464 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
4465 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
4466 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
4467 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
4468 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
4469
4470       </div>
4471       <div class="tags">
4472
4473
4474         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4475
4476
4477       </div>
4478     </div>
4479     <div class="padding"></div>
4480
4481     <div class="entry">
4482       <div class="title">
4483         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
4484       </div>
4485       <div class="date">
4486         15th March 2016
4487       </div>
4488       <div class="body">
4489         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
4490 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
4491 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
4492 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
4493 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
4494 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
4495 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
4496 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
4497 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
4498 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
4499 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
4500
4501 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
4502 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
4503 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
4504 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
4505 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
4506 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
4507 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
4508 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
4509 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
4510 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
4511 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
4512
4513 <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>
4514
4515 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
4516 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
4517 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
4518 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
4519 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
4520 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
4521
4522 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
4523 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
4524 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
4525 and graphing.</p>
4526
4527 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
4528 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
4529 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
4530 on
4531 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
4532 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
4533
4534       </div>
4535       <div class="tags">
4536
4537
4538         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4539
4540
4541       </div>
4542     </div>
4543     <div class="padding"></div>
4544
4545     <div class="entry">
4546       <div class="title">
4547         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
4548       </div>
4549       <div class="date">
4550         19th February 2016
4551       </div>
4552       <div class="body">
4553         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
4554 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
4555 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
4556 the code in the package in question, preferably in
4557 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
4558 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
4559
4560 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
4561 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
4562 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
4563 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
4564 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
4565 out what was wrong with
4566 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
4567 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
4568 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
4569 semi-automatically.</p>
4570
4571 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
4572 file based on the code in the source package,
4573 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
4574 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
4575 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
4576 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
4577 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
4578 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
4579 option in
4580 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
4581 blog posts from 2014</a>.
4582
4583 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
4584
4585 <p><pre>
4586 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
4587 </pre></p>
4588
4589 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
4590 this might not be the best option.</p>
4591
4592 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
4593 this approach in
4594 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
4595 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
4596 dpkg-copyright' option:
4597
4598 <p><pre>
4599 cme update dpkg-copyright
4600 </pre></p>
4601
4602 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
4603 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
4604
4605 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
4606 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
4607 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
4608 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
4609 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
4610 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
4611 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
4612 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
4613 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
4614 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
4615
4616 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
4617 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
4618 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
4619 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
4620
4621 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
4622 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
4623 planet.debian.org.</p>
4624
4625 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4626 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4627 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4628
4629 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
4630 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
4631
4632 <p><pre>
4633 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
4634   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
4635 </pre></p>
4636
4637 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
4638 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
4639 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
4640 with my packages in the future.</p>
4641
4642 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
4643 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
4644 command line.</p>
4645
4646       </div>
4647       <div class="tags">
4648
4649
4650         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4651
4652
4653       </div>
4654     </div>
4655     <div class="padding"></div>
4656
4657     <div class="entry">
4658       <div class="title">
4659         <a href="https://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>
4660       </div>
4661       <div class="date">
4662          4th February 2016
4663       </div>
4664       <div class="body">
4665         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
4666 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
4667 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
4668 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
4669 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
4670 about. :)</p>
4671
4672 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
4673 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
4674 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
4675 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
4676 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
4677 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
4678
4679 <blockquote><pre>
4680 % apt install appstream
4681 [...]
4682 % apt update
4683 [...]
4684 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
4685   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
4686 firmware-qlogic
4687 %
4688 </pre></blockquote>
4689
4690 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
4691 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
4692 a way appstream can use.</p>
4693
4694 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
4695 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
4696 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
4697 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
4698 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
4699 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
4700
4701 <blockquote><pre>
4702 % apt install appstream
4703 [...]
4704 % apt update
4705 [...]
4706 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
4707   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
4708 bkchem
4709 phototonic
4710 inkscape
4711 shutter
4712 tetzle
4713 geeqie
4714 xia
4715 pinta
4716 gthumb
4717 karbon
4718 comix
4719 mirage
4720 viewnior
4721 postr
4722 ristretto
4723 kolourpaint4
4724 eog
4725 eom
4726 gimagereader
4727 midori
4728 %
4729 </pre></blockquote>
4730
4731 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
4732 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
4733
4734       </div>
4735       <div class="tags">
4736
4737
4738         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4739
4740
4741       </div>
4742     </div>
4743     <div class="padding"></div>
4744
4745     <div class="entry">
4746       <div class="title">
4747         <a href="https://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>
4748       </div>
4749       <div class="date">
4750         24th January 2016
4751       </div>
4752       <div class="body">
4753         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
4754 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
4755 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
4756 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
4757 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
4758 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
4759 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
4760 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
4761 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
4762 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
4763 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
4764 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
4765 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
4766 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
4767 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
4768 entities.</p>
4769
4770 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
4771
4772 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
4773 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
4774 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
4775 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
4776 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
4777 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
4778 tool to do so is called
4779 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
4780 discovered it when I read
4781 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
4782 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
4783 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
4784 The python program was in Debian, but
4785 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
4786 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
4787 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
4788 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
4789 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
4790 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
4791 are now included
4792 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
4793
4794 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
4795 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
4796 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
4797 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
4798 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
4799 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
4800 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
4801 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
4802 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
4803 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
4804 about yourself with the services.</p>
4805
4806 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
4807 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
4808 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
4809 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
4810 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
4811 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
4812 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
4813 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
4814 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
4815 things.  A similar technique have been
4816 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
4817 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
4818 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
4819 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
4820 public.</p>
4821
4822 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
4823 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
4824 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
4825 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
4826
4827 <p>(I have uploaded
4828 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
4829 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
4830 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
4831
4832       </div>
4833       <div class="tags">
4834
4835
4836         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4837
4838
4839       </div>
4840     </div>
4841     <div class="padding"></div>
4842
4843     <div class="entry">
4844       <div class="title">
4845         <a href="https://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>
4846       </div>
4847       <div class="date">
4848         15th January 2016
4849       </div>
4850       <div class="body">
4851         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
4852 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
4853 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
4854 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
4855 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
4856 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
4857 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
4858 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
4859 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
4860 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
4861 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
4862 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
4863 was not the first to propose this, as the
4864 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
4865 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
4866 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
4867 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
4868
4869 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
4870 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
4871 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
4872 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
4873 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
4874
4875 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
4876 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
4877 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
4878 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
4879 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
4880 done in /etc/.</p>
4881
4882 <blockquote><pre>
4883 apt install apt-transport-tor
4884 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
4885 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
4886 </pre></blockquote>
4887
4888 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
4889 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
4890 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
4891 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
4892
4893 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
4894 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
4895 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
4896 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
4897 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
4898 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
4899
4900 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
4901 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
4902 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
4903 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
4904 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
4905
4906 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
4907 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
4908 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
4909 system.</p>
4910
4911       </div>
4912       <div class="tags">
4913
4914
4915         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4916
4917
4918       </div>
4919     </div>
4920     <div class="padding"></div>
4921
4922     <div class="entry">
4923       <div class="title">
4924         <a href="https://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>
4925       </div>
4926       <div class="date">
4927         23rd December 2015
4928       </div>
4929       <div class="body">
4930         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
4931 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
4932 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
4933 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
4934 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
4935 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
4936
4937 <p>A few days I came across
4938 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
4939 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
4940 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
4941 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
4942 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
4943 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
4944 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
4945 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
4946 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
4947 discovered the developer
4948 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
4949 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
4950 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
4951 archive.</p>
4952
4953 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
4954 it into Debian, where it currently
4955 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
4956 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
4957
4958 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
4959 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
4960 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
4961 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
4962 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
4963 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
4964 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
4965 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
4966 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
4967 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
4968 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
4969 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
4970
4971 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
4972 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
4973 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
4974 package show up in unstable.</p>
4975
4976       </div>
4977       <div class="tags">
4978
4979
4980         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4981
4982
4983       </div>
4984     </div>
4985     <div class="padding"></div>
4986
4987     <div class="entry">
4988       <div class="title">
4989         <a href="https://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>
4990       </div>
4991       <div class="date">
4992         20th December 2015
4993       </div>
4994       <div class="body">
4995         <p>Around three years ago, I created
4996 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
4997 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
4998 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
4999 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
5000 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
5001 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
5002 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
5003 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
5004 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
5005 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
5006 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
5007 with.</p>
5008
5009 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
5010 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
5011 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
5012 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
5013 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
5014 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
5015 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
5016 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
5017 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
5018 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
5019 Debian version of appstream.</p>
5020
5021 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
5022 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
5023 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
5024 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
5025 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
5026 how do add the required
5027 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
5028 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
5029 this content:</p>
5030
5031 <blockquote><pre>
5032 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
5033 &lt;component&gt;
5034   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
5035   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
5036   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
5037   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
5038   &lt;description&gt;
5039     &lt;p&gt;
5040       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
5041       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
5042       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
5043       launcher.
5044     &lt;/p&gt;
5045   &lt;/description&gt;
5046   &lt;provides&gt;
5047     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
5048   &lt;/provides&gt;
5049 &lt;/component&gt;
5050 </pre></blockquote>
5051
5052 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
5053 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
5054 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
5055 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
5056 0202.</p>
5057
5058 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
5059 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
5060 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
5061 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
5062 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
5063 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
5064 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
5065 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
5066
5067 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
5068 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
5069 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
5070 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
5071 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
5072
5073 <blockquote><pre>
5074 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
5075 </pre></blockquote>
5076
5077 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
5078 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
5079 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
5080 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
5081 question.</p>
5082
5083 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
5084 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
5085
5086 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
5087 try running this command on the command line:</p>
5088
5089 <blockquote><pre>
5090 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
5091 </pre></blockquote>
5092
5093 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
5094 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
5095 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
5096
5097       </div>
5098       <div class="tags">
5099
5100
5101         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
5102
5103
5104       </div>
5105     </div>
5106     <div class="padding"></div>
5107
5108     <div class="entry">
5109       <div class="title">
5110         <a href="https://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>
5111       </div>
5112       <div class="date">
5113         30th November 2015
5114       </div>
5115       <div class="body">
5116         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
5117 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
5118 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
5119 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
5120 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
5121
5122 <blockquote>
5123
5124 <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>
5125
5126 <blockquote>
5127 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
5128
5129 The first step is to choose a
5130 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
5131 code.<br/>
5132
5133 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
5134 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
5135
5136 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
5137 work<br/>
5138
5139 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
5140 </blockquote>
5141
5142 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
5143 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
5144 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
5145 0x57</a></small></p>
5146
5147 <p>As the Debian Website
5148 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
5149 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
5150 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
5151 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
5152 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
5153 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
5154 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
5155 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
5156 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
5157 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
5158 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
5159 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
5160 Freedom">FaiF</a>
5161 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
5162 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
5163 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
5164 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
5165 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
5166 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
5167 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
5168 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
5169 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
5170 In March the SFC supported a
5171 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
5172 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
5173 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
5174 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
5175 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
5176 conferences
5177 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
5178 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
5179 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
5180 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
5181 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
5182 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
5183 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
5184 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
5185 Software.</p>
5186
5187 <p>If you support Free Software,
5188 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
5189 what the SFC do, agree with their
5190 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
5191 principles</a>, are happy about their
5192 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
5193 work on a project that is an SFC
5194 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
5195 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
5196 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
5197 Allan Webber</a>,
5198 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
5199 Smith</a>,
5200 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
5201 Bacon</a>, myself and
5202 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
5203 becoming a
5204 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
5205 next week your donation will be
5206 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
5207 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
5208 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
5209 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
5210 social media accounts.</p>
5211
5212 </blockquote>
5213
5214 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
5215 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
5216 supporter too?</p>
5217
5218       </div>
5219       <div class="tags">
5220
5221
5222         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
5223
5224
5225       </div>
5226     </div>
5227     <div class="padding"></div>
5228
5229     <div class="entry">
5230       <div class="title">
5231         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
5232       </div>
5233       <div class="date">
5234         17th November 2015
5235       </div>
5236       <div class="body">
5237         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
5238 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
5239 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
5240 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
5241 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
5242 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
5243 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
5244 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
5245 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
5246 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
5247
5248 <pre>
5249 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
5250       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
5251 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
5252 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
5253 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5254 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5255 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
5256 </pre>
5257
5258 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
5259 my old key.</p>
5260
5261 <p>If you signed my old key
5262 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
5263 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
5264 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
5265 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
5266
5267       </div>
5268       <div class="tags">
5269
5270
5271         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5272
5273
5274       </div>
5275     </div>
5276     <div class="padding"></div>
5277
5278     <div class="entry">
5279       <div class="title">
5280         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
5281       </div>
5282       <div class="date">
5283         24th September 2015
5284       </div>
5285       <div class="body">
5286         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
5287 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
5288 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
5289 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
5290 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
5291 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
5292 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
5293
5294 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
5295
5296 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
5297 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
5298 by someone else.  I found
5299 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
5300 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
5301 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
5302 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
5303 from him.  Via
5304 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
5305 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
5306 discovered
5307 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
5308 available in Debian.</p>
5309
5310 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
5311 battery stats ever since. Now my
5312 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
5313 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
5314 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
5315 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
5316
5317 <pre>
5318 #!/bin/sh
5319 # Inspired by
5320 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
5321 # See also
5322 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
5323 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
5324
5325 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
5326     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
5327
5328 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
5329     (
5330         printf "timestamp,"
5331         for f in $files; do
5332             printf "%s," $f
5333         done
5334         echo
5335     ) > "$logfile"
5336 fi
5337
5338 log_battery() {
5339     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
5340     # when several log processes run in parallel.
5341     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
5342         for f in $files; do \
5343             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
5344         done)
5345     echo "$msg"
5346 }
5347
5348 cd /sys/class/power_supply
5349
5350 for bat in BAT*; do
5351     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
5352 done
5353 </pre>
5354
5355 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
5356 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
5357 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
5358 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
5359 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
5360 The code for the Debian package
5361 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
5362 available on github</a>.</p>
5363
5364 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
5365
5366 <pre>
5367 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
5368 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
5369 [...]
5370 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
5371 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
5372 </pre>
5373
5374 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
5375 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
5376 battery.</p>
5377
5378 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
5379 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
5380 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
5381 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
5382 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
5383 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
5384 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
5385 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
5386 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
5387 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
5388 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
5389 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
5390 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
5391 Linux too.</p>
5392
5393 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
5394 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
5395 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
5396 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
5397 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
5398 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
5399 load).</p>
5400
5401 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
5402 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
5403 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
5404 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
5405 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
5406 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
5407 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
5408 those.</p>
5409
5410 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
5411 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
5412 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
5413 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
5414 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
5415 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
5416 specific.</p>
5417
5418       </div>
5419       <div class="tags">
5420
5421
5422         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5423
5424
5425       </div>
5426     </div>
5427     <div class="padding"></div>
5428
5429     <div class="entry">
5430       <div class="title">
5431         <a href="https://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>
5432       </div>
5433       <div class="date">
5434          5th July 2015
5435       </div>
5436       <div class="body">
5437         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
5438 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
5439 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
5440 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
5441 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
5442 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
5443 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
5444 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
5445 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
5446 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
5447 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
5448
5449 <p>One tip I got was to use the
5450 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
5451 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
5452 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
5453 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
5454 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
5455 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
5456
5457 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
5458 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
5459 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
5460 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
5461 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
5462 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
5463 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
5464 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
5465 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
5466 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
5467 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
5468 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
5469 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
5470 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
5471 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
5472
5473 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
5474 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
5475 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
5476 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
5477
5478 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
5479 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
5480
5481 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
5482 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
5483 different
5484 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
5485 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
5486
5487       </div>
5488       <div class="tags">
5489
5490
5491         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5492
5493
5494       </div>
5495     </div>
5496     <div class="padding"></div>
5497
5498     <div class="entry">
5499       <div class="title">
5500         <a href="https://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>
5501       </div>
5502       <div class="date">
5503          3rd July 2015
5504       </div>
5505       <div class="body">
5506         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
5507 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
5508 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
5509 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
5510 flickering.</p>
5511
5512 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
5513 still as
5514 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
5515 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
5516 good help from
5517 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
5518 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
5519 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
5520 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
5521 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
5522 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
5523 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
5524 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
5525 deteriorated since X41.</p>
5526
5527 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
5528 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
5529 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
5530 have suggestions.</p>
5531
5532 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
5533 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
5534 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
5535
5536       </div>
5537       <div class="tags">
5538
5539
5540         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5541
5542
5543       </div>
5544     </div>
5545     <div class="padding"></div>
5546
5547     <div class="entry">
5548       <div class="title">
5549         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
5550       </div>
5551       <div class="date">
5552         22nd November 2014
5553       </div>
5554       <div class="body">
5555         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
5556 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
5557 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
5558 courtesy of
5559 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
5560 Schubert</a> and
5561 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
5562 McVittie</a>.
5563
5564 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
5565 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
5566 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
5567 you upgrade:</p>
5568
5569 <p><blockquote><pre>
5570 Package: systemd-sysv
5571 Pin: release o=Debian
5572 Pin-Priority: -1
5573 </pre></blockquote><p>
5574
5575 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
5576 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
5577 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
5578 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
5579 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
5580
5581 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
5582 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
5583 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
5584 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
5585 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
5586 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
5587
5588 <p><blockquote><pre>
5589 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
5590 </pre></blockquote><p>
5591
5592 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
5593
5594 <p><blockquote><pre>
5595 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
5596 </pre></blockquote><p>
5597
5598 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
5599 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
5600
5601 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
5602 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
5603 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
5604 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
5605 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
5606 Jessie is released.</p>
5607
5608 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
5609 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
5610 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
5611 line.</p>
5612
5613       </div>
5614       <div class="tags">
5615
5616
5617         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5618
5619
5620       </div>
5621     </div>
5622     <div class="padding"></div>
5623
5624     <div class="entry">
5625       <div class="title">
5626         <a href="https://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>
5627       </div>
5628       <div class="date">
5629         10th November 2014
5630       </div>
5631       <div class="body">
5632         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
5633 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
5634 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
5635
5636 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
5637 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
5638 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
5639 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
5640 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
5641 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
5642 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
5643 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
5644 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
5645 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
5646 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
5647 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
5648 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
5649 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
5650 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
5651
5652 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
5653 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
5654 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
5655 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
5656 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
5657 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
5658 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
5659 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
5660 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
5661 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
5662 were fairly easy, and
5663 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
5664 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
5665 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
5666 useful approach.</p>
5667
5668 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
5669 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
5670 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
5671 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
5672 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
5673 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
5674 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
5675 this:</p>
5676
5677 <p><blockquote><pre>
5678 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
5679   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
5680 </pre></blockquote></p>
5681
5682 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
5683 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
5684
5685 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
5686 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
5687 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
5688 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
5689 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
5690 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
5691 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
5692 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
5693 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
5694 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
5695 system.</p>
5696
5697 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
5698 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
5699 SMTorP. :)</p>
5700
5701       </div>
5702       <div class="tags">
5703
5704
5705         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5706
5707
5708       </div>
5709     </div>
5710     <div class="padding"></div>
5711
5712     <div class="entry">
5713       <div class="title">
5714         <a href="https://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>
5715       </div>
5716       <div class="date">
5717         22nd October 2014
5718       </div>
5719       <div class="body">
5720         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
5721 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
5722 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
5723 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
5724 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
5725 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
5726 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
5727 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
5728 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
5729 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
5730 lists I recently took over:</p>
5731
5732 <p><blockquote><pre>
5733 % time listadmin xiph
5734 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
5735 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
5736
5737 real    0m1.709s
5738 user    0m0.232s
5739 sys     0m0.012s
5740 %
5741 </pre></blockquote></p>
5742
5743 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
5744 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
5745 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
5746 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
5747 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
5748 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
5749 program.</p>
5750
5751 <p>If you install
5752 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
5753 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
5754 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
5755
5756 <p><blockquote><pre>
5757 username username@example.org
5758 spamlevel 23
5759 default discard
5760 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
5761
5762 password secret
5763 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
5764 mailman-list@lists.example.com
5765
5766 password hidden
5767 other-list@otherserver.example.org
5768 </pre></blockquote></p>
5769
5770 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
5771 learn the details.</p>
5772
5773 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
5774 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
5775 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
5776 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
5777
5778 <p><blockquote><pre>
5779 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
5780 </pre></blockquote></p>
5781
5782 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
5783 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
5784 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
5785 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
5786 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
5787 email.</p>
5788
5789 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
5790 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
5791 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
5792 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
5793 software.</p>
5794
5795 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5796 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5797 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5798
5799 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
5800 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
5801 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
5802 sure why.</p>
5803
5804       </div>
5805       <div class="tags">
5806
5807
5808         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
5809
5810
5811       </div>
5812     </div>
5813     <div class="padding"></div>
5814
5815     <div class="entry">
5816       <div class="title">
5817         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
5818       </div>
5819       <div class="date">
5820         17th October 2014
5821       </div>
5822       <div class="body">
5823         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
5824 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
5825 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
5826 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
5827 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
5828 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
5829 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
5830
5831 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
5832 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
5833 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
5834 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
5835 of this story.)</p>
5836
5837 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
5838 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
5839 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
5840 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
5841 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
5842 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
5843 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
5844 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
5845 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
5846 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
5847
5848 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
5849 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
5850 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
5851 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
5852
5853 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
5854 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
5855
5856 <p><blockquote><pre>
5857 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
5858 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
5859 </pre></blockquote></p>
5860
5861 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
5862 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
5863 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
5864 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
5865 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
5866 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
5867 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
5868 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
5869
5870 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
5871 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
5872
5873 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
5874 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
5875 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
5876 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
5877 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
5878
5879 <p><blockquote><pre>
5880 Task: isenkram-packages
5881 Section: hardware
5882 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
5883  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
5884  proposed.
