blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss

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   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from July 2013</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from July 2013</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Fri, 5 Jul 2013 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html&quot;&gt;replacement
  16 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41&lt;/a&gt;.  Unfortunately I did not have much
  17 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
  18 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
  19 ended up picking a
  20 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230&quot;&gt;Thinkpad X230&lt;/a&gt;
  21 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
  22 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
  23 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
  24 on that below.&lt;/p&gt;
  25
  26 &lt;p&gt;I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
  27 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
  28 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
  29 feature at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prisjakt.no/&quot;&gt;Prisjakt&lt;/a&gt;, which
  30 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
  31 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
  32 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
  33 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
  34 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.&lt;/p&gt;
  35
  36 &lt;p&gt;So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
  37 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
  38 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
  39 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
  40 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
  41 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
  42 needed a new laptop now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  43
  44 &lt;p&gt;Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
  45 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.&lt;/p&gt;
  46
  47 &lt;p&gt;But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
  48 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
  49 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
  50 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
  51 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
  52 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
  53 reported to Debian as &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/691427&quot;&gt;BTS
  54 report #691427 2012-10-25&lt;/a&gt; (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
  55 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
  56 kernel developers as
  57 &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861&quot;&gt;Kernel bugzilla
  58 report #51861 2012-12-20&lt;/a&gt; (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
  59 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
  60 Lenovo forums, both for
  61 &lt;a href=&quot;http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549&quot;&gt;T430
  62 2012-11-10&lt;/a&gt; and for
  63 &lt;a href=&quot;http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147&quot;&gt;X230
  64 03-20-2013&lt;/a&gt;.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
  65 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
  66 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
  67 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
  68 There is even a
  69 &lt;a href=&quot;https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git&quot;&gt;small C program
  70 available&lt;/a&gt; that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
  71 minutes by writing to a file.&lt;/p&gt;
  72
  73 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
  74 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
  75 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
  76 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
  77 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
  78 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
  79 fixed. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  80 </description>
  81         </item>
  82
  83         <item>
  84                 <title>Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
  85                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
  86                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
  87                 <pubDate>Wed, 3 Jul 2013 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
  88                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
  89 today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;
  90
  91 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
  92 2013-07-03&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  93
  94 &lt;p&gt;These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  95 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
  96
  97 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  98
  99 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
 100 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 101 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 102 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
 103 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 104 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 105 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 106 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 107 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
 108 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
 109 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
 110 desktop contains
 111 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
 112 than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
 113 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
 114 and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;
 115
 116 &lt;p&gt;This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
 117 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
 118 Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;
 119
 120 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 121 &lt;ul&gt;
 122   &lt;li&gt;Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.&lt;/li&gt;
 123   &lt;li&gt;Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
 124     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
 125     brings KDE in line with the others.&lt;/li&gt;
 126   &lt;li&gt;Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
 127     they don&#39;t have a desktop menu entry and thus won&#39;t show up in the
 128     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.&lt;/li&gt;
 129   &lt;li&gt;Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
 130     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
 131     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
 132     too.&lt;/li&gt;
 133   &lt;li&gt;Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
 134     are too few to make the package useful.&lt;/li&gt;
 135 &lt;/ul&gt;
 136 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 137 &lt;ul&gt;
 138   &lt;li&gt;Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
 139   &lt;li&gt;Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.&lt;/li&gt;
 140   &lt;li&gt;Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
 141     up for some language options.&lt;/li&gt;
 142   &lt;li&gt;Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.&lt;/li&gt;
 143   &lt;li&gt;Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
 144   &lt;li&gt;Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
 145     d-i is doing it.&lt;/li&gt;
 146   &lt;li&gt;Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
 147     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
 148   &lt;li&gt;Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
 149     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
 150     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.&lt;/li&gt;
 151   &lt;li&gt;Update system to install needed firmware packages during
 152     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.&lt;/li&gt;
 153   &lt;li&gt;Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).&lt;/li&gt;
 154   &lt;li&gt;Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
 155     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.&lt;/li&gt;
 156   &lt;li&gt;LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
 157     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.&lt;/li&gt;
 158 &lt;/ul&gt;
 159 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 160 &lt;ul&gt;
 161   &lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 162     available yet (698840).&lt;/li&gt;
 163   &lt;li&gt;Artwork not enabled for all desktops.&lt;/li&gt;
 164 &lt;/ul&gt;
 165 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 166
 167 &lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
 168 &lt;ul&gt;
 169   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 170   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 171   &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
 172 &lt;/ul&gt;
 173
 174 &lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
 175 &lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8&lt;/p&gt;
 176
 177 &lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
 178 &lt;ul&gt;
 179   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 180   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 181   &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
 182 &lt;/ul&gt;
 183
 184 &lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
 185 &lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721&lt;/p&gt;
 186
 187 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 188
 189 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 190 </description>
 191         </item>
 192
 193         </channel>
 194 </rss>