5885 Test-new-install: show show
5886 Relevance: 8
5887 Packages: for-current-hardware
5888
5889 Task: isenkram-firmware
5890 Section: hardware
5891 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
5892  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
5893  packages are proposed.
5894 Test-new-install: mark show
5895 Relevance: 8
5896 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
5897 </pre></blockquote></p>
5898
5899 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
5900 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
5901 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
5902 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
5903 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
5904
5905 <p><blockquote><pre>
5906 #!/bin/sh
5907 #
5908 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
5909 export PATH
5910 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
5911 </pre></blockquote></p>
5912
5913 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
5914 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
5915
5916 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
5917 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
5918 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
5919 install.</p>
5920
5921 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
5922 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
5923 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
5924
5925       </div>
5926       <div class="tags">
5927
5928
5929         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
5930
5931
5932       </div>
5933     </div>
5934     <div class="padding"></div>
5935
5936     <div class="entry">
5937       <div class="title">
5938         <a href="https://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>
5939       </div>
5940       <div class="date">
5941          4th October 2014
5942       </div>
5943       <div class="body">
5944         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
5945 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
5946 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
5947 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
5948
5949 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
5950
5951 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
5952 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
5953 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
5954
5955       </div>
5956       <div class="tags">
5957
5958
5959         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5960
5961
5962       </div>
5963     </div>
5964     <div class="padding"></div>
5965
5966     <div class="entry">
5967       <div class="title">
5968         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
5969       </div>
5970       <div class="date">
5971          4th October 2014
5972       </div>
5973       <div class="body">
5974         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
5975 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
5976 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
5977 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
5978 Dibb.</p>
5979
5980 <p>I just wrapped up
5981 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
5982 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
5983 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
5984 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
5985 0.17.</p>
5986
5987 <ul>
5988
5989  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
5990  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
5991    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
5992  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
5993  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
5994  <li>Fix include orders</li>
5995  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
5996  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
5997  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
5998    the palette size is the same.</li>
5999  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
6000  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
6001  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
6002  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
6003    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
6004
6005 </ul>
6006
6007 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
6008 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
6009 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
6010
6011       </div>
6012       <div class="tags">
6013
6014
6015         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6016
6017
6018       </div>
6019     </div>
6020     <div class="padding"></div>
6021
6022     <div class="entry">
6023       <div class="title">
6024         <a href="https://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>
6025       </div>
6026       <div class="date">
6027         26th September 2014
6028       </div>
6029       <div class="body">
6030         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6031 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
6032 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
6033 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
6034 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
6035 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
6036 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
6037 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
6038 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
6039 future.  The
6040 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
6041 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
6042 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
6043 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
6044 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
6045
6046 <p>First, download the test ISO via
6047 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
6048 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
6049 or rsync (use
6050 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
6051 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
6052 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
6053 install with some tweaking.</p>
6054
6055 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
6056 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
6057
6058 <p><blockquote><pre>
6059 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
6060 </pre></blockquote></p>
6061
6062 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
6063 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
6064 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
6065 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
6066
6067 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
6068 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
6069 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
6070 your need.</p>
6071
6072 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
6073 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
6074 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
6075 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
6076 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
6077 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
6078 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
6079 days.</p>
6080
6081 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
6082 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
6083 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
6084 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
6085 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
6086 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
6087 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
6088 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
6089 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
6090
6091 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
6092 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
6093 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
6094
6095       </div>
6096       <div class="tags">
6097
6098
6099         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6100
6101
6102       </div>
6103     </div>
6104     <div class="padding"></div>
6105
6106     <div class="entry">
6107       <div class="title">
6108         <a href="https://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>
6109       </div>
6110       <div class="date">
6111         25th September 2014
6112       </div>
6113       <div class="body">
6114         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
6115 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
6116 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
6117 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
6118 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
6119 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
6120 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
6121 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
6122 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
6123 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
6124 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
6125 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
6126 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
6127
6128 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
6129 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
6130 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
6131 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
6132 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
6133 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
6134 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
6135 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
6136 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
6137 list</a>. :)</p>
6138
6139       </div>
6140       <div class="tags">
6141
6142
6143         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
6144
6145
6146       </div>
6147     </div>
6148     <div class="padding"></div>
6149
6150     <div class="entry">
6151       <div class="title">
6152         <a href="https://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>
6153       </div>
6154       <div class="date">
6155         16th September 2014
6156       </div>
6157       <div class="body">
6158         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
6159 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
6160 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
6161 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
6162 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
6163 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
6164 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
6165 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
6166 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
6167 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
6168 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
6169 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
6170 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
6171 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
6172
6173 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
6174 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
6175 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
6176 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
6177 depend on the small and clever package
6178 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
6179 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
6180 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
6181 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
6182 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
6183 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
6184 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
6185 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
6186 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
6187 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
6188 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
6189
6190 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
6191 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
6192 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
6193 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
6194 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
6195 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
6196 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
6197 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
6198 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
6199 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
6200 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
6201 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
6202 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
6203 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
6204 dialog.</p>
6205
6206 <p><table>
6207
6208 <tr>
6209 <th>Machine/setup</th>
6210 <th>Original tasksel</th>
6211 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
6212 <th>Reduction</th>
6213 </tr>
6214
6215 <tr>
6216 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
6217 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
6218 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
6219 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
6220 </tr>
6221
6222 <tr>
6223 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
6224 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
6225 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
6226 <td>23 min 40%</td>
6227 </tr>
6228
6229 <tr>
6230 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
6231 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
6232 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
6233 <td>11 min 50%</td>
6234 </tr>
6235
6236 <tr>
6237 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
6238 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
6239 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
6240 <td>2 min 33%</td>
6241 </tr>
6242
6243 <tr>
6244 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
6245 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
6246 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
6247 <td>4 min 21%</td>
6248 </tr>
6249
6250 </table></p>
6251
6252 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
6253 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
6254 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
6255 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
6256 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
6257 installed.</p>
6258
6259 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
6260 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
6261 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
6262 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
6263 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
6264 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
6265 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
6266 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
6267 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
6268 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
6269 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
6270 for the entire installation.</p>
6271
6272 <p>I've implemented this in the
6273 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
6274 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
6275 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
6276 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
6277 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
6278
6279 <p><blockquote><pre>
6280 #!/bin/sh
6281 set -e
6282 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
6283 info() {
6284     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
6285 }
6286 error() {
6287     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
6288 }
6289 override_install() {
6290     apt-install eatmydata || true
6291     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
6292         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
6293             file=/usr/bin/$bin
6294             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
6295             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
6296                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
6297                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
6298                     > /target$file.edu
6299                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
6300                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
6301                     --rename --quiet --add $file
6302                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
6303             else
6304                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
6305             fi
6306         done
6307     else
6308         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
6309     fi
6310 }
6311
6312 override_install
6313 </pre></blockquote></p>
6314
6315 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
6316 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
6317
6318 <p><blockquote><pre>
6319 #! /bin/sh -e
6320 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
6321 error() {
6322     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
6323 }
6324 remove_install_override() {
6325     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
6326         file=/usr/bin/$bin
6327         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
6328             rm /target$file
6329             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
6330                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
6331             rm /target$file.edu
6332         else
6333             error "Missing divert for $file."
6334         fi
6335     done
6336     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
6337 }
6338
6339 remove_install_override
6340 </pre></blockquote></p>
6341
6342 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
6343 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
6344 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
6345
6346 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
6347 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
6348 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
6349 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
6350 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
6351 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
6352 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
6353 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
6354 everyone.</p>
6355
6356 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
6357 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
6358 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
6359 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
6360
6361 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
6362 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
6363 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
6364 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
6365 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
6366
6367 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
6368 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
6369 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
6370 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
6371 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
6372
6373       </div>
6374       <div class="tags">
6375
6376
6377         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6378
6379
6380       </div>
6381     </div>
6382     <div class="padding"></div>
6383
6384     <div class="entry">
6385       <div class="title">
6386         <a href="https://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>
6387       </div>
6388       <div class="date">
6389         10th September 2014
6390       </div>
6391       <div class="body">
6392         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
6393 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
6394 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
6395 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
6396 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
6397 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
6398 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
6399 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
6400 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
6401 those problems are gone now.</p>
6402
6403 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
6404 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
6405 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
6406 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
6407 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
6408
6409 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
6410 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
6411 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
6412
6413 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
6414 line:</p>
6415
6416 <p><blockquote><pre>
6417 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
6418 </pre></blockquote></p>
6419
6420 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
6421 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
6422 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
6423 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
6424
6425 <p><blockquote><pre>
6426 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
6427 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
6428 %
6429 </pre></blockquote></p>
6430
6431 <p>Now if only
6432 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
6433 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
6434 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
6435 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
6436 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
6437 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
6438 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
6439 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
6440 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
6441
6442       </div>
6443       <div class="tags">
6444
6445
6446         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6447
6448
6449       </div>
6450     </div>
6451     <div class="padding"></div>
6452
6453     <div class="entry">
6454       <div class="title">
6455         <a href="https://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>
6456       </div>
6457       <div class="date">
6458         17th June 2014
6459       </div>
6460       <div class="body">
6461         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6462 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
6463 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
6464 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
6465 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
6466
6467 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
6468 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
6469 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
6470 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
6471 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
6472 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
6473 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
6474 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
6475 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
6476 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
6477 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
6478 goals.</p>
6479
6480 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
6481 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
6482 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
6483 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
6484 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
6485 chapters together into one large web page (aka
6486 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
6487 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
6488 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
6489 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
6490 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
6491 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
6492 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
6493 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
6494 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
6495 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
6496 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
6497 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
6498 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
6499 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
6500 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
6501 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
6502 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
6503 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
6504
6505 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
6506 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
6507 track the English original.  For this we use the
6508 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
6509 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
6510 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
6511 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
6512 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
6513 files), which the translations update with the native language
6514 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
6515 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
6516 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
6517 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
6518 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
6519 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
6520 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
6521 of the documentation.</p>
6522
6523 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
6524 recommend using
6525 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
6526 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
6527 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
6528 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
6529 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
6530 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
6531 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
6532 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
6533
6534 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
6535 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
6536 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
6537 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
6538 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
6539 translated images by storing translated versions in
6540 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
6541 package maintainers know more.</p>
6542
6543 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
6544 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
6545 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
6546 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
6547 PDF version</a> or the
6548 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
6549 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
6550 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
6551
6552 <p>To learn more, check out
6553 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
6554 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
6555 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
6556 manual on the wiki</a> and
6557 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
6558 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
6559
6560       </div>
6561       <div class="tags">
6562
6563
6564         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6565
6566
6567       </div>
6568     </div>
6569     <div class="padding"></div>
6570
6571     <div class="entry">
6572       <div class="title">
6573         <a href="https://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>
6574       </div>
6575       <div class="date">
6576         23rd April 2014
6577       </div>
6578       <div class="body">
6579         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
6580 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
6581 So I implemented one, using
6582 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
6583 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
6584 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
6585 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
6586 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
6587 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
6588
6589 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
6590 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
6591 packages to install.  The first part is in
6592 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
6593 this:</p>
6594
6595 <p><blockquote><pre>
6596 Task: isenkram
6597 Section: hardware
6598 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
6599  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
6600  proposed.
6601 Test-new-install: mark show
6602 Relevance: 8
6603 Packages: for-current-hardware
6604 </pre></blockquote></p>
6605
6606 <p>The second part is in
6607 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
6608 this:</p>
6609
6610 <p><blockquote><pre>
6611 #!/bin/sh
6612 #
6613 (
6614     isenkram-lookup
6615     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
6616 ) | sort -u
6617 </pre></blockquote></p>
6618
6619 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
6620 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
6621 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
6622 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
6623 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
6624 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
6625
6626 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
6627 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
6628 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
6629 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
6630 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
6631 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
6632 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
6633 the python-apt code (bug
6634 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
6635 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
6636 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
6637 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
6638 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
6639 unstable today.</p>
6640
6641 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
6642 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
6643 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
6644 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
6645 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
6646 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
6647 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
6648 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
6649 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
6650
6651 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
6652 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
6653 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
6654 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
6655 package.  See also
6656 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
6657 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
6658 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
6659 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
6660
6661       </div>
6662       <div class="tags">
6663
6664
6665         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6666
6667
6668       </div>
6669     </div>
6670     <div class="padding"></div>
6671
6672     <div class="entry">
6673       <div class="title">
6674         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
6675       </div>
6676       <div class="date">
6677         15th April 2014
6678       </div>
6679       <div class="body">
6680         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
6681 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
6682 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
6683 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
6684 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
6685 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
6686
6687 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
6688 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
6689 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
6690 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
6691 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
6692 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
6693 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
6694
6695 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
6696 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
6697 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
6698 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
6699 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
6700 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
6701 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
6702 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
6703 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
6704 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
6705 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
6706 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
6707
6708 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
6709 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
6710 become root:</p>
6711
6712 <p><pre>
6713 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
6714   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
6715   u-boot-tools
6716 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
6717   freedom-maker
6718 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
6719 </pre></p>
6720
6721 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
6722 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
6723 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
6724 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
6725 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
6726 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
6727 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
6728 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
6729
6730 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
6731 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
6732 the preseed values:</p>
6733
6734 <p><pre>
6735 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
6736 </pre></p>
6737
6738 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
6739 it still work.</p>
6740
6741 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
6742 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
6743 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
6744 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
6745 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
6746 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
6747 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
6748
6749 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
6750 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
6751 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
6752 irc.debian.org)</a> and
6753 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
6754 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
6755
6756       </div>
6757       <div class="tags">
6758
6759
6760         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6761
6762
6763       </div>
6764     </div>
6765     <div class="padding"></div>
6766
6767     <div class="entry">
6768       <div class="title">
6769         <a href="https://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>
6770       </div>
6771       <div class="date">
6772          9th April 2014
6773       </div>
6774       <div class="body">
6775         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
6776 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
6777 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
6778 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
6779 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
6780 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
6781 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
6782 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
6783 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
6784 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
6785 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
6786 have looked at a system called
6787 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
6788 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
6789
6790 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
6791 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
6792 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
6793 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
6794 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
6795 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
6796 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
6797 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
6798 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
6799 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
6800 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
6801 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
6802 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
6803
6804 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
6805 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
6806 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
6807 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
6808 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
6809 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
6810 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
6811 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
6812 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
6813 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
6814 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
6815 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
6816 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
6817 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
6818 account.</p>
6819
6820 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
6821 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
6822 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
6823 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
6824 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
6825 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
6826 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
6827
6828 <p><blockquote><pre>
6829 [s3c]
6830 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6831 backend-login: API-login
6832 backend-password: API-password
6833 fs-passphrase: local-password
6834 </pre></blockquote></p>
6835
6836 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
6837 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
6838 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
6839 details and password to create it:</p>
6840
6841 <p><blockquote><pre>
6842 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
6843 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6844   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6845 Enter backend login:
6846 Enter backend password:
6847 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
6848 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
6849 Enter encryption password:
6850 Confirm encryption password:
6851 Generating random encryption key...
6852 Creating metadata tables...
6853 Dumping metadata...
6854 ..objects..
6855 ..blocks..
6856 ..inodes..
6857 ..inode_blocks..
6858 ..symlink_targets..
6859 ..names..
6860 ..contents..
6861 ..ext_attributes..
6862 Compressing and uploading metadata...
6863 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
6864 # </pre></blockquote></p>
6865
6866 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
6867
6868 <p><blockquote><pre>
6869 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6870   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
6871 Using 4 upload threads.
6872 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
6873 Reading metadata...
6874 ..objects..
6875 ..blocks..
6876 ..inodes..
6877 ..inode_blocks..
6878 ..symlink_targets..
6879 ..names..
6880 ..contents..
6881 ..ext_attributes..
6882 Mounting filesystem...
6883 # df -h /s3ql
6884 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
6885 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
6886 #
6887 </pre></blockquote></p>
6888
6889 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
6890 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
6891 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
6892 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
6893 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
6894 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
6895
6896 <p><blockquote><pre>
6897 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
6898 #
6899 </pre></blockquote></p>
6900
6901 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
6902 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
6903 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
6904 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
6905 file system:</p>
6906
6907 <p><blockquote><pre>
6908 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
6909 Using cached metadata.
6910 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
6911 Checking DB integrity...
6912 Creating temporary extra indices...
6913 Checking lost+found...
6914 Checking cached objects...
6915 Checking names (refcounts)...
6916 Checking contents (names)...
6917 Checking contents (inodes)...
6918 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
6919 Checking objects (reference counts)...
6920 Checking objects (backend)...
6921 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
6922 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
6923 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
6924 Checking objects (sizes)...
6925 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
6926 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
6927 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
6928 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
6929 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
6930 Checking inodes (sizes)...
6931 Checking extended attributes (names)...
6932 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
6933 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
6934 Checking directory reachability...
6935 Checking unix conventions...
6936 Checking referential integrity...
6937 Dropping temporary indices...
6938 Backing up old metadata...
6939 Dumping metadata...
6940 ..objects..
6941 ..blocks..
6942 ..inodes..
6943 ..inode_blocks..
6944 ..symlink_targets..
6945 ..names..
6946 ..contents..
6947 ..ext_attributes..
6948 Compressing and uploading metadata...
6949 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
6950 #
6951 </pre></blockquote></p>
6952
6953 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
6954 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
6955 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
6956 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
6957 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
6958 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
6959 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
6960 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
6961 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
6962 working set.</p>
6963
6964 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
6965 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
6966 busy:</p>
6967
6968 <p><blockquote><pre>
6969 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
6970   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
6971 Using 8 upload threads.
6972 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
6973 #
6974 </pre></blockquote></p>
6975
6976 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
6977 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
6978 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
6979 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
6980 s3qlctrl:
6981
6982 <p><blockquote><pre>
6983 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
6984 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
6985 #
6986 </pre></blockquote></p>
6987
6988 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
6989 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
6990 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
6991 a report:</p>
6992
6993 <p><blockquote><pre>
6994 # s3qlstat /s3ql
6995 Directory entries:    9141
6996 Inodes:               9143
6997 Data blocks:          8851
6998 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
6999 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
7000 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
7001 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
7002 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
7003 #
7004 </pre></blockquote></p>
7005
7006 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
7007 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
7008 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
7009 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
7010 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
7011 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
7012 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
7013 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
7014 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
7015 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
7016 best.</p>
7017
7018 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
7019 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
7020 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
7021 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
7022 poster is titled
7023 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
7024 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
7025 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
7026 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
7027 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
7028
7029 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
7030 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
7031 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
7032 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
7033 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
7034 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
7035 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
7036 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
7037
7038 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
7039 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
7040 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
7041 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
7042 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
7043 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
7044 only read from it.</p>
7045
7046 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7047 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7048 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7049
7050       </div>
7051       <div class="tags">
7052
7053
7054         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7055
7056
7057       </div>
7058     </div>
7059     <div class="padding"></div>
7060
7061     <div class="entry">
7062       <div class="title">
7063         <a href="https://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>
7064       </div>
7065       <div class="date">
7066         14th March 2014
7067       </div>
7068       <div class="body">
7069         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
7070 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
7071 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
7072 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
7073 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
7074 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
7075 release (0.2).</p>
7076
7077 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
7078 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
7079 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
7080 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
7081 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
7082 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
7083 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
7084 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
7085 and build using
7086 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
7087 with a user with sudo access to become root:
7088
7089 <pre>
7090 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
7091   freedom-maker
7092 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
7093   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
7094   u-boot-tools
7095 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
7096 </pre>
7097
7098 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
7099 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
7100 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
7101 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
7102 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
7103 kpartx call.</p>
7104
7105 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
7106 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
7107 the preseed values:</p>
7108
7109 <pre>
7110 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
7111 </pre>
7112
7113 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
7114 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
7115 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
7116 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
7117 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
7118 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
7119
7120 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
7121 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
7122 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
7123 irc.debian.org)</a> and
7124 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7125 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7126
7127       </div>
7128       <div class="tags">
7129
7130
7131         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7132
7133
7134       </div>
7135     </div>
7136     <div class="padding"></div>
7137
7138     <div class="entry">
7139       <div class="title">
7140         <a href="https://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>
7141       </div>
7142       <div class="date">
7143         22nd February 2014
7144       </div>
7145       <div class="body">
7146         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
7147 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
7148 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
7149 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
7150 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
7151 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
7152 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
7153 proper home since then.</p>
7154
7155 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
7156 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
7157 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
7158 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
7159 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
7160
7161 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
7162 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
7163 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
7164 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
7165 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
7166 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
7167 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
7168 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
7169 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
7170
7171       </div>
7172       <div class="tags">
7173
7174
7175         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7176
7177
7178       </div>
7179     </div>
7180     <div class="padding"></div>
7181
7182     <div class="entry">
7183       <div class="title">
7184         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
7185       </div>
7186       <div class="date">
7187          3rd February 2014
7188       </div>
7189       <div class="body">
7190         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
7191 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
7192 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
7193 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
7194 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
7195 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
7196 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
7197 <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>,
7198 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
7199
7200 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
7201 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
7202 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
7203 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
7204 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
7205 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
7206
7207 <p><blockquote><pre>
7208 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
7209 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
7210 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
7211 dhclient /dev/eth0
7212 </pre></blockquote></p>
7213
7214 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
7215 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
7216 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
7217
7218 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
7219 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
7220 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
7221 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
7222 side.</p>
7223
7224 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
7225 stuff:</p>
7226
7227 <p><blockquote><pre>
7228 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
7229 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
7230 EOF
7231 apt-get update
7232 apt-get dist-upgrade
7233 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
7234     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
7235 update-alternatives --config runsystem
7236 </pre></blockquote></p>
7237
7238 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
7239 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
7240 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
7241 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
7242 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
7243 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
7244 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
7245 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
7246 ssh instead.
7247
7248 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
7249 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
7250 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
7251 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
7252 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
7253 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
7254
7255 <p><blockquote><pre>
7256 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
7257 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
7258 EOF
7259 </pre></blockquote></p>
7260
7261 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
7262 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
7263 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
7264 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
7265
7266 <p><blockquote><pre>
7267 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
7268 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
7269 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
7270 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
7271 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
7272 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
7273 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
7274 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
7275 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
7276 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
7277 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
7278 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
7279 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
7280 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
7281 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
7282 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
7283 #
7284 </pre></blockquote></p>
7285
7286 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
7287 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
7288 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
7289 command line stuff.<p>
7290
7291       </div>
7292       <div class="tags">
7293
7294
7295         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7296
7297
7298       </div>
7299     </div>
7300     <div class="padding"></div>
7301
7302     <div class="entry">
7303       <div class="title">
7304         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
7305       </div>
7306       <div class="date">
7307         14th January 2014
7308       </div>
7309       <div class="body">
7310         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
7311 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
7312 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
7313 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
7314 the source.  The company behind it provide
7315 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
7316 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
7317 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
7318 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
7319 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
7320 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
7321 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
7322 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
7323 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
7324 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
7325 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
7326 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
7327 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
7328 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
7329 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
7330 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
7331 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
7332 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
7333 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
7334
7335 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
7336
7337 <ul>
7338
7339   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
7340   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
7341   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
7342
7343 </ul>
7344
7345 <p>You can
7346 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
7347 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
7348 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
7349 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
7350 include a test suite check.</p>
7351
7352       </div>
7353       <div class="tags">
7354
7355
7356         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7357
7358
7359       </div>
7360     </div>
7361     <div class="padding"></div>
7362
7363     <div class="entry">
7364       <div class="title">
7365         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
7366       </div>
7367       <div class="date">
7368         24th November 2013
7369       </div>
7370       <div class="body">
7371         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
7372 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
7373 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
7374 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
7375 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
7376 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
7377 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
7378 is working on.  I checked the
7379 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
7380 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
7381 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
7382 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
7383 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
7384 These are the release notes:</p>
7385
7386 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
7387
7388 <ul>
7389
7390   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
7391    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
7392    up.</li>
7393
7394   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
7395
7396   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
7397    Matthias Klose.</li>
7398
7399   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
7400    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
7401
7402   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
7403    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
7404    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
7405
7406 </ul>
7407
7408 <p>You can
7409 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
7410 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
7411 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
7412 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
7413 include a testsuite check.</p>
7414
7415       </div>
7416       <div class="tags">
7417
7418
7419         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7420
7421
7422       </div>
7423     </div>
7424     <div class="padding"></div>
7425
7426     <div class="entry">
7427       <div class="title">
7428         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
7429       </div>
7430       <div class="date">
7431          2nd November 2013
7432       </div>
7433       <div class="body">
7434         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
7435 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
7436 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
7437 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
7438 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
7439
7440 <p><pre>
7441 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
7442 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
7443 # Provides:          rsyslog
7444 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
7445 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
7446 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
7447 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
7448 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
7449 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
7450 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
7451 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
7452 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
7453 ### END INIT INFO
7454 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
7455 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
7456 </pre></p>
7457
7458 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
7459 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
7460 info/comments.</p>
7461
7462 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
7463 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
7464
7465 <p><pre>
7466 #!/bin/sh
7467
7468 # Define LSB log_* functions.
7469 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
7470 # and status_of_proc is working.
7471 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
7472
7473 #
7474 # Function that starts the daemon/service
7475
7476 #
7477 do_start()
7478 {
7479         # Return
7480         #   0 if daemon has been started
7481         #   1 if daemon was already running
7482         #   2 if daemon could not be started
7483         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
7484                 || return 1
7485         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
7486                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
7487                 || return 2
7488         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
7489         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
7490         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
7491 }
7492
7493 #
7494 # Function that stops the daemon/service
7495 #
7496 do_stop()
7497 {
7498         # Return
7499         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
7500         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
7501         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
7502         #   other if a failure occurred
7503         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
7504         RETVAL="$?"
7505         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
7506         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
7507         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
7508         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
7509         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
7510         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
7511         # sleep for some time.
7512         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
7513         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
7514         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
7515         rm -f $PIDFILE
7516         return "$RETVAL"
7517 }
7518
7519 #
7520 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
7521 #
7522 do_reload() {
7523         #
7524         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
7525         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
7526         # then implement that here.
7527         #
7528         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
7529         return 0
7530 }
7531
7532 SCRIPTNAME=$1
7533 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
7534 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
7535 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
7536     script="$1"
7537     shift
7538     . $script
7539 else
7540     exit 0
7541 fi
7542
7543 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
7544 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
7545
7546 # Exit if the package is not installed
7547 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
7548
7549 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
7550 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
7551
7552 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
7553 . /lib/init/vars.sh
7554
7555 case "$1" in
7556   start)
7557         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
7558         do_start
7559         case "$?" in
7560                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
7561                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
7562         esac
7563         ;;
7564   stop)
7565         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
7566         do_stop
7567         case "$?" in
7568                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
7569                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
7570         esac
7571         ;;
7572   status)
7573         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
7574         ;;
7575   #reload|force-reload)
7576         #
7577         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
7578         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
7579         #
7580         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
7581         #do_reload
7582         #log_end_msg $?
7583         #;;
7584   restart|force-reload)
7585         #
7586         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
7587         # 'force-reload' alias
7588         #
7589         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
7590         do_stop
7591         case "$?" in
7592           0|1)
7593                 do_start
7594                 case "$?" in
7595                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
7596                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
7597                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
7598                 esac
7599                 ;;
7600           *)
7601                 # Failed to stop
7602                 log_end_msg 1
7603                 ;;
7604         esac
7605         ;;
7606   *)
7607         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
7608         exit 3
7609         ;;
7610 esac
7611
7612 :
7613 </pre></p>
7614
7615 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
7616 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
7617 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
7618 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
7619
7620 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
7621 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
7622 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
7623 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
7624 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
7625
7626       </div>
7627       <div class="tags">
7628
7629
7630         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7631
7632
7633       </div>
7634     </div>
7635     <div class="padding"></div>
7636
7637     <div class="entry">
7638       <div class="title">
7639         <a href="https://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>
7640       </div>
7641       <div class="date">
7642          1st November 2013
7643       </div>
7644       <div class="body">
7645         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
7646 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
7647 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
7648 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
7649 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
7650 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
7651 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
7652 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
7653 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
7654 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
7655 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
7656 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
7657
7658 <p>The source is now available from
7659 <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>
7660
7661       </div>
7662       <div class="tags">
7663
7664
7665         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7666
7667
7668       </div>
7669     </div>
7670     <div class="padding"></div>
7671
7672     <div class="entry">
7673       <div class="title">
7674         <a href="https://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>
7675       </div>
7676       <div class="date">
7677         27th October 2013
7678       </div>
7679       <div class="body">
7680         <p>The
7681 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
7682 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
7683 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
7684 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
7685 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
7686 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
7687 of a plan to simplify the build system for
7688 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
7689 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
7690 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
7691 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
7692 Raspberry Pi.</p>
7693
7694 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
7695 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
7696 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
7697 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
7698 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
7699 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
7700 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
7701 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
7702 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
7703 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
7704 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
7705 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
7706 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
7707 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
7708 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
7709 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
7710 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
7711 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
7712 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
7713 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
7714 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
7715 available from
7716 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
7717 upstream project page</a>.</p>
7718
7719 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
7720 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
7721 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
7722 list:</p>
7723
7724 <p><pre>
7725 #!/bin/sh
7726 set -e # Exit on first error
7727 rootdir="$1"
7728 cd "$rootdir"
7729 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
7730 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
7731 EOF
7732 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
7733 # install a kernel somewhere too.
7734 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
7735     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7736 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
7737 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
7738 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
7739 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
7740 </pre></p>
7741
7742 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
7743 to build the image:</p>
7744
7745 <pre>
7746 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
7747     --variant minbase \
7748     --arch armel \
7749     --distribution jessie \
7750     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
7751     --image test.img \
7752     --size 600M \
7753     --bootsize 64M \
7754     --boottype vfat \
7755     --log-level debug \
7756     --verbose \
7757     --no-kernel \
7758     --no-extlinux \
7759     --root-password raspberry \
7760     --hostname raspberrypi \
7761     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
7762     --customize `pwd`/customize \
7763     --package netbase \
7764     --package git-core \
7765     --package binutils \
7766     --package ca-certificates \
7767     --package wget \
7768     --package kmod
7769 </pre></p>
7770
7771 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
7772 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
7773 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
7774 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
7775 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
7776 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
7777 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
7778
7779 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
7780 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
7781 build dependency list.</p>
7782
7783 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
7784 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
7785 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
7786 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
7787
7788       </div>
7789       <div class="tags">
7790
7791
7792         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
7793
7794
7795       </div>
7796     </div>
7797     <div class="padding"></div>
7798
7799     <div class="entry">
7800       <div class="title">
7801         <a href="https://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>
7802       </div>
7803       <div class="date">
7804         15th October 2013
7805       </div>
7806       <div class="body">
7807         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
7808 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
7809 these. :)</p>
7810
7811 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
7812 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
7813 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
7814 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
7815 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
7816 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
7817 hope you will to. :)</p>
7818
7819 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
7820 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
7821 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
7822 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
7823 donated.  Are you next?</p>
7824
7825 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
7826 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
7827 statement under the heading
7828 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
7829 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
7830 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
7831 too.</p>
7832
7833       </div>
7834       <div class="tags">
7835
7836
7837         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
7838
7839
7840       </div>
7841     </div>
7842     <div class="padding"></div>
7843
7844     <div class="entry">
7845       <div class="title">
7846         <a href="https://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>
7847       </div>
7848       <div class="date">
7849         27th September 2013
7850       </div>
7851       <div class="body">
7852         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
7853 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
7854 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
7855 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
7856
7857 <ul>
7858
7859 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
7860 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
7861
7862 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
7863 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7864
7865 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
7866 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
7867 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
7868 (Youtube)</li>
7869
7870 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
7871 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
7872
7873 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
7874 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
7875
7876 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
7877 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
7878 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
7879
7880 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
7881 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
7882 (Youtube)</li>
7883
7884 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
7885 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
7886
7887 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
7888 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
7889
7890 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
7891 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
7892 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
7893
7894 </ul>
7895
7896 <p>A larger list is available from
7897 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
7898 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
7899
7900 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
7901 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
7902 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
7903 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
7904 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
7905 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
7906 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
7907 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
7908 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
7909 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
7910 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
7911
7912       </div>
7913       <div class="tags">
7914
7915
7916         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7917
7918
7919       </div>
7920     </div>
7921     <div class="padding"></div>
7922
7923     <div class="entry">
7924       <div class="title">
7925         <a href="https://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>
7926       </div>
7927       <div class="date">
7928         10th September 2013
7929       </div>
7930       <div class="body">
7931         <p>I was introduced to the
7932 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
7933 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
7934 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
7935 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
7936 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
7937 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
7938 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
7939 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
7940
7941 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
7942 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
7943 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
7944 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
7945 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
7946
7947 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
7948 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
7949 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
7950 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
7951 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
7952 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
7953 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
7954 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
7955 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
7956 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
7957 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
7958 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
7959 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
7960 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
7961 missing in Debian).</p>
7962
7963 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
7964 scripts
7965 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
7966 and a administrative web interface
7967 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
7968 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
7969 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
7970 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
7971 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
7972 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
7973 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
7974 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
7975 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
7976 this is really working yet, see
7977 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
7978 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
7979 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
7980 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
7981 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
7982 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
7983 with lots of half baked features.</p>
7984
7985 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
7986 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
7987 at.</p>
7988
7989 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
7990
7991 <ol>
7992
7993 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
7994 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
7995 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
7996 to the Debian installer:<p>
7997 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
7998
7999 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
8000 install on.</li>
8001
8002 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
8003 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
8004
8005 </ol>
8006
8007 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
8008
8009 <ol>
8010
8011 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
8012 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
8013 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
8014 <pre>
8015 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
8016 </pre></li>
8017 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
8018 <pre>
8019 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
8020    apt-key add -
8021 apt-get update
8022 apt-get install freedombox-setup
8023 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
8024 </pre></li>
8025 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
8026
8027 </ol>
8028
8029 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
8030 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
8031 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
8032 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
8033 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
8034
8035 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
8036 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
8037 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
8038 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
8039
8040 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
8041 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
8042 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
8043 irc.debian.org and the
8044 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
8045 mailing list</a>.</p>
8046
8047 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
8048 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
8049 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
8050 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
8051 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
8052 default password is 'secret'.</p>
8053
8054       </div>
8055       <div class="tags">
8056
8057
8058         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8059
8060
8061       </div>
8062     </div>
8063     <div class="padding"></div>
8064
8065     <div class="entry">
8066       <div class="title">
8067         <a href="https://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>
8068       </div>
8069       <div class="date">
8070         18th August 2013
8071       </div>
8072       <div class="body">
8073         <p>Earlier, I reported about
8074 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
8075 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
8076 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
8077 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
8078 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
8079 currently on the disk.</p>
8080
8081 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
8082 <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>
8083 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
8084 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
8085 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
8086 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
8087 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
8088 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
8089 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
8090 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
8091 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
8092 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
8093 the broken disks.</p>
8094
8095       </div>
8096       <div class="tags">
8097
8098
8099         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8100
8101
8102       </div>
8103     </div>
8104     <div class="padding"></div>
8105
8106     <div class="entry">
8107       <div class="title">
8108         <a href="https://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>
8109       </div>
8110       <div class="date">
8111         17th July 2013
8112       </div>
8113       <div class="body">
8114         <p>Today I switched to
8115 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
8116 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
8117 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
8118 <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
8119 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
8120 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
8121 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
8122 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
8123 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
8124 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
8125 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
8126 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
8127 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
8128 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
8129 station from now on.</p>
8130
8131 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
8132 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
8133 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
8134 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
8135 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
8136 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
8137 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
8138 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
8139 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
8140 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
8141 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
8142 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
8143
8144 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
8145 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
8146 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
8147 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
8148 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
8149 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
8150 parameters are tuned:</p>
8151
8152 <ul>
8153
8154 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
8155     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
8156
8157 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
8158     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
8159     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
8160
8161 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
8162     systems.</li>
8163
8164 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
8165     /etc/fstab.</li>
8166
8167 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
8168
8169 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
8170     cron.daily).</li>
8171
8172 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
8173     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
8174
8175 </ul>
8176
8177 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
8178 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
8179 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
8180 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
8181 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
8182 from getting the data on the disk (see
8183 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
8184 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
8185 right thing to do.</p>
8186
8187 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
8188 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
8189 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
8190
8191 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
8192 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
8193 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
8194 instead of during my work.</p>
8195
8196 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
8197 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
8198
8199 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
8200 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
8201 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
8202
8203 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
8204 there.</p>
8205
8206 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
8207 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
8208 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
8209 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
8210 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
8211 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
8212 back.</p>
8213
8214       </div>
8215       <div class="tags">
8216
8217
8218         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8219
8220
8221       </div>
8222     </div>
8223     <div class="padding"></div>
8224
8225     <div class="entry">
8226       <div class="title">
8227         <a href="https://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>
8228       </div>
8229       <div class="date">
8230         10th July 2013
8231       </div>
8232       <div class="body">
8233         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
8234 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
8235 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
8236 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
8237 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
8238 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
8239 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
8240 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
8241
8242 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
8243 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
8244 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
8245 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
8246 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
8247 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
8248 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
8249 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
8250 lock up when I download a new
8251 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
8252 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
8253 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
8254
8255 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8256 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
8257 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8258 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
8259 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8260 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8261
8262 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
8263 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
8264 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
8265 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
8266 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
8267 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
8268
8269 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
8270 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
8271 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
8272 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
8273 exist).</p>
8274
8275       </div>
8276       <div class="tags">
8277
8278
8279         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8280
8281
8282       </div>
8283     </div>
8284     <div class="padding"></div>
8285
8286     <div class="entry">
8287       <div class="title">
8288         <a href="https://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>
8289       </div>
8290       <div class="date">
8291          9th July 2013
8292       </div>
8293       <div class="body">
8294         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
8295 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
8296 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
8297 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
8298 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8299 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
8300 Bitraf</a>.</p>
8301
8302 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
8303 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
8304 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
8305 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
8306 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
8307
8308       </div>
8309       <div class="tags">
8310
8311
8312         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8313
8314
8315       </div>
8316     </div>
8317     <div class="padding"></div>
8318
8319     <div class="entry">
8320       <div class="title">
8321         <a href="https://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>
8322       </div>
8323       <div class="date">
8324          5th July 2013
8325       </div>
8326       <div class="body">
8327         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
8328 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
8329 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
8330 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
8331 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
8332 ended up picking a
8333 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
8334 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
8335 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
8336 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
8337 on that below.</p>
8338
8339 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8340 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8341 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8342 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8343 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8344 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
8345 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
8346 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
8347 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
8348
8349 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
8350 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
8351 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
8352 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
8353 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
8354 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
8355 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
8356
8357 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
8358 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
8359
8360 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
8361 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
8362 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
8363 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
8364 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
8365 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
8366 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
8367 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
8368 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
8369 kernel developers as
8370 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
8371 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
8372 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
8373 Lenovo forums, both for
8374 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
8375 2012-11-10</a> and for
8376 <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
8377 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
8378 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
8379 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
8380 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
8381 There is even a
8382 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
8383 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
8384 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
8385
8386 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
8387 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
8388 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
8389 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
8390 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
8391 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
8392 fixed. :)</p>
8393
8394       </div>
8395       <div class="tags">
8396
8397
8398         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8399
8400
8401       </div>
8402     </div>
8403     <div class="padding"></div>
8404
8405     <div class="entry">
8406       <div class="title">
8407         <a href="https://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>
8408       </div>
8409       <div class="date">
8410          4th July 2013
8411       </div>
8412       <div class="body">
8413         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
8414 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
8415 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
8416 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
8417 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
8418 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
8419 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
8420 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
8421 with an expencive door stop.</p>
8422
8423 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
8424 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
8425 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
8426 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
8427 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
8428 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
8429 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
8430
8431 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
8432 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
8433 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
8434 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
8435 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
8436 new laptop now. :)</p>
8437
8438 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
8439
8440       </div>
8441       <div class="tags">
8442
8443
8444         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8445
8446
8447       </div>
8448     </div>
8449     <div class="padding"></div>
8450
8451     <div class="entry">
8452       <div class="title">
8453         <a href="https://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>
8454       </div>
8455       <div class="date">
8456         25th June 2013
8457       </div>
8458       <div class="body">
8459         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
8460 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
8461 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
8462 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
8463 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
8464 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
8465 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
8466 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
8467 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
8468 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
8469 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
8470
8471 <p><pre>
8472 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
8473 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
8474 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
8475 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
8476 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
8477 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
8478 firmware-ipw2x00
8479 firmware-ipw2x00
8480 Preconfiguring packages ...
8481 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
8482 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
8483 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
8484 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
8485 #
8486 </pre></p>
8487
8488 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
8489 printed instead:</p>
8490
8491 <p><pre>
8492 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
8493 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
8494 #
8495 </pre></p>
8496
8497 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
8498 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
8499
8500 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
8501 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
8502 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
8503 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
8504 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
8505 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
8506 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
8507 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
8508 machine.</p>
8509
8510 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
8511 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
8512 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
8513 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
8514 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
8515 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
8516
8517       </div>
8518       <div class="tags">
8519
8520
8521         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8522
8523
8524       </div>
8525     </div>
8526     <div class="padding"></div>
8527
8528     <div class="entry">
8529       <div class="title">
8530         <a href="https://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>
8531       </div>
8532       <div class="date">
8533         11th June 2013
8534       </div>
8535       <div class="body">
8536         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
8537 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
8538 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
8539 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
8540 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
8541 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
8542 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
8543 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
8544 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
8545 i915 driver used by the
8546 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
8547 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
8548
8549 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
8550 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
8551 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
8552 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
8553 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
8554
8555 <pre>
8556 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
8557 update-initramfs -u -k all
8558 </pre>
8559
8560 <p>Since March 2012 there is
8561 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
8562 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
8563 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
8564 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
8565 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
8566 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
8567 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
8568 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
8569 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
8570 number.</p>
8571
8572 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
8573 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
8574
8575 <p><pre>
8576 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
8577     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
8578     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
8579  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
8580  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
8581     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
8582  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
8583     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
8584  Latency: 0
8585  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
8586  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
8587  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
8588  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
8589  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
8590  Capabilities: <access denied>
8591  Kernel driver in use: i915
8592 </pre></p>
8593
8594 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
8595
8596 <p><pre>
8597 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
8598        ...
8599         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
8600         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
8601        ...
8602 }
8603 </pre></p>
8604
8605 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
8606 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
8607 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
8608 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
8609 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
8610 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
8611 yet shown up in
8612 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
8613 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
8614 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
8615 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
8616 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
8617 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
8618
8619 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
8620 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
8621 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
8622 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
8623 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
8624 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
8625 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
8626 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
8627 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
8628 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
8629 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
8630 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
8631
8632 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
8633 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
8634 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
8635 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
8636 backlight.</p>
8637
8638       </div>
8639       <div class="tags">
8640
8641
8642         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8643
8644
8645       </div>
8646     </div>
8647     <div class="padding"></div>
8648
8649     <div class="entry">
8650       <div class="title">
8651         <a href="https://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>
8652       </div>
8653       <div class="date">
8654         27th May 2013
8655       </div>
8656       <div class="body">
8657         <p>Two days ago, I asked
8658 <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
8659 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
8660 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
8661 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
8662 and Windows 8.</p>
8663
8664 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
8665 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
8666 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
8667 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
8668 enough to tell.</p>
8669
8670 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
8671 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
8672 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
8673 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
8674 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
8675 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
8676 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
8677 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
8678 to follow.</p>
8679
8680 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
8681 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
8682 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
8683 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
8684 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
8685 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
8686 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
8687 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
8688
8689 <p>I've updated the
8690 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
8691 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
8692 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
8693 machine.</p>
8694
8695 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
8696 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
8697
8698       </div>
8699       <div class="tags">
8700
8701
8702         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8703
8704
8705       </div>
8706     </div>
8707     <div class="padding"></div>
8708
8709     <div class="entry">
8710       <div class="title">
8711         <a href="https://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>
8712       </div>
8713       <div class="date">
8714         25th May 2013
8715       </div>
8716       <div class="body">
8717         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
8718 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
8719 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
8720 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
8721 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
8722 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
8723
8724 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
8725 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
8726 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
8727 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
8728 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
8729 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
8730 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
8731 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
8732 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
8733 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
8734
8735 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
8736 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
8737 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
8738 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
8739 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
8740 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
8741
8742 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
8743 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
8744 on new Laptops?</p>
8745
8746       </div>
8747       <div class="tags">
8748
8749
8750         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8751
8752
8753       </div>
8754     </div>
8755     <div class="padding"></div>
8756
8757     <div class="entry">
8758       <div class="title">
8759         <a href="https://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>
8760       </div>
8761       <div class="date">
8762         17th May 2013
8763       </div>
8764       <div class="body">
8765         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
8766 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
8767 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
8768 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
8769 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
8770 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
8771 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
8772 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
8773 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
8774 donate some money</a>.
8775
8776 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
8777 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
8778 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
8779 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
8780 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
8781
8782 <p>The script,
8783 <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/>
8784 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
8785 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
8786 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
8787
8788 <ol>
8789
8790 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
8791 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
8792 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
8793     our configuration.</li>
8794 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
8795     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
8796     according to the profile specified in the config above,
8797     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
8798 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
8799     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
8800 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
8801
8802 </ol>
8803
8804 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
8805 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
8806 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
8807 the needed packages.</p>
8808
8809 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
8810 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
8811 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
8812 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
8813 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
8814 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
8815
8816 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
8817 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
8818 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
8819
8820 <p><pre>
8821 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
8822 DESKTOP="lxde"
8823 </pre></p>
8824
8825 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
8826 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
8827 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
8828 boot.</p>
8829
8830       </div>
8831       <div class="tags">
8832
8833
8834         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8835
8836
8837       </div>
8838     </div>
8839     <div class="padding"></div>
8840
8841     <div class="entry">
8842       <div class="title">
8843         <a href="https://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>
8844       </div>
8845       <div class="date">
8846         11th May 2013
8847       </div>
8848       <div class="body">
8849         <P>In January,
8850 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
8851 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
8852 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
8853 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
8854 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
8855 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
8856 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
8857 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
8858 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
8859 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
8860 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
8861 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
8862
8863 <p><table>
8864 <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>
8865 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
8866 <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>
8867 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
8868 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
8869 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
8870 <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>
8871 <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>
8872 <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>
8873 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
8874 </table></p>
8875
8876 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
8877 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
8878 available in experimental.</p>
8879
8880 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
8881 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
8882 for LEGO designers.</p>
8883
8884       </div>
8885       <div class="tags">
8886
8887
8888         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
8889
8890
8891       </div>
8892     </div>
8893     <div class="padding"></div>
8894
8895     <div class="entry">
8896       <div class="title">
8897         <a href="https://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>
8898       </div>
8899       <div class="date">
8900          5th May 2013
8901       </div>
8902       <div class="body">
8903         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
8904 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
8905 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
8906 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
8907 soon.</p>
8908
8909 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
8910 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
8911 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
8912 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
8913 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
8914 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
8915 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
8916 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
8917 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
8918 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
8919 Edu.</a>
8920
8921 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
8922 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
8923 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
8924 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
8925 follow.<p>
8926
8927       </div>
8928       <div class="tags">
8929
8930
8931         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8932
8933
8934       </div>
8935     </div>
8936     <div class="padding"></div>
8937
8938     <div class="entry">
8939       <div class="title">
8940         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
8941       </div>
8942       <div class="date">
8943          3rd April 2013
8944       </div>
8945       <div class="body">
8946         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
8947 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
8948 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
8949 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
8950
8951 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
8952 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
8953 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
8954 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
8955 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
8956 BTS. :)</p>
8957
8958       </div>
8959       <div class="tags">
8960
8961
8962         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8963
8964
8965       </div>
8966     </div>
8967     <div class="padding"></div>
8968
8969     <div class="entry">
8970       <div class="title">
8971         <a href="https://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>
8972       </div>
8973       <div class="date">
8974          2nd February 2013
8975       </div>
8976       <div class="body">
8977         <p>My
8978 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
8979 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
8980 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
8981 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
8982 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
8983 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
8984 version too.</p>
8985
8986 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
8987 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
8988 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
8989 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
8990 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
8991 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
8992 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
8993 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
8994
8995 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
8996 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
8997 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
8998 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
8999 it. :)</p>
9000
9001 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
9002 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
9003 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9004
9005       </div>
9006       <div class="tags">
9007
9008
9009         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9010
9011
9012       </div>
9013     </div>
9014     <div class="padding"></div>
9015
9016     <div class="entry">
9017       <div class="title">
9018         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
9019       </div>
9020       <div class="date">
9021         22nd January 2013
9022       </div>
9023       <div class="body">
9024         <p>Yesterday, I
9025 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
9026 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
9027 pluggable hardware devices, which I
9028 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
9029 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
9030 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
9031 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
9032 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
9033 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
9034 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
9035 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
9036 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
9037 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
9038
9039 <pre>
9040 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
9041 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
9042 </pre>
9043
9044 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
9045 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
9046 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
9047 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
9048
9049 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
9050 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
9051 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
9052 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
9053 word.</p>
9054
9055 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
9056 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
9057 process.</p>
9058
9059 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
9060 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
9061
9062       </div>
9063       <div class="tags">
9064
9065
9066         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9067
9068
9069       </div>
9070     </div>
9071     <div class="padding"></div>
9072
9073     <div class="entry">
9074       <div class="title">
9075         <a href="https://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>
9076       </div>
9077       <div class="date">
9078         21st January 2013
9079       </div>
9080       <div class="body">
9081         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
9082 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
9083 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
9084 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
9085 it, fetch the
9086 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
9087 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
9088 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
9089 autostart script.</p>
9090
9091 <p>The design is simple:</p>
9092
9093 <ul>
9094
9095 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
9096 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
9097
9098 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
9099 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
9100 initially did.</li>
9101
9102 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
9103 the APT database, a database
9104 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
9105 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
9106
9107 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
9108 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
9109 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
9110 package or packages.</li>
9111
9112 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
9113 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
9114
9115 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
9116 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
9117
9118 </ul>
9119
9120 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
9121 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
9122 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
9123 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
9124
9125 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
9126 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
9127 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
9128 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
9129 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
9130
9131 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
9132 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
9133 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
9134 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
9135 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
9136 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
9137 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
9138 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
9139
9140 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
9141 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
9142 '<tt>svn checkout
9143 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
9144 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
9145 devscripts package.</p>
9146
9147 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
9148 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
9149 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
9150 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
9151 instructions</a> for details.</p>
9152
9153       </div>
9154       <div class="tags">
9155
9156
9157         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9158
9159
9160       </div>
9161     </div>
9162     <div class="padding"></div>
9163
9164     <div class="entry">
9165       <div class="title">
9166         <a href="https://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>
9167       </div>
9168       <div class="date">
9169         19th January 2013
9170       </div>
9171       <div class="body">
9172         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
9173 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
9174 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
9175 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
9176 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
9177 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
9178 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
9179 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
9180 not a durable solution.
9181
9182 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
9183 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
9184
9185 <ul>
9186
9187 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
9188   than A4).</li>
9189 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
9190 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
9191 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
9192 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
9193 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
9194 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
9195 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
9196 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
9197 size).</li>
9198 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
9199   X.org packages.</li>
9200 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
9201   the time).
9202
9203 </ul>
9204
9205 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
9206 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
9207 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
9208 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
9209 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
9210 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
9211 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
9212 still be useful.</p>
9213
9214 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
9215 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
9216 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
9217 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
9218 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
9219 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
9220
9221       </div>
9222       <div class="tags">
9223
9224
9225         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9226
9227
9228       </div>
9229     </div>
9230     <div class="padding"></div>
9231
9232     <div class="entry">
9233       <div class="title">
9234         <a href="https://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>
9235       </div>
9236       <div class="date">
9237         18th January 2013
9238       </div>
9239       <div class="body">
9240         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
9241 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
9242 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
9243 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
9244 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
9245 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
9246 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
9247
9248 <pre>
9249 #!/usr/bin/python
9250 import sys
9251 import apt
9252 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
9253     cache = apt.Cache()
9254     cache.open(None)
9255     thepkgs = []
9256     for pkg in cache:
9257         version = pkg.candidate
9258         if version is None:
9259             version = pkg.installed
9260         if version is None:
9261             continue
9262         record = version.record
9263         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
9264             continue
9265         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
9266         for t in mime_types:
9267             t = t.rstrip().strip()
9268             if t == mimetype:
9269                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
9270     return thepkgs
9271 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
9272 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
9273     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
9274 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
9275 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
9276     print "  %s" %pkg
9277 </pre>
9278
9279 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
9280
9281 <pre>
9282 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
9283 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
9284   gecko-mediaplayer
9285 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
9286 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
9287   browser-plugin-gnash
9288 %
9289 </pre>
9290
9291 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
9292 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
9293 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
9294 anyone working on adding it?</p>
9295
9296 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
9297 request for icweasel support for this feature is
9298 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
9299 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
9300 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
9301 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
9302
9303       </div>
9304       <div class="tags">
9305
9306
9307         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9308
9309
9310       </div>
9311     </div>
9312     <div class="padding"></div>
9313
9314     <div class="entry">
9315       <div class="title">
9316         <a href="https://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>
9317       </div>
9318       <div class="date">
9319         16th January 2013
9320       </div>
9321       <div class="body">
9322         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
9323 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
9324 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
9325 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
9326 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
9327 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
9328 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
9329 downloaded by the browser.</p>
9330
9331 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
9332 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
9333 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
9334 can be found on the
9335 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
9336 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
9337 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
9338 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
9339 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
9340
9341 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
9342
9343 <pre>
9344   count MIME type
9345   ----- -----------------------
9346      32 text/plain
9347      30 audio/mpeg
9348      29 image/png
9349      28 image/jpeg
9350      27 application/ogg
9351      26 audio/x-mp3
9352      25 image/tiff
9353      25 image/gif
9354      22 image/bmp
9355      22 audio/x-wav
9356      20 audio/x-flac
9357      19 audio/x-mpegurl
9358      18 video/x-ms-asf
9359      18 audio/x-musepack
9360      18 audio/x-mpeg
9361      18 application/x-ogg
9362      17 video/mpeg
9363      17 audio/x-scpls
9364      17 audio/ogg
9365      16 video/x-ms-wmv
9366 </pre>
9367
9368 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
9369
9370 <pre>
9371   count MIME type
9372   ----- -----------------------
9373      33 text/plain
9374      32 image/png
9375      32 image/jpeg
9376      29 audio/mpeg
9377      27 image/gif
9378      26 image/tiff
9379      26 application/ogg
9380      25 audio/x-mp3
9381      22 image/bmp
9382      21 audio/x-wav
9383      19 audio/x-mpegurl
9384      19 audio/x-mpeg
9385      18 video/mpeg
9386      18 audio/x-scpls
9387      18 audio/x-flac
9388      18 application/x-ogg
9389      17 video/x-ms-asf
9390      17 text/html
9391      17 audio/x-musepack
9392      16 image/x-xbitmap
9393 </pre>
9394
9395 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
9396
9397 <pre>
9398   count MIME type
9399   ----- -----------------------
9400      31 text/plain
9401      31 image/png
9402      31 image/jpeg
9403      29 audio/mpeg
9404      28 application/ogg
9405      27 image/gif
9406      26 image/tiff
9407      26 audio/x-mp3
9408      23 audio/x-wav
9409      22 image/bmp
9410      21 audio/x-flac
9411      20 audio/x-mpegurl
9412      19 audio/x-mpeg
9413      18 video/x-ms-asf
9414      18 video/mpeg
9415      18 audio/x-scpls
9416      18 application/x-ogg
9417      17 audio/x-musepack
9418      16 video/x-ms-wmv
9419      16 video/x-msvideo
9420 </pre>
9421
9422 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
9423 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
9424 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
9425 issues.</p>
9426
9427 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
9428 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
9429
9430       </div>
9431       <div class="tags">
9432
9433
9434         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9435
9436
9437       </div>
9438     </div>
9439     <div class="padding"></div>
9440
9441     <div class="entry">
9442       <div class="title">
9443         <a href="https://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>
9444       </div>
9445       <div class="date">
9446         15th January 2013
9447       </div>
9448       <div class="body">
9449         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
9450 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
9451 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
9452 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
9453 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
9454 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
9455 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
9456 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
9457 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
9458 packages.</p>
9459
9460 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
9461 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
9462 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
9463 modalias.</p>
9464
9465 <p><blockquote>
9466 Package: package-name
9467 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
9468 </blockquote></p>
9469
9470 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
9471 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
9472
9473 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
9474 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
9475
9476 <p><blockquote>
9477 Package: cheese
9478 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
9479 </blockquote></p>
9480
9481 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
9482 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
9483
9484 <p><blockquote>
9485 Package: pcmciautils
9486 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
9487 </blockquote></p>
9488
9489 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
9490 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
9491
9492 <p><blockquote>
9493 Package: colorhug-client
9494 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
9495 </blockquote></p>
9496
9497 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
9498 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
9499 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
9500
9501 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
9502 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
9503 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
9504 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
9505 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
9506 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
9507 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
9508 Raring.</p>
9509
9510 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
9511 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
9512 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
9513 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
9514 try the
9515 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
9516 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
9517 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
9518 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
9519
9520 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
9521 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
9522
9523 <p><blockquote>
9524 % ./hw-support-lookup
9525 <br>yubikey-personalization
9526 <br>%
9527 </blockquote></p>
9528
9529 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
9530 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
9531
9532 <p><blockquote>
9533 % ./hw-support-lookup
9534 <br>pcmciautils
9535 <br>%
9536 </blockquote></p>
9537
9538 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
9539 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
9540 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
9541
9542 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
9543 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
9544 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
9545 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
9546 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
9547 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
9548 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
9549 see if it work.</p>
9550
9551 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
9552 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
9553 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
9554 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
9555
9556       </div>
9557       <div class="tags">
9558
9559
9560         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9561
9562
9563       </div>
9564     </div>
9565     <div class="padding"></div>
9566
9567     <div class="entry">
9568       <div class="title">
9569         <a href="https://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>
9570       </div>
9571       <div class="date">
9572         14th January 2013
9573       </div>
9574       <div class="body">
9575         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
9576 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
9577 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
9578 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
9579 in
9580 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
9581 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
9582
9583 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
9584
9585 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
9586 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
9587 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
9588 &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;,
9589 &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
9590 &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;.
9591
9592 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
9593 this shell script:</p>
9594
9595 <pre>
9596 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
9597 </pre>
9598
9599 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
9600 using modinfo:</p>
9601
9602 <pre>
9603 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
9604 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
9605 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
9606 %
9607 </pre>
9608
9609 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
9610
9611 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
9612 Bridge memory controller:</p>
9613
9614 <p><blockquote>
9615 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
9616 </blockquote></p>
9617
9618 <p>This represent these values:</p>
9619
9620 <pre>
9621  v   00008086  (vendor)
9622  d   00002770  (device)
9623  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
9624  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
9625  bc  06        (bus class)
9626  sc  00        (bus subclass)
9627  i   00        (interface)
9628 </pre>
9629
9630 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
9631 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
9632 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
9633 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
9634
9635 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
9636 means.</p>
9637
9638 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
9639
9640 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
9641 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
9642
9643 <p><blockquote>
9644 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
9645 </blockquote></p>
9646
9647 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
9648
9649 <pre>
9650  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
9651  p    0001  (device product)
9652  d    0206  (bcddevice)
9653  dc     09  (device class)
9654  dsc    00  (device subclass)
9655  dp     00  (device protocol)
9656  ic     09  (interface class)
9657  isc    00  (interface subclass)
9658  ip     00  (interface protocol)
9659 </pre>
9660
9661 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
9662 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
9663 these alias entries show up:</p>
9664
9665 <p><blockquote>
9666 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
9667 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
9668 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
9669 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
9670 </blockquote></p>
9671
9672 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
9673 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
9674 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
9675
9676 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
9677
9678 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
9679 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
9680
9681 <p><blockquote>
9682 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
9683 </blockquote></p>
9684
9685 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
9686
9687 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
9688
9689 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
9690 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
9691 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
9692
9693 <p><blockquote>
9694 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
9695 </blockquote></p>
9696
9697 <p>The values present are</p>
9698
9699 <pre>
9700  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
9701  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
9702  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
9703  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
9704  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
9705  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
9706  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
9707  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
9708  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
9709  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
9710  ct   10             (chassis type)
9711  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
9712 </pre>
9713
9714 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
9715 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
9716
9717 <pre>
9718   3 Desktop
9719   4 Low Profile Desktop
9720   5 Pizza Box
9721   6 Mini Tower
9722   7 Tower
9723   8 Portable
9724   9 Laptop
9725  10 Notebook
9726  11 Hand Held
9727  12 Docking Station
9728  13 All In One
9729  14 Sub Notebook
9730  15 Space-saving
9731  16 Lunch Box
9732  17 Main Server Chassis
9733  18 Expansion Chassis
9734  19 Sub Chassis
9735  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
9736  21 Peripheral Chassis
9737  22 RAID Chassis
9738  23 Rack Mount Chassis
9739  24 Sealed-case PC
9740  25 Multi-system
9741  26 CompactPCI
9742  27 AdvancedTCA
9743  28 Blade
9744  29 Blade Enclosing
9745 </pre>
9746
9747 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
9748 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
9749 claim it is a desktop.</p>
9750
9751 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
9752
9753 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
9754 test machine:</p>
9755
9756 <p><blockquote>
9757 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
9758 </blockquote></p>
9759
9760 <p>The values present are</p>
9761
9762 <pre>
9763   ty  01  (type)
9764   pr  00  (prototype)
9765   id  00  (id)
9766   ex  00  (extra)
9767 </pre>
9768
9769 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
9770 the valid values are.</p>
9771
9772 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
9773
9774 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
9775 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
9776 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
9777 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
9778 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
9779 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
9780 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
9781
9782 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
9783
9784 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
9785 one can use the following shell script:</p>
9786
9787 <pre>
9788   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
9789     echo "$id" ; \
9790     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
9791   done
9792 </pre>
9793
9794 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
9795 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
9796
9797 <pre>
9798   acpi:ACPI0003:
9799     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
9800   acpi:device:
9801   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
9802   acpi:IBM0068:
9803     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
9804     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
9805     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
9806     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
9807   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
9808     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
9809     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
9810     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
9811   [...]
9812 </pre>
9813
9814 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
9815 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
9816 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
9817 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
9818
9819 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
9820 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
9821 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
9822
9823       </div>
9824       <div class="tags">
9825
9826
9827         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9828
9829
9830       </div>
9831     </div>
9832     <div class="padding"></div>
9833
9834     <div class="entry">
9835       <div class="title">
9836         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
9837       </div>
9838       <div class="date">
9839         10th January 2013
9840       </div>
9841       <div class="body">
9842         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
9843 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
9844 Launcher and updated the Debian package
9845 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
9846 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
9847 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
9848 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
9849 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
9850 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
9851 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
9852 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
9853 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
9854 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
9855 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
9856 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
9857 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
9858 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
9859 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
9860
9861       </div>
9862       <div class="tags">
9863
9864
9865         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
9866
9867
9868       </div>
9869     </div>
9870     <div class="padding"></div>
9871
9872     <div class="entry">
9873       <div class="title">
9874         <a href="https://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>
9875       </div>
9876       <div class="date">
9877          9th January 2013
9878       </div>
9879       <div class="body">
9880         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
9881 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
9882 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
9883 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
9884 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
9885 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
9886 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
9887 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
9888 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
9889 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
9890 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
9891
9892 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
9893 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
9894 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
9895 simple:
9896
9897 <ul>
9898
9899 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
9900   starting when a user log in.</li>
9901
9902 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
9903   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
9904
9905 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
9906   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
9907   packages.</li>
9908
9909 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
9910   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
9911
9912 </ul>
9913
9914 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
9915 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
9916 discover database to find packages and
9917 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
9918 packages.</p>
9919
9920 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
9921 draft package is now checked into
9922 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
9923 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
9924 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
9925 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
9926 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
9927 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
9928 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
9929 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
9930 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
9931 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
9932 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
9933 because of the freeze).</p>
9934
9935 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
9936 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
9937 inserted):</p>
9938
9939 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
9940
9941 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
9942 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
9943 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
9944
9945 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
9946 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
9947 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
9948 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
9949 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
9950 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
9951 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
9952
9953 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
9954 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
9955 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
9956 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
9957 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
9958 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
9959 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
9960 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
9961 not be installed?</p>
9962
9963 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
9964 please send me an email. :)</p>
9965
9966       </div>
9967       <div class="tags">
9968
9969
9970         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
9971
9972
9973       </div>
9974     </div>
9975     <div class="padding"></div>
9976
9977     <div class="entry">
9978       <div class="title">
9979         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
9980       </div>
9981       <div class="date">
9982          2nd January 2013
9983       </div>
9984       <div class="body">
9985         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
9986 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
9987 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
9988 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
9989 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
9990 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
9991 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
9992 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
9993 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
9994 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
9995
9996 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
9997 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
9998 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
9999
10000       </div>
10001       <div class="tags">
10002
10003
10004         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
10005
10006
10007       </div>
10008     </div>
10009     <div class="padding"></div>
10010
10011     <div class="entry">
10012       <div class="title">
10013         <a href="https://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>
10014       </div>
10015       <div class="date">
10016         25th December 2012
10017       </div>
10018       <div class="body">
10019         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
10020 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
10021
10022 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
10023 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
10024 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
10025 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
10026 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
10027 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
10028 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
10029 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
10030 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
10031 name.</p>
10032
10033 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
10034 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
10035 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
10036
10037 <blockquote><pre>
10038 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
10039 cd bitcoin
10040 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
10041 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
10042 </pre></blockquote>
10043
10044 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
10045 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
10046 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
10047 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
10048 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
10049 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
10050 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
10051 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
10052 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
10053
10054 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
10055 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
10056 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
10057
10058       </div>
10059       <div class="tags">
10060
10061
10062         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10063
10064
10065       </div>
10066     </div>
10067     <div class="padding"></div>
10068
10069     <div class="entry">
10070       <div class="title">
10071         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
10072       </div>
10073       <div class="date">
10074         21st December 2012
10075       </div>
10076       <div class="body">
10077         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
10078 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
10079 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
10080 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
10081 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
10082 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
10083 is now maintained by a
10084 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
10085 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
10086 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
10087 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
10088 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
10089 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
10090 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
10091 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
10092 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
10093 Corallo in a
10094 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
10095 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
10096 Debian package.</p>
10097
10098 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
10099 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
10100 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
10101 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
10102 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
10103 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
10104 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
10105 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
10106 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
10107 new version to unstable.
10108
10109 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
10110 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
10111 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
10112 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
10113 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
10114 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
10115 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
10116 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
10117 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
10118 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
10119 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
10120 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
10121 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
10122 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
10123 have not tested them.</p>
10124
10125 <p>My
10126 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
10127 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
10128 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
10129 years ago, as can be
10130 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
10131 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
10132 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
10133 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
10134 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
10135 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
10136 the same address as last time,
10137 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
10138
10139       </div>
10140       <div class="tags">
10141
10142
10143         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10144
10145
10146       </div>
10147     </div>
10148     <div class="padding"></div>
10149
10150     <div class="entry">
10151       <div class="title">
10152         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
10153       </div>
10154       <div class="date">
10155          7th September 2012
10156       </div>
10157       <div class="body">
10158         <p>As I
10159 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
10160 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
10161 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
10162 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
10163 repository for the project</a>.</p>
10164
10165 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
10166 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
10167 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
10168 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
10169
10170 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
10171 PostScript formats at
10172 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
10173 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
10174
10175       </div>
10176       <div class="tags">
10177
10178
10179         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
10180
10181
10182       </div>
10183     </div>
10184     <div class="padding"></div>
10185
10186     <div class="entry">
10187       <div class="title">
10188         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
10189       </div>
10190       <div class="date">
10191         16th August 2012
10192       </div>
10193       <div class="body">
10194         <p>I dag fyller
10195 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
10196 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
10197 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
10198
10199       </div>
10200       <div class="tags">
10201
10202
10203         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
10204
10205
10206       </div>
10207     </div>
10208     <div class="padding"></div>
10209
10210     <div class="entry">
10211       <div class="title">
10212         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
10213       </div>
10214       <div class="date">
10215         24th June 2012
10216       </div>
10217       <div class="body">
10218         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
10219 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
10220 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
10221 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
10222 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
10223 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
10224 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
10225 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
10226 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
10227 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
10228 missing in my book.</p>
10229
10230 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
10231 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
10232 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
10233 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
10234 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
10235 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
10236 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
10237
10238       </div>
10239       <div class="tags">
10240
10241
10242         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
10243
10244
10245       </div>
10246     </div>
10247     <div class="padding"></div>
10248
10249     <div class="entry">
10250       <div class="title">
10251         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
10252       </div>
10253       <div class="date">
10254         21st November 2011
10255       </div>
10256       <div class="body">
10257         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
10258 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
10259 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
10260 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
10261 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
10262 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
10263 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
10264 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
10265 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
10266 the tools to do so.</p>
10267
10268 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
10269 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
10270 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
10271 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
10272
10273 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
10274 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
10275 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
10276 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
10277 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
10278 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
10279 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
10280 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
10281
10282 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
10283 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
10284 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
10285
10286 <p><pre>
10287 #!/usr/bin/perl
10288 use strict;
10289 use warnings;
10290 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
10291 BEGIN {
10292     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
10293     my %rhelmodules = (
10294         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
10295         );
10296     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
10297         eval "use $module;";
10298         if ($@) {
10299             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
10300             system("yum install -y $pkg");
10301             eval "use $module;";
10302         }
10303     }
10304 }
10305 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
10306
10307 upgrade_dell();
10308
10309 exit 0;
10310
10311 sub run_firmware_script {
10312     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
10313     unless ($script) {
10314         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
10315         exit 1
10316     }
10317     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
10318
10319     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
10320         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
10321     } else {
10322         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
10323     }
10324 }
10325
10326 sub run_firmware_scripts {
10327     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
10328     # Run firmware packages
10329     for my $dir (@dirs) {
10330         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
10331         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
10332         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
10333             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
10334             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
10335         }
10336         closedir $dh;
10337     }
10338 }
10339
10340 sub download {
10341     my $url = shift;
10342     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
10343     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
10344 }
10345
10346 sub upgrade_dell {
10347     my @dirs;
10348     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
10349     chomp $product;
10350
10351     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
10352
10353         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
10354         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
10355
10356         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
10357             CLEANUP => 1
10358             );
10359         chdir($tmpdir);
10360         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
10361         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
10362         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
10363         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
10364         my $fwopts = "-q";
10365         if (@paths) {
10366             for my $url (@paths) {
10367                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
10368             }
10369             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
10370         } else {
10371             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
10372             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
10373         }
10374         chdir('/');
10375     } else {
10376         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
10377         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
10378     }
10379 }
10380
10381 sub fetch_dell_fw {
10382     my $path = shift;
10383     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
10384     download($url);
10385 }
10386
10387 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
10388 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
10389 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
10390 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
10391     my $filename = shift;
10392
10393     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
10394     chomp $product;
10395     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
10396
10397     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
10398
10399     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
10400     my @paths;
10401     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
10402         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
10403         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
10404         my $oscode;
10405         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
10406             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
10407         } else {
10408             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
10409         }
10410         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
10411         {
10412             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
10413         }
10414     }
10415     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
10416         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
10417
10418         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
10419         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
10420
10421         my $cpath = $component->{path};
10422         for my $path (@paths) {
10423             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
10424                 push(@paths, $cpath);
10425             }
10426         }
10427     }
10428     return @paths;
10429 }
10430 </pre>
10431
10432 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
10433 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
10434 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
10435 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
10436 outdated.</p>
10437
10438       </div>
10439       <div class="tags">
10440
10441
10442         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10443
10444
10445       </div>
10446     </div>
10447     <div class="padding"></div>
10448
10449     <div class="entry">
10450       <div class="title">
10451         <a href="https://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>
10452       </div>
10453       <div class="date">
10454          4th August 2011
10455       </div>
10456       <div class="body">
10457         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
10458 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
10459 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
10460 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
10461 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
10462 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
10463 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
10464 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
10465 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
10466
10467 <p><blockquote>
10468 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
10469 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
10470 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
10471 </blockquote></p>
10472
10473 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
10474 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
10475 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
10476 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
10477 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
10478 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
10479 hard to explain.</p>
10480
10481 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
10482 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
10483 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
10484 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
10485 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
10486 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
10487 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
10488 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
10489 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
10490 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
10491 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
10492 mode).</p>
10493
10494 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
10495 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
10496 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
10497 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
10498 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
10499 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
10500 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
10501 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
10502 after visiting single user mode.</p>
10503
10504 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
10505 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
10506 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
10507 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
10508 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
10509 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
10510 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
10511 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
10512
10513 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
10514 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
10515 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
10516
10517       </div>
10518       <div class="tags">
10519
10520
10521         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10522
10523
10524       </div>
10525     </div>
10526     <div class="padding"></div>
10527
10528     <div class="entry">
10529       <div class="title">
10530         <a href="https://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>
10531       </div>
10532       <div class="date">
10533         30th July 2011
10534       </div>
10535       <div class="body">
10536         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
10537 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
10538 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
10539 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
10540 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
10541 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
10542 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
10543 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
10544 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
10545 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
10546 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
10547 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
10548 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
10549
10550 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
10551 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
10552 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
10553 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
10554 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
10555 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
10556 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
10557 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
10558 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
10559
10560 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
10561 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
10562 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
10563 is presented.</p>
10564
10565 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
10566 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
10567 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
10568 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
10569 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
10570 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
10571 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
10572 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
10573 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
10574 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
10575 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
10576 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
10577 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
10578 find time to push this forward.</p>
10579
10580       </div>
10581       <div class="tags">
10582
10583
10584         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10585
10586
10587       </div>
10588     </div>
10589     <div class="padding"></div>
10590
10591     <div class="entry">
10592       <div class="title">
10593         <a href="https://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>
10594       </div>
10595       <div class="date">
10596         29th July 2011
10597       </div>
10598       <div class="body">
10599         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
10600 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
10601 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
10602 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
10603 issues.</p>
10604
10605 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
10606 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
10607 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
10608
10609 <ol>
10610
10611 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
10612 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
10613 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
10614 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
10615 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
10616 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
10617 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
10618 Debian.</li>
10619
10620 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
10621 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
10622 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
10623 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
10624 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
10625 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
10626 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
10627 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
10628 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
10629 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
10630 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
10631 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
10632 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
10633
10634 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
10635 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
10636 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
10637 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
10638 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
10639 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
10640 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
10641 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
10642 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
10643 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
10644
10645 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
10646 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
10647 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
10648 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
10649 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
10650 latter behaviour.</li>
10651
10652 </ol>
10653
10654 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
10655 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
10656 it do not matter much.</p>
10657
10658 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
10659 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
10660 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
10661
10662       </div>
10663       <div class="tags">
10664
10665
10666         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
10667
10668
10669       </div>
10670     </div>
10671     <div class="padding"></div>
10672
10673     <div class="entry">
10674       <div class="title">
10675         <a href="https://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>
10676       </div>
10677       <div class="date">
10678         26th July 2011
10679       </div>
10680       <div class="body">
10681         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
10682 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
10683 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
10684 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
10685 security support for a few years.</p>
10686
10687 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
10688 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
10689 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
10690 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
10691 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
10692 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
10693 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
10694 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
10695 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
10696 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
10697 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
10698 easier in the future.</p>
10699
10700 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
10701 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
10702 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
10703 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
10704 do not have time for.</p>
10705
10706       </div>
10707       <div class="tags">
10708
10709
10710         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
10711
10712
10713       </div>
10714     </div>
10715     <div class="padding"></div>
10716
10717     <div class="entry">
10718       <div class="title">
10719         <a href="https://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>
10720       </div>
10721       <div class="date">
10722          3rd April 2011
10723       </div>
10724       <div class="body">
10725         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
10726 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
10727 update in English.</p>
10728
10729 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
10730 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
10731 of the British service
10732 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
10733 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
10734 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
10735 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
10736 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
10737 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
10738 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
10739 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
10740 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
10741 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
10742 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
10743 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
10744 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
10745
10746 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
10747 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
10748 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
10749 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
10750 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
10751 public infrastructure.</p>
10752
10753 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
10754 such service?</p>
10755
10756       </div>
10757       <div class="tags">
10758
10759
10760         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
10761
10762
10763       </div>
10764     </div>
10765     <div class="padding"></div>
10766
10767     <div class="entry">
10768       <div class="title">
10769         <a href="https://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>
10770       </div>
10771       <div class="date">
10772         28th January 2011
10773       </div>
10774       <div class="body">
10775         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
10776 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
10777 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
10778 available on the Internet, and check our locally
10779 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
10780 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
10781 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
10782 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
10783 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
10784 out which security holes were present in our free software
10785 collection.</p>
10786
10787 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
10788 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
10789 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
10790 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
10791 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
10792 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
10793 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
10794 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
10795 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
10796 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
10797 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
10798 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
10799 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
10800 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
10801 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
10802 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
10803
10804 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
10805 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
10806 check out, one could look up
10807 <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
10808 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
10809 The most recent one is
10810 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
10811 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
10812 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
10813
10814 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
10815 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
10816 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
10817 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
10818 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
10819 security issues out.</p>
10820
10821 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
10822 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
10823 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
10824 RHEL is providing
10825 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
10826 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
10827 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
10828
10829 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
10830 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
10831 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
10832 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
10833 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
10834 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
10835 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
10836 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
10837 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
10838 established soon.</p>
10839
10840 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
10841 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
10842 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
10843 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
10844 for their packages.</p>
10845
10846       </div>
10847       <div class="tags">
10848
10849
10850         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
10851
10852
10853       </div>
10854     </div>
10855     <div class="padding"></div>
10856
10857     <div class="entry">
10858       <div class="title">
10859         <a href="https://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>
10860       </div>
10861       <div class="date">
10862         23rd January 2011
10863       </div>
10864       <div class="body">
10865         <p>In the
10866 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
10867 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
10868 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
10869 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
10870 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
10871 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
10872 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
10873 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
10874 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
10875 one of my machines like this:</p>
10876
10877 <pre>
10878 loaded modules:
10879 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
10880 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
10881 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
10882 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
10883 10de:03ec pata_amd
10884 10de:03f6 sata_nv
10885 1022:1103 k8temp
10886 109e:036e bttv
10887 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
10888 11ab:4364 sky2
10889 </pre>
10890
10891 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
10892 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
10893
10894 <pre>
10895 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
10896     echo loaded pci modules:
10897     (
10898         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
10899         for address in * ; do
10900             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
10901                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
10902                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
10903                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
10904                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
10905                     echo "$id $module"
10906                 fi
10907             fi
10908         done
10909     )
10910     echo
10911 fi
10912 </pre>
10913
10914 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
10915 mappings:</p>
10916
10917 <pre>
10918 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
10919     echo loaded usb modules:
10920     (
10921         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
10922         for address in * ; do
10923             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
10924                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
10925                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
10926                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
10927                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
10928                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
10929                         echo "$id $module"
10930                     fi
10931                 fi
10932             fi
10933         done
10934     )
10935     echo
10936 fi
10937 </pre>
10938
10939 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
10940 well.</p>
10941
10942       </div>
10943       <div class="tags">
10944
10945
10946         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10947
10948
10949       </div>
10950     </div>
10951     <div class="padding"></div>
10952
10953     <div class="entry">
10954       <div class="title">
10955         <a href="https://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>
10956       </div>
10957       <div class="date">
10958         22nd December 2010
10959       </div>
10960       <div class="body">
10961         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
10962 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
10963 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
10964 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
10965 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
10966 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
10967 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
10968 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
10969 university.</p>
10970
10971 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
10972 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
10973 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
10974 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
10975 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
10976 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
10977 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
10978 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
10979
10980 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
10981 I perform on a new model.</p>
10982
10983 <ul>
10984
10985 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
10986 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
10987 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
10988
10989 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
10990 installation, X.org is working.</li>
10991
10992 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
10993 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
10994 reported by the program.</li>
10995
10996 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
10997 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
10998 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
10999 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
11000 normally test this by playing
11001 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
11002 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
11003
11004 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
11005 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
11006
11007 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
11008 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
11009
11010 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
11011 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
11012
11013 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
11014 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
11015 few.</li>
11016
11017 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
11018 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
11019 notice this.</li>
11020
11021 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
11022 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
11023 resume.</li>
11024
11025 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
11026 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
11027 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
11028 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
11029 not.</li>
11030
11031 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
11032 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
11033 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
11034 existence.</li>
11035
11036 </ul>
11037
11038 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
11039 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
11040 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
11041 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
11042 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
11043 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
11044 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
11045 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
11046
11047       </div>
11048       <div class="tags">
11049
11050
11051         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11052
11053
11054       </div>
11055     </div>
11056     <div class="padding"></div>
11057
11058     <div class="entry">
11059       <div class="title">
11060         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
11061       </div>
11062       <div class="date">
11063         11th December 2010
11064       </div>
11065       <div class="body">
11066         <p>As I continue to explore
11067 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
11068 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
11069 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
11070
11071 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
11072 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
11073 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
11074 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
11075 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
11076 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
11077 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
11078 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
11079 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
11080 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
11081 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
11082 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
11083 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
11084 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
11085 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
11086 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
11087 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
11088 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
11089 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
11090 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
11091
11092 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
11093 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
11094 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
11095 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
11096 If the Skolelinux foundation
11097 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
11098 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
11099 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
11100 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
11101 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
11102 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
11103 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
11104 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
11105
11106 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
11107 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
11108 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
11109 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
11110 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
11111 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
11112 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
11113 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
11114 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
11115 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
11116 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
11117 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
11118 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
11119 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
11120 currencies.</p>
11121
11122 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
11123 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
11124 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
11125 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
11126 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
11127 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
11128 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
11129 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
11130 BitCoins.  Check out
11131 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
11132 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
11133 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
11134 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
11135 yet.</p>
11136
11137 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
11138 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
11139 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
11140 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
11141 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
11142
11143       </div>
11144       <div class="tags">
11145
11146
11147         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11148
11149
11150       </div>
11151     </div>
11152     <div class="padding"></div>
11153
11154     <div class="entry">
11155       <div class="title">
11156         <a href="https://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>
11157       </div>
11158       <div class="date">
11159         10th December 2010
11160       </div>
11161       <div class="body">
11162         <p>With this weeks lawless
11163 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
11164 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
11165 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
11166 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
11167 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
11168 A blog post from
11169 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
11170 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
11171 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
11172 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
11173 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
11174 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
11175 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
11176
11177 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
11178 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
11179 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
11180 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
11181 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
11182 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
11183 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
11184 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
11185 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
11186 Debian</a> soon.</p>
11187
11188 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
11189 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
11190 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
11191 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
11192 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
11193 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
11194 you can even get
11195 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
11196 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
11197 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
11198 on the current exchange rates.</p>
11199
11200 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
11201 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
11202 donations to the address
11203 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
11204
11205       </div>
11206       <div class="tags">
11207
11208
11209         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11210
11211
11212       </div>
11213     </div>
11214     <div class="padding"></div>
11215
11216     <div class="entry">
11217       <div class="title">
11218         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
11219       </div>
11220       <div class="date">
11221         27th November 2010
11222       </div>
11223       <div class="body">
11224         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
11225 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
11226 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
11227 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
11228 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
11229 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
11230 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
11231 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
11232
11233 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
11234 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
11235 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
11236 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
11237 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
11238 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
11239 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
11240 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
11241 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
11242 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
11243 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
11244
11245 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
11246 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
11247 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
11248 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
11249 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
11250 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
11251 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
11252 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
11253 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
11254 what is going on.</p>
11255
11256       </div>
11257       <div class="tags">
11258
11259
11260         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11261
11262
11263       </div>
11264     </div>
11265     <div class="padding"></div>
11266
11267     <div class="entry">
11268       <div class="title">
11269         <a href="https://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>
11270       </div>
11271       <div class="date">
11272         22nd November 2010
11273       </div>
11274       <div class="body">
11275         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
11276 upgrade testing of the
11277 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
11278 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
11279 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
11280 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
11281
11282 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
11283
11284 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11285
11286 <blockquote><p>
11287   apache2.2-bin
11288   aptdaemon
11289   baobab
11290   binfmt-support
11291   browser-plugin-gnash
11292   cheese-common
11293   cli-common
11294   cups-pk-helper
11295   dmz-cursor-theme
11296   empathy
11297   empathy-common
11298   freedesktop-sound-theme
11299   freeglut3
11300   gconf-defaults-service
11301   gdm-themes
11302   gedit-plugins
11303   geoclue
11304   geoclue-hostip
11305   geoclue-localnet
11306   geoclue-manual
11307   geoclue-yahoo
11308   gnash
11309   gnash-common
11310   gnome
11311   gnome-backgrounds
11312   gnome-cards-data
11313   gnome-codec-install
11314   gnome-core
11315   gnome-desktop-environment
11316   gnome-disk-utility
11317   gnome-screenshot
11318   gnome-search-tool
11319   gnome-session-canberra
11320   gnome-system-log
11321   gnome-themes-extras
11322   gnome-themes-more
11323   gnome-user-share
11324   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
11325   gstreamer0.10-tools
11326   gtk2-engines
11327   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
11328   gtk2-engines-smooth
11329   hamster-applet
11330   libapache2-mod-dnssd
11331   libapr1
11332   libaprutil1
11333   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
11334   libaprutil1-ldap
11335   libart2.0-cil
11336   libboost-date-time1.42.0
11337   libboost-python1.42.0
11338   libboost-thread1.42.0
11339   libchamplain-0.4-0
11340   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
11341   libcheese-gtk18
11342   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
11343   libcryptui0
11344   libdiscid0
11345   libelf1
11346   libepc-1.0-2
11347   libepc-common
11348   libepc-ui-1.0-2
11349   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
11350   libfreerdp0
11351   libgconf2.0-cil
11352   libgdata-common
11353   libgdata7
11354   libgdu-gtk0
11355   libgee2
11356   libgeoclue0
11357   libgexiv2-0
11358   libgif4
11359   libglade2.0-cil
11360   libglib2.0-cil
11361   libgmime2.4-cil
11362   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
11363   libgnome2.24-cil
11364   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
11365   libgpod-common
11366   libgpod4
11367   libgtk2.0-cil
11368   libgtkglext1
11369   libgtksourceview2.0-common
11370   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
11371   libmono-addins0.2-cil
11372   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
11373   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
11374   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
11375   libmono-posix2.0-cil
11376   libmono-security2.0-cil
11377   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
11378   libmono-system2.0-cil
11379   libmtp8
11380   libmusicbrainz3-6
11381   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
11382   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
11383   libopal3.6.8
11384   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
11385   libpt2.6.7
11386   libpython2.6
11387   librpm1
11388   librpmio1
11389   libsdl1.2debian
11390   libsrtp0
11391   libssh-4
11392   libtelepathy-farsight0
11393   libtelepathy-glib0
11394   libtidy-0.99-0
11395   media-player-info
11396   mesa-utils
11397   mono-2.0-gac
11398   mono-gac
11399   mono-runtime
11400   nautilus-sendto
11401   nautilus-sendto-empathy
11402   p7zip-full
11403   pkg-config
11404   python-aptdaemon
11405   python-aptdaemon-gtk
11406   python-axiom
11407   python-beautifulsoup
11408   python-bugbuddy
11409   python-clientform
11410   python-coherence
11411   python-configobj
11412   python-crypto
11413   python-cupshelpers
11414   python-elementtree
11415   python-epsilon
11416   python-evolution
11417   python-feedparser
11418   python-gdata
11419   python-gdbm
11420   python-gst0.10
11421   python-gtkglext1
11422   python-gtksourceview2
11423   python-httplib2
11424   python-louie
11425   python-mako
11426   python-markupsafe
11427   python-mechanize
11428   python-nevow
11429   python-notify
11430   python-opengl
11431   python-openssl
11432   python-pam
11433   python-pkg-resources
11434   python-pyasn1
11435   python-pysqlite2
11436   python-rdflib
11437   python-serial
11438   python-tagpy
11439   python-twisted-bin
11440   python-twisted-conch
11441   python-twisted-core
11442   python-twisted-web
11443   python-utidylib
11444   python-webkit
11445   python-xdg
11446   python-zope.interface
11447   remmina
11448   remmina-plugin-data
11449   remmina-plugin-rdp
11450   remmina-plugin-vnc
11451   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
11452   rhythmbox-plugins
11453   rpm-common
11454   rpm2cpio
11455   seahorse-plugins
11456   shotwell
11457   software-center
11458   system-config-printer-udev
11459   telepathy-gabble
11460   telepathy-mission-control-5
11461   telepathy-salut
11462   tomboy
11463   totem
11464   totem-coherence
11465   totem-mozilla
11466   totem-plugins
11467   transmission-common
11468   xdg-user-dirs
11469   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
11470   xserver-xephyr
11471 </p></blockquote>
11472
11473 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11474
11475 <blockquote><p>
11476   cheese
11477   ekiga
11478   eog
11479   epiphany-extensions
11480   evolution-exchange
11481   fast-user-switch-applet
11482   file-roller
11483   gcalctool
11484   gconf-editor
11485   gdm
11486   gedit
11487   gedit-common
11488   gnome-games
11489   gnome-games-data
11490   gnome-nettool
11491   gnome-system-tools
11492   gnome-themes
11493   gnuchess
11494   gucharmap
11495   guile-1.8-libs
11496   libavahi-ui0
11497   libdmx1
11498   libgalago3
11499   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
11500   libgtksourceview2.0-0
11501   liblircclient0
11502   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
11503   libspeexdsp1
11504   libsvga1
11505   rhythmbox
11506   seahorse
11507   sound-juicer
11508   system-config-printer
11509   totem-common
11510   transmission-gtk
11511   vinagre
11512   vino
11513 </p></blockquote>
11514
11515 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11516
11517 <blockquote><p>
11518   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11519 </p></blockquote>
11520
11521 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11522
11523 <blockquote><p>
11524 [nothing]
11525 </p></blockquote>
11526
11527 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
11528
11529 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11530
11531 <blockquote><p>
11532   ksmserver
11533 </p></blockquote>
11534
11535 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11536
11537 <blockquote><p>
11538   kwin
11539   network-manager-kde
11540 </p></blockquote>
11541
11542 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11543
11544 <blockquote><p>
11545   arts
11546   dolphin
11547   freespacenotifier
11548   google-gadgets-gst
11549   google-gadgets-xul
11550   kappfinder
11551   kcalc
11552   kcharselect
11553   kde-core
11554   kde-plasma-desktop
11555   kde-standard
11556   kde-window-manager
11557   kdeartwork
11558   kdeartwork-emoticons
11559   kdeartwork-style
11560   kdeartwork-theme-icon
11561   kdebase
11562   kdebase-apps
11563   kdebase-workspace
11564   kdebase-workspace-bin
11565   kdebase-workspace-data
11566   kdeeject
11567   kdelibs
11568   kdeplasma-addons
11569   kdeutils
11570   kdewallpapers
11571   kdf
11572   kfloppy
11573   kgpg
11574   khelpcenter4
11575   kinfocenter
11576   konq-plugins-l10n
11577   konqueror-nsplugins
11578   kscreensaver
11579   kscreensaver-xsavers
11580   ktimer
11581   kwrite
11582   libgle3
11583   libkde4-ruby1.8
11584   libkonq5
11585   libkonq5-templates
11586   libnetpbm10
11587   libplasma-ruby
11588   libplasma-ruby1.8
11589   libqt4-ruby1.8
11590   marble-data
11591   marble-plugins
11592   netpbm
11593   nuvola-icon-theme
11594   plasma-dataengines-workspace
11595   plasma-desktop
11596   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
11597   plasma-runners-addons
11598   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
11599   plasma-scriptengine-python
11600   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
11601   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
11602   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
11603   plasma-scriptengines
11604   plasma-wallpapers-addons
11605   plasma-widget-folderview
11606   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
11607   ruby
11608   sweeper
11609   update-notifier-kde
11610   xscreensaver-data-extra
11611   xscreensaver-gl
11612   xscreensaver-gl-extra
11613   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
11614 </p></blockquote>
11615
11616 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11617
11618 <blockquote><p>
11619   ark
11620   google-gadgets-common
11621   google-gadgets-qt
11622   htdig
11623   kate
11624   kdebase-bin
11625   kdebase-data
11626   kdepasswd
11627   kfind
11628   klipper
11629   konq-plugins
11630   konqueror
11631   ksysguard
11632   ksysguardd
11633   libarchive1
11634   libcln6
11635   libeet1
11636   libeina-svn-06
11637   libggadget-1.0-0b
11638   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
11639   libgps19
11640   libkdecorations4
11641   libkephal4
11642   libkonq4
11643   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
11644   libkscreensaver5
11645   libksgrd4
11646   libksignalplotter4
11647   libkunitconversion4
11648   libkwineffects1a
11649   libmarblewidget4
11650   libntrack-qt4-1
11651   libntrack0
11652   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
11653   libplasmaclock4a
11654   libplasmagenericshell4
11655   libprocesscore4a
11656   libprocessui4a
11657   libqalculate5
11658   libqedje0a
11659   libqtruby4shared2
11660   libqzion0a
11661   libruby1.8
11662   libscim8c2a
11663   libsmokekdecore4-3
11664   libsmokekdeui4-3
11665   libsmokekfile3
11666   libsmokekhtml3
11667   libsmokekio3
11668   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
11669   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
11670   libsmokekparts3
11671   libsmokektexteditor3
11672   libsmokekutils3
11673   libsmokenepomuk3
11674   libsmokephonon3
11675   libsmokeplasma3
11676   libsmokeqtcore4-3
11677   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
11678   libsmokeqtgui4-3
11679   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
11680   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
11681   libsmokeqtscript4-3
11682   libsmokeqtsql4-3
11683   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
11684   libsmokeqttest4-3
11685   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
11686   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
11687   libsmokeqtxml4-3
11688   libsmokesolid3
11689   libsmokesoprano3
11690   libtaskmanager4a
11691   libtidy-0.99-0
11692   libweather-ion4a
11693   libxklavier16
11694   libxxf86misc1
11695   okteta
11696   oxygencursors
11697   plasma-dataengines-addons
11698   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
11699   plasma-widget-lancelot
11700   plasma-widgets-addons
11701   plasma-widgets-workspace
11702   polkit-kde-1
11703   ruby1.8
11704   systemsettings
11705   update-notifier-common
11706 </p></blockquote>
11707
11708 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
11709 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
11710 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
11711 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
11712
11713       </div>
11714       <div class="tags">
11715
11716
11717         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11718
11719
11720       </div>
11721     </div>
11722     <div class="padding"></div>
11723
11724     <div class="entry">
11725       <div class="title">
11726         <a href="https://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>
11727       </div>
11728       <div class="date">
11729         22nd November 2010
11730       </div>
11731       <div class="body">
11732         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
11733 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
11734 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
11735 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
11736 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
11737 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
11738 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
11739 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
11740 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
11741
11742 <p>I found
11743 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
11744 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
11745 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
11746 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
11747 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
11748 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
11749
11750 <pre>
11751 #!/bin/sh
11752
11753 # Based on
11754 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
11755
11756 set -e
11757 set -x
11758
11759 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
11760     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
11761     exit 1
11762 else
11763     host="$1"
11764 fi
11765
11766 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
11767     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
11768     exit 1
11769 fi
11770
11771 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
11772 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11773 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11774 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
11775
11776 img=$host.img
11777 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
11778 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
11779
11780 parted $img mklabel msdos
11781 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
11782 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
11783 parted $img set 1 boot on
11784
11785 modprobe dm-mod
11786 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
11787 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
11788
11789 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
11790 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
11791 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
11792
11793 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
11794 losetup -d /dev/loop0
11795 </pre>
11796
11797 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
11798 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
11799
11800 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
11801 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
11802 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
11803 seem to work just fine.</p>
11804
11805       </div>
11806       <div class="tags">
11807
11808
11809         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11810
11811
11812       </div>
11813     </div>
11814     <div class="padding"></div>
11815
11816     <div class="entry">
11817       <div class="title">
11818         <a href="https://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>
11819       </div>
11820       <div class="date">
11821         20th November 2010
11822       </div>
11823       <div class="body">
11824         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
11825 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
11826 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
11827 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
11828
11829 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
11830 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
11831 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
11832
11833 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
11834
11835 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11836
11837 <blockquote><p>
11838   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
11839   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
11840   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
11841   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
11842   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
11843   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
11844   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
11845   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
11846   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
11847   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
11848   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
11849   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
11850   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
11851   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
11852   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
11853   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
11854   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
11855   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
11856   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
11857   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
11858   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
11859   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
11860   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
11861   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
11862   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
11863   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
11864   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
11865   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
11866   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
11867   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
11868   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
11869   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
11870   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
11871   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
11872   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
11873   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
11874   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
11875   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
11876   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
11877   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
11878   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
11879   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
11880   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
11881   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
11882   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
11883   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
11884   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
11885   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
11886   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
11887   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
11888   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
11889   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
11890   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
11891   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
11892   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
11893   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
11894   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
11895   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
11896   zip
11897 </p></blockquote>
11898
11899 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
11900
11901 <blockquote><p>
11902   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
11903   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
11904   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
11905   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
11906   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
11907   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
11908   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
11909   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
11910   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
11911   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
11912   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
11913   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
11914   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
11915   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11916   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
11917   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
11918   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
11919   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
11920   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
11921   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
11922   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
11923   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
11924   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
11925   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
11926   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
11927   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
11928   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
11929   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
11930   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
11931 </p></blockquote>
11932
11933 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11934
11935 <blockquote><p>
11936   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11937 </p></blockquote>
11938
11939 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11940
11941 <blockquote><p>
11942 [nothing]
11943 </p></blockquote>
11944
11945 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
11946
11947 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11948
11949 <blockquote><p>
11950   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
11951   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11952   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
11953   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
11954   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
11955   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
11956   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11957   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
11958   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
11959   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11960   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
11961   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
11962   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
11963   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
11964   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
11965   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
11966   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
11967   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
11968   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
11969   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
11970   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
11971   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
11972   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
11973   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
11974   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
11975   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
11976   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
11977   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
11978   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
11979   ttf-sazanami-gothic
11980 </p></blockquote>
11981
11982 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11983
11984 <blockquote><p>
11985   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
11986   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
11987   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
11988   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
11989   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
11990   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
11991   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
11992   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
11993   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
11994   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
11995   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
11996   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
11997   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
11998   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
11999   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
12000   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
12001   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
12002   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
12003   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
12004   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
12005   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
12006   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
12007   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
12008   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
12009   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
12010   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
12011   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
12012   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
12013   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
12014   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
12015   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
12016   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
12017   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
12018 </p></blockquote>
12019
12020 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12021
12022 <blockquote><p>
12023   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
12024   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
12025   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
12026   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
12027   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
12028   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
12029   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
12030 </p></blockquote>
12031
12032 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12033
12034 <blockquote><p>
12035   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
12036 </p></blockquote>
12037
12038       </div>
12039       <div class="tags">
12040
12041
12042         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12043
12044
12045       </div>
12046     </div>
12047     <div class="padding"></div>
12048
12049     <div class="entry">
12050       <div class="title">
12051         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
12052       </div>
12053       <div class="date">
12054         20th November 2010
12055       </div>
12056       <div class="body">
12057         <p>Answering
12058 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
12059 call from the Gnash project</a> for
12060 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
12061 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
12062 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
12063 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
12064 releases out more often.</p>
12065
12066 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
12067 I have considered setting up a <a
12068 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
12069 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
12070 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
12071 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
12072 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
12073 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
12074 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
12075 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
12076 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
12077 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
12078 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
12079 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
12080
12081       </div>
12082       <div class="tags">
12083
12084
12085         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12086
12087
12088       </div>
12089     </div>
12090     <div class="padding"></div>
12091
12092     <div class="entry">
12093       <div class="title">
12094         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
12095       </div>
12096       <div class="date">
12097          9th November 2010
12098       </div>
12099       <div class="body">
12100         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
12101
12102 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
12103 3D linked in from
12104 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
12105 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
12106
12107       </div>
12108       <div class="tags">
12109
12110
12111         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12112
12113
12114       </div>
12115     </div>
12116     <div class="padding"></div>
12117
12118     <div class="entry">
12119       <div class="title">
12120         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
12121       </div>
12122       <div class="date">
12123         24th October 2010
12124       </div>
12125       <div class="body">
12126         <p>Some updates.</p>
12127
12128 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
12129 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
12130 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
12131 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
12132 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
12133 :)</p>
12134
12135 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
12136 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
12137 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
12138 It is called
12139 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
12140 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
12141 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
12142 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
12143 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
12144 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
12145
12146 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
12147 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
12148 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
12149 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
12150 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
12151 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
12152 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
12153 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
12154 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
12155 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
12156
12157       </div>
12158       <div class="tags">
12159
12160
12161         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
12162
12163
12164       </div>
12165     </div>
12166     <div class="padding"></div>
12167
12168     <div class="entry">
12169       <div class="title">
12170         <a href="https://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>
12171       </div>
12172       <div class="date">
12173          4th September 2010
12174       </div>
12175       <div class="body">
12176         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
12177 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
12178 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
12179 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
12180 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
12181 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
12182 installed.</p>
12183
12184 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
12185 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
12186 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
12187 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
12188 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
12189 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
12190 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
12191 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
12192 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
12193
12194 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
12195 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
12196 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
12197 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
12198 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
12199 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
12200 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
12201 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
12202 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
12203 pages they want to visit.</p>
12204
12205 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
12206 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
12207 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
12208 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
12209 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
12210 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
12211 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
12212 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
12213 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
12214 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
12215 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
12216
12217       </div>
12218       <div class="tags">
12219
12220
12221         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
12222
12223
12224       </div>
12225     </div>
12226     <div class="padding"></div>
12227
12228     <div class="entry">
12229       <div class="title">
12230         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
12231       </div>
12232       <div class="date">
12233         27th July 2010
12234       </div>
12235       <div class="body">
12236         <p>I discovered this while doing
12237 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
12238 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
12239 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
12240 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
12241 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
12242
12243 <p>An example is from todays
12244 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
12245 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
12246 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
12247 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
12248 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
12249 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
12250 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
12251
12252 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
12253
12254 <blockquote><pre>
12255 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
12256  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
12257   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
12258 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
12259  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
12260 </pre></blockquote>
12261
12262 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
12263 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
12264 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
12265 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
12266 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
12267 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
12268 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
12269 of dependency loops.</p>
12270
12271 <p>Thanks to
12272 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
12273 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
12274 dependencies
12275 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
12276 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
12277
12278 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
12279 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
12280 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
12281 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
12282 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
12283 it.</p>
12284
12285       </div>
12286       <div class="tags">
12287
12288
12289         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12290
12291
12292       </div>
12293     </div>
12294     <div class="padding"></div>
12295
12296     <div class="entry">
12297       <div class="title">
12298         <a href="https://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>
12299       </div>
12300       <div class="date">
12301         17th July 2010
12302       </div>
12303       <div class="body">
12304         <p>This is a
12305 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
12306 on my
12307 <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
12308 work</a> on
12309 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
12310 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
12311
12312 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
12313 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
12314 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
12315 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
12316
12317 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
12318 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
12319 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
12320
12321 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
12322
12323 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
12324 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
12325 the web.
12326
12327 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
12328 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
12329 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
12330 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
12331 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
12332 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
12333
12334 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
12335 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
12336 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
12337 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
12338 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
12339 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
12340 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
12341 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
12342 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
12343 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
12344 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
12345 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
12346 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
12347 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
12348 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
12349 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
12350
12351 <blockquote><pre>
12352 ldapsearch -h ldap \
12353   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
12354   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
12355   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
12356   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
12357   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
12358   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
12359
12360 ldapsearch -h ldap \
12361   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
12362   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
12363   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
12364   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
12365   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
12366 </pre></blockquote>
12367
12368 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
12369 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
12370 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
12371 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12372 also exist.</p>
12373
12374 <blockquote><pre>
12375 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12376 objectclass: top
12377 objectclass: dnsdomain
12378 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12379 dc: tjener
12380 arecord: 10.0.2.2
12381 associateddomain: tjener.intern
12382
12383 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12384 objectclass: top
12385 objectclass: dnsdomain2
12386 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12387 dc: 2
12388 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
12389 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
12390 </pre></blockquote>
12391
12392 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
12393 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
12394 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
12395 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
12396 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
12397 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
12398 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
12399 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
12400 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
12401 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
12402 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
12403 instead.</p>
12404
12405 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
12406 like this:</p>
12407
12408 <blockquote><pre>
12409 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
12410   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
12411   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
12412   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
12413   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
12414   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
12415
12416 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
12417   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
12418 </pre></blockquote>
12419
12420 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
12421 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
12422 reverse lookups.</p>
12423
12424 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
12425 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
12426 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
12427 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
12428
12429 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
12430 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
12431 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
12432
12433 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
12434 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
12435 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
12436 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
12437 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
12438
12439 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
12440 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
12441 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
12442 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
12443 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
12444
12445 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
12446 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
12447 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
12448 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
12449 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
12450 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
12451
12452 <blockquote><pre>
12453 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
12454     SUP top
12455     AUXILIARY
12456     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
12457           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
12458           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
12459           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
12460           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
12461     ))
12462 </pre></blockquote>
12463
12464 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
12465 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
12466 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
12467 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
12468 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
12469 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
12470
12471 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
12472
12473 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
12474 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
12475 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
12476 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
12477 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
12478
12479 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
12480 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
12481 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
12482 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
12483
12484 <blockquote><pre>
12485 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
12486 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
12487 </pre></blockquote>
12488
12489 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
12490 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
12491 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
12492 search result is this entry:</p>
12493
12494 <blockquote><pre>
12495 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12496 cn: dhcp
12497 objectClass: top
12498 objectClass: dhcpServer
12499 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12500 </pre></blockquote>
12501
12502 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
12503 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
12504 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
12505 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
12506 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
12507 The search result is this entry:</p>
12508
12509 <blockquote><pre>
12510 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12511 cn: DHCP Config
12512 objectClass: top
12513 objectClass: dhcpService
12514 objectClass: dhcpOptions
12515 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12516 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
12517 dhcpStatements: authoritative
12518 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
12519 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
12520 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
12521 </pre></blockquote>
12522
12523 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
12524 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
12525 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
12526 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
12527 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
12528 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
12529 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
12530 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
12531 related computer objects.</p>
12532
12533 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
12534 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
12535 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
12536 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
12537 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
12538 like:</p>
12539
12540 <blockquote><pre>
12541 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12542 cn: hostname
12543 objectClass: top
12544 objectClass: dhcpHost
12545 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12546 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
12547 </pre></blockquote>
12548
12549 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
12550 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
12551 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
12552 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
12553 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
12554 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
12555 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
12556 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
12557 structural object class.
12558
12559 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
12560
12561 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
12562 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
12563 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
12564 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
12565 in the configuration.</p>
12566
12567 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
12568 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
12569 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
12570 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
12571 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
12572 structure.</p>
12573
12574 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
12575 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
12576
12577 <blockquote><pre>
12578 ou=services
12579   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
12580     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
12581     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12582       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12583         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12584     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
12585       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
12586         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
12587     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
12588       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
12589 </pre></blockquote>
12590
12591 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
12592 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
12593 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
12594 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
12595
12596 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
12597 like this:</p>
12598
12599 <blockquote><pre>
12600 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12601 dc: hostname
12602 objectClass: top
12603 objectClass: dhcpHost
12604 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12605 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
12606 associateddomain: hostname.intern
12607 arecord: 10.11.12.13
12608 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12609 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
12610 </pre></blockquote>
12611
12612 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
12613 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
12614 auxiliary object class.</p>
12615
12616       </div>
12617       <div class="tags">
12618
12619
12620         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12621
12622
12623       </div>
12624     </div>
12625     <div class="padding"></div>
12626
12627     <div class="entry">
12628       <div class="title">
12629         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
12630       </div>
12631       <div class="date">
12632         14th July 2010
12633       </div>
12634       <div class="body">
12635         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
12636 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
12637 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
12638 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
12639 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
12640
12641 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
12642 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
12643
12644 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
12645 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
12646 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
12647 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
12648 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
12649 to a slave DNS server.</p>
12650
12651 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
12652 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
12653 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
12654 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
12655 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
12656 seem to work.</p>
12657
12658 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
12659 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
12660 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
12661 this:</p>
12662
12663 <blockquote><pre>
12664   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
12665   cn: hostname
12666   objectClass: dhcphost
12667   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
12668   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
12669   associateddomain: hostname.intern
12670   arecord: 10.11.12.13
12671   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
12672   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
12673   ldapconfigsound: Y
12674 </pre></blockquote>
12675
12676 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
12677 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
12678 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
12679 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
12680
12681 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
12682 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
12683 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
12684 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
12685 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
12686 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
12687 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
12688 might be a good place to put it.</p>
12689
12690 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12691 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12692
12693       </div>
12694       <div class="tags">
12695
12696
12697         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12698
12699
12700       </div>
12701     </div>
12702     <div class="padding"></div>
12703
12704     <div class="entry">
12705       <div class="title">
12706         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
12707       </div>
12708       <div class="date">
12709         11th July 2010
12710       </div>
12711       <div class="body">
12712         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
12713 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
12714 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
12715 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
12716
12717 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
12718 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
12719 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
12720 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
12721 LTSP clients.</p>
12722
12723 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
12724 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
12725 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
12726
12727 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
12728 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
12729 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
12730
12731 <blockquote><pre>
12732 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
12733 #
12734 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
12735 #
12736 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
12737 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
12738 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
12739 #
12740 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
12741 # existence of attribute names.
12742 #
12743 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
12744 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
12745 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
12746 #
12747 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
12748 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
12749 #
12750 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
12751 #     SUP top
12752 #     AUXILIARY
12753 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
12754
12755 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
12756 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
12757     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
12758     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
12759         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
12760         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
12761             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
12762             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
12763             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
12764             # bass value on to clients
12765             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
12766         done
12767     done
12768 fi
12769 </pre></blockquote>
12770
12771 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
12772 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
12773 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
12774 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
12775 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
12776
12777 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12778 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12779
12780 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
12781 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
12782 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
12783 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
12784 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
12785 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
12786
12787       </div>
12788       <div class="tags">
12789
12790
12791         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12792
12793
12794       </div>
12795     </div>
12796     <div class="padding"></div>
12797
12798     <div class="entry">
12799       <div class="title">
12800         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12801       </div>
12802       <div class="date">
12803          9th July 2010
12804       </div>
12805       <div class="body">
12806         <p>Since
12807 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
12808 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
12809 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
12810 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
12811 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
12812 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
12813 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
12814 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
12815 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
12816 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
12817 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
12818 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
12819 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
12820
12821       </div>
12822       <div class="tags">
12823
12824
12825         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12826
12827
12828       </div>
12829     </div>
12830     <div class="padding"></div>
12831
12832     <div class="entry">
12833       <div class="title">
12834         <a href="https://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>
12835       </div>
12836       <div class="date">
12837          3rd July 2010
12838       </div>
12839       <div class="body">
12840         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
12841 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
12842 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
12843 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
12844 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
12845 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
12846 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
12847 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
12848
12849 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
12850 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
12851 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
12852 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
12853 publish the difference.</p>
12854
12855 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
12856
12857 <blockquote><p>
12858   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
12859   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
12860   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
12861   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
12862   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
12863   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
12864   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
12865   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
12866 </p></blockquote>
12867
12868 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
12869
12870 <blockquote><p>
12871   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
12872   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
12873   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
12874   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
12875   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
12876   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
12877   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
12878   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
12879   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
12880   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
12881   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
12882   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
12883   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
12884   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
12885   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
12886   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
12887   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
12888   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
12889   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
12890   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
12891 </p></blockquote>
12892
12893 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
12894
12895 <blockquote><p>
12896   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
12897   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
12898   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
12899   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
12900   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
12901   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
12902   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
12903   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
12904   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
12905   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
12906   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
12907   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
12908   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
12909   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
12910   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
12911   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
12912   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
12913   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
12914   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
12915   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
12916   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
12917 </p></blockquote>
12918
12919 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
12920
12921 <blockquote><p>
12922   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
12923   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
12924   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
12925 </p></blockquote>
12926
12927 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
12928 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
12929 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
12930 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
12931 the difference somewhat.
12932
12933       </div>
12934       <div class="tags">
12935
12936
12937         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12938
12939
12940       </div>
12941     </div>
12942     <div class="padding"></div>
12943
12944     <div class="entry">
12945       <div class="title">
12946         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
12947       </div>
12948       <div class="date">
12949         28th June 2010
12950       </div>
12951       <div class="body">
12952         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
12953 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
12954 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
12955 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
12956 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
12957 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
12958 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
12959 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
12960 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
12961 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
12962
12963 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
12964 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
12965 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
12966 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
12967 released.</p>
12968
12969 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
12970 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
12971 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
12972 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
12973
12974 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
12975 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12976
12977 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
12978 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
12979 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
12980 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
12981 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
12982
12983       </div>
12984       <div class="tags">
12985
12986
12987         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12988
12989
12990       </div>
12991     </div>
12992     <div class="padding"></div>
12993
12994     <div class="entry">
12995       <div class="title">
12996         <a href="https://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>
12997       </div>
12998       <div class="date">
12999         24th June 2010
13000       </div>
13001       <div class="body">
13002         <p>A while back, I
13003 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
13004 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
13005 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
13006 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
13007
13008 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
13009 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
13010 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
13011 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
13012
13013 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
13014 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
13015 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
13016 Debian Edu.</p>
13017
13018 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
13019 the
13020 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
13021 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
13022 available today from IETF.</p>
13023
13024 <pre>
13025 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
13026 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
13027 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
13028  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
13029         NAME 'dhcpHost'
13030         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
13031 -       SUP top
13032 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
13033         MUST cn
13034         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
13035         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
13036 </pre>
13037
13038 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
13039 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
13040 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
13041
13042 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13043 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13044
13045       </div>
13046       <div class="tags">
13047
13048
13049         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13050
13051
13052       </div>
13053     </div>
13054     <div class="padding"></div>
13055
13056     <div class="entry">
13057       <div class="title">
13058         <a href="https://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>
13059       </div>
13060       <div class="date">
13061         16th June 2010
13062       </div>
13063       <div class="body">
13064         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
13065 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
13066 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
13067 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
13068 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
13069 this:
13070
13071 <blockquote><pre>
13072 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13073 tasksel --new-install
13074 </pre></blockquote>
13075
13076 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
13077 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
13078 any output what so ever.
13079
13080 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
13081 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
13082 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
13083 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
13084 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
13085 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
13086 code like this:
13087
13088 <blockquote><pre>
13089 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13090 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
13091 $cmd
13092 </pre></blockquote>
13093
13094 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
13095 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
13096 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
13097 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
13098 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
13099 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
13100 installation.</p>
13101
13102 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
13103 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
13104 like this.</p>
13105
13106       </div>
13107       <div class="tags">
13108
13109
13110         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13111
13112
13113       </div>
13114     </div>
13115     <div class="padding"></div>
13116
13117     <div class="entry">
13118       <div class="title">
13119         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
13120       </div>
13121       <div class="date">
13122         13th June 2010
13123       </div>
13124       <div class="body">
13125         <p>My
13126 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
13127 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
13128 finally made the upgrade logs available from
13129 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
13130 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
13131 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
13132 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
13133
13134 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
13135 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
13136 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
13137 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
13138 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
13139 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
13140 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
13141 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
13142
13143 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
13144 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
13145 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
13146 too surprising.</p>
13147
13148 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
13149 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
13150 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
13151 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
13152 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
13153 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
13154 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
13155 continue.</p>
13156
13157 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
13158 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
13159   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
13160   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
13161   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
13162   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
13163   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
13164   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13165   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13166   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
13167   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
13168   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
13169   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
13170   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13171   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13172   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13173   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13174   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13175   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
13176   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
13177   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
13178   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
13179   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
13180   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
13181   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
13182   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
13183   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
13184   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
13185   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
13186   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
13187
13188 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
13189
13190 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
13191   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
13192   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
13193   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
13194   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
13195   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
13196   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
13197   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
13198   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
13199   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
13200   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
13201   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
13202   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
13203   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
13204   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
13205   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
13206   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
13207   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
13208   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
13209   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
13210   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
13211   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
13212   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
13213   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
13214   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
13215   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
13216   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
13217   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
13218   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
13219   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13220   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13221   zip</p>
13222
13223 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
13224
13225 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
13226   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
13227   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
13228   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
13229   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
13230   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
13231   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13232   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13233   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
13234   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
13235   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
13236   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
13237   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13238   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13239   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13240   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13241   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13242   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
13243   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
13244   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
13245   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
13246   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
13247   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
13248   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
13249   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
13250   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
13251   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
13252   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
13253
13254 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
13255 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
13256   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
13257   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
13258   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
13259   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
13260   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
13261   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
13262   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
13263   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
13264   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
13265   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
13266   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
13267   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
13268   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
13269   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
13270   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
13271   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
13272   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
13273   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
13274   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
13275   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
13276   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
13277   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
13278   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
13279   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
13280   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
13281   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
13282   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
13283   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
13284   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
13285   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
13286   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
13287   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
13288   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
13289   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
13290   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
13291   xulrunner-1.9</p>
13292
13293
13294       </div>
13295       <div class="tags">
13296
13297
13298         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13299
13300
13301       </div>
13302     </div>
13303     <div class="padding"></div>
13304
13305     <div class="entry">
13306       <div class="title">
13307         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
13308       </div>
13309       <div class="date">
13310         11th June 2010
13311       </div>
13312       <div class="body">
13313         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
13314 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
13315 have been discovered and reported in the process
13316 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
13317 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
13318 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
13319 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
13320 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
13321
13322 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
13323 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
13324 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
13325 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
13326 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
13327 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
13328
13329 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
13330 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
13331 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13332 is created.  The bug report
13333 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
13334 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
13335 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
13336 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
13337 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
13338 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
13339 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
13340 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
13341 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
13342 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
13343 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
13344 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
13345 Debian Squeeze.</p>
13346
13347 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
13348 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
13349 trick:</p>
13350
13351 <blockquote><pre>
13352 #!/bin/sh
13353 set -ex
13354
13355 if [ "$1" ] ; then
13356     desktop=$1
13357 else
13358     desktop=gnome
13359 fi
13360
13361 from=lenny
13362 to=squeeze
13363
13364 exec &lt; /dev/null
13365 unset LANG
13366 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
13367 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
13368 fuser -mv .
13369 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
13370 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13371 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
13372 #!/bin/sh
13373 exit 101
13374 EOF
13375 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
13376 exit_cleanup() {
13377     umount $tmpdir/proc
13378 }
13379 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
13380 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
13381 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
13382
13383 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
13384
13385 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
13386 # to return the correct answers.
13387 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
13388     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
13389
13390 # Include the desktop and laptop task
13391 for test in desktop laptop ; do
13392     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
13393 #!/bin/sh
13394 exit 2
13395 EOF
13396     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
13397 done
13398
13399 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
13400 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
13401 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
13402 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
13403
13404 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
13405 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
13406 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
13407 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
13408 fuser -mv
13409 </pre></blockquote>
13410
13411 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
13412 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
13413 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
13414 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
13415 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
13416 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
13417
13418 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
13419 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
13420 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
13421 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
13422 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
13423 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
13424 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
13425
13426 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
13427 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
13428 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
13429 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
13430 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
13431 packages.</p>
13432
13433       </div>
13434       <div class="tags">
13435
13436
13437         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13438
13439
13440       </div>
13441     </div>
13442     <div class="padding"></div>
13443
13444     <div class="entry">
13445       <div class="title">
13446         <a href="https://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>
13447       </div>
13448       <div class="date">
13449          6th June 2010
13450       </div>
13451       <div class="body">
13452         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
13453 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
13454 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
13455 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
13456 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
13457 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
13458 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
13459
13460 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
13461 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
13462 COLUMNS):</p>
13463
13464 <blockquote><pre>
13465 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
13466 previous=N
13467 PREVLEVEL=
13468 RUNLEVEL=
13469 runlevel=S
13470 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
13471 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
13472 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
13473 </pre></blockquote>
13474
13475 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
13476 script.</p>
13477
13478 <blockquote><pre>
13479 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
13480 previous=N
13481 PREVLEVEL=N
13482 RUNLEVEL=S
13483 runlevel=S
13484 </pre></blockquote>
13485
13486 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
13487 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
13488 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
13489
13490 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
13491 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
13492 choice.</p>
13493
13494       </div>
13495       <div class="tags">
13496
13497
13498         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13499
13500
13501       </div>
13502     </div>
13503     <div class="padding"></div>
13504
13505     <div class="entry">
13506       <div class="title">
13507         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
13508       </div>
13509       <div class="date">
13510          6th June 2010
13511       </div>
13512       <div class="body">
13513         <p>Via the
13514 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
13515 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
13516 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
13517 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
13518 following the standards wars of today.</p>
13519
13520       </div>
13521       <div class="tags">
13522
13523
13524         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
13525
13526
13527       </div>
13528     </div>
13529     <div class="padding"></div>
13530
13531     <div class="entry">
13532       <div class="title">
13533         <a href="https://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>
13534       </div>
13535       <div class="date">
13536          3rd June 2010
13537       </div>
13538       <div class="body">
13539         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
13540 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
13541 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
13542 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
13543 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
13544
13545 <blockquote><pre>
13546 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
13547   vendor                    count
13548   Dell Computer Corporation     1
13549     PowerEdge 1750              1
13550   IBM                           1
13551     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
13552   Intel                         2
13553   [no-dmi-info]                 3
13554 maintainer:~#
13555 </pre></blockquote>
13556
13557 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
13558 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
13559 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
13560 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
13561 option to list the individual machines.</p>
13562
13563 <p>A larger list is
13564 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
13565 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
13566 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
13567 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
13568 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
13569 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
13570 collector.</p>
13571
13572       </div>
13573       <div class="tags">
13574
13575
13576         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
13577
13578
13579       </div>
13580     </div>
13581     <div class="padding"></div>
13582
13583     <div class="entry">
13584       <div class="title">
13585         <a href="https://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>
13586       </div>
13587       <div class="date">
13588          1st June 2010
13589       </div>
13590       <div class="body">
13591         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
13592 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
13593 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
13594 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
13595 wait.</p>
13596
13597 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
13598 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
13599 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
13600 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
13601 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
13602 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
13603
13604 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
13605 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
13606 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
13607 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
13608 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
13609 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
13610 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
13611 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
13612
13613 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
13614
13615       </div>
13616       <div class="tags">
13617
13618
13619         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13620
13621
13622       </div>
13623     </div>
13624     <div class="padding"></div>
13625
13626     <div class="entry">
13627       <div class="title">
13628         <a href="https://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>
13629       </div>
13630       <div class="date">
13631         27th May 2010
13632       </div>
13633       <div class="body">
13634         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
13635 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
13636 issues are known and should be solved:
13637
13638 <p><ul>
13639
13640 <li>The wicd package seen to
13641 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
13642 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
13643 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
13644 seem to be on the case.</li>
13645
13646 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
13647 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
13648 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
13649 maintainer is on the case.</li>
13650
13651 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
13652 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
13653 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
13654 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
13655 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
13656 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
13657 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
13658 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
13659
13660 </ul></p>
13661
13662 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
13663 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
13664 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
13665 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
13666
13667 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13668 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13669 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13670 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13671
13672 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
13673
13674       </div>
13675       <div class="tags">
13676
13677
13678         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13679
13680
13681       </div>
13682     </div>
13683     <div class="padding"></div>
13684
13685     <div class="entry">
13686       <div class="title">
13687         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
13688       </div>
13689       <div class="date">
13690         22nd May 2010
13691       </div>
13692       <div class="body">
13693         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
13694 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
13695 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
13696 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
13697
13698 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
13699 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
13700 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
13701 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
13702 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
13703 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
13704 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
13705 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
13706 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
13707 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
13708 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
13709 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
13710 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
13711 going to work.</p>
13712
13713 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
13714 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
13715 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
13716 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
13717 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
13718 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
13719 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
13720 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
13721 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
13722 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
13723 Edu.</p>
13724
13725 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
13726 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
13727 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
13728 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
13729 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
13730 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
13731
13732 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
13733 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
13734
13735       </div>
13736       <div class="tags">
13737
13738
13739         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13740
13741
13742       </div>
13743     </div>
13744     <div class="padding"></div>
13745
13746     <div class="entry">
13747       <div class="title">
13748         <a href="https://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>
13749       </div>
13750       <div class="date">
13751         14th May 2010
13752       </div>
13753       <div class="body">
13754         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
13755 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
13756 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
13757 expected, if I am to believe the
13758 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13759 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
13760 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
13761 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
13762 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
13763 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
13764 version.</p>
13765
13766 More information about
13767 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13768 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
13769 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
13770 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13771
13772 <blockquote><pre>
13773 CONCURRENCY=none
13774 </pre></blockquote>
13775
13776 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13777 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13778 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13779 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13780
13781       </div>
13782       <div class="tags">
13783
13784
13785         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13786
13787
13788       </div>
13789     </div>
13790     <div class="padding"></div>
13791
13792     <div class="entry">
13793       <div class="title">
13794         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
13795       </div>
13796       <div class="date">
13797         14th May 2010
13798       </div>
13799       <div class="body">
13800         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
13801 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
13802 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
13803 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
13804 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
13805 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
13806 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
13807 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
13808
13809 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
13810 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
13811 this on the collector host:</p>
13812
13813 <blockquote><pre>
13814 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
13815 </pre></blockquote>
13816
13817 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
13818 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
13819
13820 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
13821 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
13822 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
13823 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
13824 written yet.</p>
13825
13826       </div>
13827       <div class="tags">
13828
13829
13830         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
13831
13832
13833       </div>
13834     </div>
13835     <div class="padding"></div>
13836
13837     <div class="entry">
13838       <div class="title">
13839         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
13840       </div>
13841       <div class="date">
13842         13th May 2010
13843       </div>
13844       <div class="body">
13845         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
13846 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
13847 has been
13848 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
13849
13850 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
13851 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
13852 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
13853 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
13854 based boot system.  Tollef is
13855 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
13856 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
13857 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
13858 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
13859 at the moment do not.</p>
13860
13861 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
13862 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
13863 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
13864 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
13865 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
13866 way forward.</p>
13867
13868 <p>In the mean time, based on the
13869 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
13870 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
13871 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
13872 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
13873 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
13874 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
13875 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
13876 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
13877
13878       </div>
13879       <div class="tags">
13880
13881
13882         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13883
13884
13885       </div>
13886     </div>
13887     <div class="padding"></div>
13888
13889     <div class="entry">
13890       <div class="title">
13891         <a href="https://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>
13892       </div>
13893       <div class="date">
13894          6th May 2010
13895       </div>
13896       <div class="body">
13897         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
13898 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
13899 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
13900 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
13901 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
13902 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
13903 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
13904
13905 <blockquote><pre>
13906 CONCURRENCY=makefile
13907 </pre></blockquote>
13908
13909 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
13910 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
13911 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
13912 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
13913 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
13914 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
13915 make this happen.</p>
13916
13917 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
13918 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
13919 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
13920 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
13921 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
13922
13923 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
13924 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
13925 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
13926 fix the remaining issues.</p>
13927
13928 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
13929 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
13930 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
13931 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
13932
13933       </div>
13934       <div class="tags">
13935
13936
13937         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13938
13939
13940       </div>
13941     </div>
13942     <div class="padding"></div>
13943
13944     <div class="entry">
13945       <div class="title">
13946         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
13947       </div>
13948       <div class="date">
13949         27th July 2009
13950       </div>
13951       <div class="body">
13952         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
13953 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
13954 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
13955 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
13956 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
13957 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
13958 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
13959
13960 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
13961 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
13962 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
13963
13964       </div>
13965       <div class="tags">
13966
13967
13968         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
13969
13970
13971       </div>
13972     </div>
13973     <div class="padding"></div>
13974
13975     <div class="entry">
13976       <div class="title">
13977         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
13978       </div>
13979       <div class="date">
13980         22nd July 2009
13981       </div>
13982       <div class="body">
13983         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
13984 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
13985 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
13986 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
13987 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
13988 the package up to date.</p>
13989
13990 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
13991 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
13992 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
13993 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
13994 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
13995 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
13996 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
13997 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
13998 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
13999 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
14000 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
14001 working on the future release.</p>
14002
14003 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
14004 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
14005
14006       </div>
14007       <div class="tags">
14008
14009
14010         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14011
14012
14013       </div>
14014     </div>
14015     <div class="padding"></div>
14016
14017     <div class="entry">
14018       <div class="title">
14019         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
14020       </div>
14021       <div class="date">
14022         24th June 2009
14023       </div>
14024       <div class="body">
14025         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
14026 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
14027 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
14028 funded
14029 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
14030 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
14031 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
14032 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
14033 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
14034 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
14035
14036 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
14037 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
14038 boot:</p>
14039
14040 <ul>
14041
14042 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
14043
14044 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
14045    clock is in UTC.</li>
14046
14047 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
14048    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14049    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
14050
14051 </ul>
14052
14053 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
14054 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
14055 Villegas</a>.
14056
14057 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
14058 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
14059 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
14060 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
14061 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
14062 using this.</p>
14063
14064 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
14065 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
14066 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
14067 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
14068 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
14069 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
14070 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
14071
14072       </div>
14073       <div class="tags">
14074
14075
14076         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14077
14078
14079       </div>
14080     </div>
14081     <div class="padding"></div>
14082
14083     <div class="entry">
14084       <div class="title">
14085         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
14086       </div>
14087       <div class="date">
14088         17th May 2009
14089       </div>
14090       <div class="body">
14091         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
14092 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
14093 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
14094 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
14095 dager siden kom
14096 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
14097 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
14098 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
14099 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
14100 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
14101
14102 <blockquote>
14103 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
14104 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
14105 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
14106 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
14107 </blockquote>
14108
14109 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
14110 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
14111 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
14112 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
14113 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
14114
14115 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
14116 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
14117 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
14118
14119       </div>
14120       <div class="tags">
14121
14122
14123         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
14124
14125
14126       </div>
14127     </div>
14128     <div class="padding"></div>
14129
14130     <div class="entry">
14131       <div class="title">
14132         <a href="https://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>
14133       </div>
14134       <div class="date">
14135          7th May 2009
14136       </div>
14137       <div class="body">
14138         <p>Kom over
14139 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
14140 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
14141 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
14142 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
14143 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
14144 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
14145 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
14146
14147       </div>
14148       <div class="tags">
14149
14150
14151         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14152
14153
14154       </div>
14155     </div>
14156     <div class="padding"></div>
14157
14158     <div class="entry">
14159       <div class="title">
14160         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
14161       </div>
14162       <div class="date">
14163          2nd May 2009
14164       </div>
14165       <div class="body">
14166         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
14167 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
14168 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
14169 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
14170 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
14171 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
14172 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
14173 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
14174 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
14175 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
14176 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
14177 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
14178 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
14179 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
14180 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
14181 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
14182 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
14183 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
14184 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
14185 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
14186
14187 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
14188 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
14189 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
14190 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
14191 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
14192 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
14193 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
14194 betydelige.</p>
14195
14196       </div>
14197       <div class="tags">
14198
14199
14200         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
14201
14202
14203       </div>
14204     </div>
14205     <div class="padding"></div>
14206
14207     <div class="entry">
14208       <div class="title">
14209         <a href="https://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>
14210       </div>
14211       <div class="date">
14212          2nd May 2009
14213       </div>
14214       <div class="body">
14215         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
14216 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
14217 do not yet know them.</p>
14218
14219 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
14220 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
14221 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
14222 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
14223 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
14224 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
14225 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
14226 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
14227 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
14228 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
14229 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
14230
14231 <p>The second one is
14232 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
14233 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
14234 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
14235 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
14236 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
14237 and the company behind it is running
14238 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
14239 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
14240 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
14241 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
14242 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
14243 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
14244 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
14245 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
14246
14247 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
14248 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
14249 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
14250 surrounded by today.</p>
14251
14252       </div>
14253       <div class="tags">
14254
14255
14256         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14257
14258
14259       </div>
14260     </div>
14261     <div class="padding"></div>
14262
14263     <div class="entry">
14264       <div class="title">
14265         <a href="https://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>
14266       </div>
14267       <div class="date">
14268         28th April 2009
14269       </div>
14270       <div class="body">
14271         <p>Julien Blache
14272 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
14273 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
14274 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
14275 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
14276 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
14277 properties.</p>
14278
14279       </div>
14280       <div class="tags">
14281
14282
14283         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14284
14285
14286       </div>
14287     </div>
14288     <div class="padding"></div>
14289
14290     <div class="entry">
14291       <div class="title">
14292         <a href="https://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>
14293       </div>
14294       <div class="date">
14295         30th March 2009
14296       </div>
14297       <div class="body">
14298         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
14299 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
14300 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
14301 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
14302 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
14303 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
14304 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
14305 application.</p>
14306
14307 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
14308 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
14309 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
14310 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
14311 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
14312 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
14313 blocked from doing so.</p>
14314
14315 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
14316 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
14317 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
14318 requirements change.</p>
14319
14320 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
14321 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
14322 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
14323
14324       </div>
14325       <div class="tags">
14326
14327
14328         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
14329
14330
14331       </div>
14332     </div>
14333     <div class="padding"></div>
14334
14335     <div class="entry">
14336       <div class="title">
14337         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
14338       </div>
14339       <div class="date">
14340         29th March 2009
14341       </div>
14342       <div class="body">
14343         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
14344 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
14345 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
14346 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
14347 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
14348 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
14349 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
14350 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
14351 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
14352 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
14353 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
14354 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
14355 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
14356 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
14357 now. :)</p>
14358
14359       </div>
14360       <div class="tags">
14361
14362
14363         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14364
14365
14366       </div>
14367     </div>
14368     <div class="padding"></div>
14369
14370     <div class="entry">
14371       <div class="title">
14372         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
14373       </div>
14374       <div class="date">
14375         29th March 2009
14376       </div>
14377       <div class="body">
14378         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
14379 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
14380 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
14381 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
14382 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
14383 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
14384
14385 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
14386 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
14387 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
14388 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
14389 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
14390 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
14391 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
14392 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
14393 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
14394 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
14395 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
14396 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
14397 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
14398
14399 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
14400 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
14401 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
14402 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
14403
14404 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
14405 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
14406
14407 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
14408 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
14409 new IETF work group?</p>
14410
14411       </div>
14412       <div class="tags">
14413
14414
14415         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14416
14417
14418       </div>
14419     </div>
14420     <div class="padding"></div>
14421
14422     <div class="entry">
14423       <div class="title">
14424         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
14425       </div>
14426       <div class="date">
14427         15th February 2009
14428       </div>
14429       <div class="body">
14430         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
14431 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
14432 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
14433 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
14434 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
14435 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
14436 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
14437 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
14438 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
14439 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
14440 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
14441 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
14442
14443       </div>
14444       <div class="tags">
14445
14446
14447         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
14448
14449
14450       </div>
14451     </div>
14452     <div class="padding"></div>
14453
14454     <div class="entry">
14455       <div class="title">
14456         <a href="https://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>
14457       </div>
14458       <div class="date">
14459          7th December 2008
14460       </div>
14461       <div class="body">
14462         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
14463 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
14464 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
14465 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
14466 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
14467 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
14468 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
14469 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
14470
14471 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
14472 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
14473 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
14474 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
14475 of these cards.</p>
14476
14477       </div>
14478       <div class="tags">
14479
14480
14481         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
14482
14483
14484       </div>
14485     </div>
14486     <div class="padding"></div>
14487
14488     <div class="entry">
14489       <div class="title">
14490         <a href="https://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>
14491       </div>
14492       <div class="date">
14493         25th November 2008
14494       </div>
14495       <div class="body">
14496         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
14497 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
14498 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
14499 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
14500 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
14501 notes are available on
14502 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
14503 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
14504 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
14505 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
14506 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
14507 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
14508 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
14509 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
14510 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
14511
14512 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
14513 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
14514
14515       </div>
14516       <div class="tags">
14517
14518
14519         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
14520
14521
14522       </div>
14523     </div>
14524     <div class="padding"></div>
14525
14526     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
14527     <div id="sidebar">
14528
14529
14530
14531 <h2>Archive</h2>
14532 <ul>
14533
14534 <li>2022
14535 <ul>
14536
14537 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/02/">February (1)</a></li>
14538
14539 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14540
14541 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/04/">April (2)</a></li>
14542
14543 </ul></li>
14544
14545 <li>2021
14546 <ul>
14547
14548 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/01/">January (2)</a></li>
14549
14550 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/02/">February (1)</a></li>
14551
14552 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/05/">May (1)</a></li>
14553
14554 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/06/">June (1)</a></li>
14555
14556 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/07/">July (3)</a></li>
14557
14558 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/08/">August (1)</a></li>
14559
14560 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/09/">September (1)</a></li>
14561
14562 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/10/">October (1)</a></li>
14563
14564 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/12/">December (1)</a></li>
14565
14566 </ul></li>
14567
14568 <li>2020
14569 <ul>
14570
14571 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/02/">February (2)</a></li>
14572
14573 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/03/">March (2)</a></li>
14574
14575 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/04/">April (2)</a></li>
14576
14577 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/05/">May (3)</a></li>
14578
14579 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14580
14581 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/07/">July (1)</a></li>
14582
14583 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/09/">September (1)</a></li>
14584
14585 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/10/">October (1)</a></li>
14586
14587 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/11/">November (1)</a></li>
14588
14589 </ul></li>
14590
14591 <li>2019
14592 <ul>
14593
14594 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/01/">January (4)</a></li>
14595
14596 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/02/">February (3)</a></li>
14597
14598 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14599
14600 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/05/">May (2)</a></li>
14601
14602 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/06/">June (5)</a></li>
14603
14604 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/07/">July (2)</a></li>
14605
14606 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/08/">August (1)</a></li>
14607
14608 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/09/">September (1)</a></li>
14609
14610 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/11/">November (1)</a></li>
14611
14612 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/12/">December (4)</a></li>
14613
14614 </ul></li>
14615
14616 <li>2018
14617 <ul>
14618
14619 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/01/">January (1)</a></li>
14620
14621 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/02/">February (5)</a></li>
14622
14623 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/03/">March (5)</a></li>
14624
14625 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/04/">April (3)</a></li>
14626
14627 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14628
14629 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/07/">July (5)</a></li>
14630
14631 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14632
14633 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/09/">September (3)</a></li>
14634
14635 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/10/">October (5)</a></li>
14636
14637 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/11/">November (2)</a></li>
14638
14639 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/12/">December (4)</a></li>
14640
14641 </ul></li>
14642
14643 <li>2017
14644 <ul>
14645
14646 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
14647
14648 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
14649
14650 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
14651
14652 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
14653
14654 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
14655
14656 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
14657
14658 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
14659
14660 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
14661
14662 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
14663
14664 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14665
14666 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/12/">December (4)</a></li>
14667
14668 </ul></li>
14669
14670 <li>2016
14671 <ul>
14672
14673 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
14674
14675 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
14676
14677 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14678
14679 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
14680
14681 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
14682
14683 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14684
14685 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
14686
14687 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
14688
14689 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
14690
14691 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
14692
14693 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
14694
14695 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
14696
14697 </ul></li>
14698
14699 <li>2015
14700 <ul>
14701
14702 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
14703
14704 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
14705
14706 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
14707
14708 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
14709
14710 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
14711
14712 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
14713
14714 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
14715
14716 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
14717
14718 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
14719
14720 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
14721
14722 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
14723
14724 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14725
14726 </ul></li>
14727
14728 <li>2014
14729 <ul>
14730
14731 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
14732
14733 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
14734
14735 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
14736
14737 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
14738
14739 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
14740
14741 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14742
14743 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
14744
14745 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
14746
14747 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
14748
14749 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
14750
14751 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14752
14753 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
14754
14755 </ul></li>
14756
14757 <li>2013
14758 <ul>
14759
14760 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
14761
14762 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
14763
14764 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
14765
14766 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
14767
14768 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14769
14770 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
14771
14772 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
14773
14774 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14775
14776 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
14777
14778 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
14779
14780 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
14781
14782 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14783
14784 </ul></li>
14785
14786 <li>2012
14787 <ul>
14788
14789 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
14790
14791 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
14792
14793 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
14794
14795 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
14796
14797 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
14798
14799 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
14800
14801 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
14802
14803 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
14804
14805 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
14806
14807 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
14808
14809 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
14810
14811 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
14812
14813 </ul></li>
14814
14815 <li>2011
14816 <ul>
14817
14818 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
14819
14820 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
14821
14822 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
14823
14824 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
14825
14826 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
14827
14828 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
14829
14830 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
14831
14832 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
14833
14834 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
14835
14836 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
14837
14838 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14839
14840 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
14841
14842 </ul></li>
14843
14844 <li>2010
14845 <ul>
14846
14847 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
14848
14849 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
14850
14851 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
14852
14853 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
14854
14855 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14856
14857 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
14858
14859 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
14860
14861 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
14862
14863 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
14864
14865 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
14866
14867 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
14868
14869 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
14870
14871 </ul></li>
14872
14873 <li>2009
14874 <ul>
14875
14876 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
14877
14878 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
14879
14880 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
14881
14882 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
14883
14884 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
14885
14886 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
14887
14888 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
14889
14890 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
14891
14892 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
14893
14894 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
14895
14896 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
14897
14898 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
14899
14900 </ul></li>
14901
14902 <li>2008
14903 <ul>
14904
14905 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
14906
14907 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
14908
14909 </ul></li>
14910
14911 </ul>
14912
14913
14914
14915 <h2>Tags</h2>
14916 <ul>
14917
14918  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (17)</a></li>
14919
14920  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
14921
14922  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
14923
14924  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
14925
14926  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/betalkontant">betalkontant (9)</a></li>
14927
14928  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (12)</a></li>
14929
14930  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (17)</a></li>
14931
14932  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
14933
14934  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
14935
14936  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (179)</a></li>
14937
14938  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (159)</a></li>
14939
14940  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (8)</a></li>
14941
14942  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (11)</a></li>
14943
14944  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (18)</a></li>
14945
14946  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (30)</a></li>
14947
14948  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
14949
14950  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (434)</a></li>
14951
14952  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
14953
14954  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (14)</a></li>
14955
14956  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (34)</a></li>
14957
14958  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
14959
14960  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (20)</a></li>
14961
14962  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
14963
14964  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (43)</a></li>
14965
14966  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (16)</a></li>
14967
14968  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (23)</a></li>
14969
14970  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi (4)</a></li>
14971
14972  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
14973
14974  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (5)</a></li>
14975
14976  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
14977
14978  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
14979
14980  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
14981
14982  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/madewithcc">madewithcc (3)</a></li>
14983
14984  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
14985
14986  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (42)</a></li>
14987
14988  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (13)</a></li>
14989
14990  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5 (23)</a></li>
14991
14992  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (320)</a></li>
14993
14994  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (198)</a></li>
14995
14996  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (40)</a></li>
14997
14998  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
14999
15000  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (75)</a></li>
15001
15002  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (114)</a></li>
15003
15004  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (2)</a></li>
15005
15006  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
15007
15008  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
15009
15010  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
15011
15012  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (14)</a></li>
15013
15014  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
15015
15016  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (7)</a></li>
15017
15018  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
15019
15020  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (59)</a></li>
15021
15022  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
15023
15024  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
15025
15026  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (72)</a></li>
15027
15028  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (7)</a></li>
15029
15030  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (14)</a></li>
15031
15032  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (62)</a></li>
15033
15034  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (5)</a></li>
15035
15036  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
15037
15038  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
15039
15040  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/verkidetfri">verkidetfri (20)</a></li>
15041
15042  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (77)</a></li>
15043
15044  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
15045
15046  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (42)</a></li>
15047
15048 </ul>
15049
15050
15051     </div>
15052     <p style="text-align: right">
15053  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
15054 </p>
15055
15056   </body>
15057 </html>